Comments on: Lose The Disk http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/ Creativity x Technology Sat, 17 Mar 2012 05:09:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Thomas http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/comment-page-1/#comment-6703 Thomas Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:41:15 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=2421#comment-6703 And of course, transcoding is <a href="http://www.milezero.org/index.php/music/recording/mp3/bitrot.html" rel="nofollow">far less harmful than most people think</a>. I used to be a huge uncompressed music fan. And then I did some research, ended up writing a couple of articles on psychoacoustic compression, bought an MP3 player, and got the hell over myself. Even with my Big Fancy Headphones, the difference with today's bitrates and encoders is practically nonexistent. And Amazon MP3 is cheap, and good for the environment. And of course, transcoding is far less harmful than most people think.

I used to be a huge uncompressed music fan. And then I did some research, ended up writing a couple of articles on psychoacoustic compression, bought an MP3 player, and got the hell over myself. Even with my Big Fancy Headphones, the difference with today’s bitrates and encoders is practically nonexistent. And Amazon MP3 is cheap, and good for the environment.

]]> By: psu http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/comment-page-1/#comment-6699 psu Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:38:01 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=2421#comment-6699 Ironically, after posting this I ripped a 10 CD set of Dvorak chamber music that I could not find available for download. Oh well. Ironically, after posting this I ripped a 10 CD set of Dvorak chamber music that I could not find available for download. Oh well.

]]> By: peterb http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/comment-page-1/#comment-6698 peterb Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:34:43 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=2421#comment-6698 Also worth noting are the two following factoids: (1) The only people who ever think ripping things losslessly is important are middle-aged men. (2) This is precisely the demographic that is less likely(*) to actually be able to hear any difference between lossless and "good lossy" formats. (*) "Less likely" in this context means "Scientifically proven to never be able to tell the difference, at all, ever, under any circumstances," but I was being polite. Also worth noting are the two following factoids:

(1) The only people who ever think ripping things losslessly is important are middle-aged men.

(2) This is precisely the demographic that is less likely(*) to actually be able to hear any difference between lossless and “good lossy” formats.

(*) “Less likely” in this context means “Scientifically proven to never be able to tell the difference, at all, ever, under any circumstances,” but I was being polite.

]]> By: psu http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/comment-page-1/#comment-6697 psu Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:41:41 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=2421#comment-6697 All of that is true, but when I started this using lossless didn't seem like it would be worth it. And, I never transcode. And, I will never, ever, re-rip anything. Ever again. Edit: In addition, lossless does not fit as well on my player (iPhone). Which mattered a lot more when I started this. Transcode at sync time might be OK, but seems slow and tedious to me. All of that is true, but when I started this using lossless didn’t seem like it would be worth it. And, I never transcode. And, I will never, ever, re-rip anything. Ever again.

Edit: In addition, lossless does not fit as well on my player (iPhone). Which mattered a lot more when I started this. Transcode at sync time might be OK, but seems slow and tedious to me.

]]> By: r. http://tleaves.com/2010/04/21/lose-the-disk/comment-page-1/#comment-6696 r. Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:28:30 +0000 http://tleaves.com/?p=2421#comment-6696 You may also consider that at least with the case of music, throwing away the 50% of the data that you're saving by ripping to a lossy format is in this day and age not worth the money saved. Your collection of 375 CDs at a generous 350mb per disk in flac or alac is ~130GB, and I'll round up to an even 150GB to make the math of the next step easier. So that's 75GB for your entire collection at 256kbps AAC. At current market rates, 1.5TB disks are $100, so your entire collection stored at lossless is $10 of media costs, or save $5 and store it in a lossy format. I'll call the cost of compression free, since these days it doesn't even take longer than just lifting the data from optical disk. The problem with lossy formats is that if you probably can't hear the difference now between the lossy format and lossless, but you will likely hear artifacts in a transcode. If you ever need to switch formats because device support changes, then you're going to be screwed at that point. At least with a lossless master, you can re-code to your heart's delight to every other future format with no additional, n-th generational loss. But hey, it's your $5 you just saved, and that can be better spent on dim sum ;) You may also consider that at least with the case of music, throwing away the 50% of the data that you’re saving by ripping to a lossy format is in this day and age not worth the money saved. Your collection of 375 CDs at a generous 350mb per disk in flac or alac is ~130GB, and I’ll round up to an even 150GB to make the math of the next step easier. So that’s 75GB for your entire collection at 256kbps AAC. At current market rates, 1.5TB disks are $100, so your entire collection stored at lossless is $10 of media costs, or save $5 and store it in a lossy format. I’ll call the cost of compression free, since these days it doesn’t even take longer than just lifting the data from optical disk.

The problem with lossy formats is that if you probably can’t hear the difference now between the lossy format and lossless, but you will likely hear artifacts in a transcode. If you ever need to switch formats because device support changes, then you’re going to be screwed at that point. At least with a lossless master, you can re-code to your heart’s delight to every other future format with no additional, n-th generational loss.

But hey, it’s your $5 you just saved, and that can be better spent on dim sum ;)

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