Does the E61 have the same compatability as the N80 with Windows Media Player? WMA seems to be missing from the list of supported audio file types when I look at reviews and nobody has done a review yet (that I have found) which covers this point. I fear it's missing, which seems strange as 3rd Edition clearly can support this feature.
Tim
Just in case anybody's interested in the answer to this, WMA files are not recognised by the E61. WMP detects the E61 and is quite happy to sync the tracks across but when they arrive, they're not recognised by the phone. I gather a version of OggPlay is in the pipeline, which will be great as MP3s and AACs are double the size (roughly). Obviously Nokia reckon that listening to music is a side issue for the E61 target purchaser. Does seem daft to omit it.
Tim
It does seem to work, but it not the supported method of getting music to the phone. You can use the Music Manager in PC Suite. The advnatage of using this is that it will re-encode music file if necessary (and optimise them for mobile).
OK. I'll try this tonight. Does this process degade the quality of the WMA?
Tim
I'm not sure whether it supports WMA (I dont have many files encoded this way). It converts the files to AAC+ and lower the bit rate. This does hav a quality impact. It is a trade off, but you may feel (like me) it is worth while.
You're talking about putting each CD in the drive and letting PCSuite rip them, aren't you, Rafe? If so, that's a bit of a problem as I (sadly) spent ages ripping my CDs into MP3, OGG, WMA and that thing that iTunes converts to by default (m4b isn't it?). So the ripping is done. Don't want to do it again!
No I'm not 😊
PC Suite Music Manager will scan your hard drive for existing music files (you can tell it where to look or it will scan everything). It will re-encode that music for you without you doing anything (to you it lookslike part of the trasnfer process).
However I only used this with MP3 file so I can't comment on what happens to WMA files (or Ogg for that matter).
It will also do a straight copy - you dont have to re-encode them (or optimise them as I think it calls it).
Thanks for this Rafe. Now conducted my experiment and the resulting AAC files created by Nokia Music Manager seem to end up about half the size of the MP3s in this case, which seems to be even smaller than the corresponding OGG file. Here are my results for a sample track:
WMA = 4492
OGG = 1732
MP3 = 1947
M4A = 4510
Nokia Music Manager Optimised for Mobile (AAC) = 978
So I guess it's just a question of how it sounds and certainly to my ear I can't seem to tell it's been stripped down in some way.
Tim
Further non-technical experimenting done here. I played a track on the E61 using the 'optimised' AAC and then the same track on my N9500 using OggPlay and the corresponding Ogg file of the track. No comparison through the headphones - the Ogg/9500 is *so* much better, deeper, bassier, just sounds loads better. Also the E61's speaker kind of distorts after about 50% volume even using flat equalisation with the AAC whereas the 9500 doesn't distort at all up to full volume. The Business orientated Communicator seems to outdo the Business orientated E61 when listening to music. At least until OggPlay gets released for Edit.3.
Tim
Tim
Thanks for that information Tim. Doesn't really suprise me. You might want to bear in mind to do a true comparison you have to convert from the source for each one.
Yes - all the files tested were taken straight from CDs and converted using iTunes (M4A) or CDex (WMA, OGG & MP3), so it should be a fair comparison, I think.
Tim
Continuing my one man mission assuming those around me are interested in the findngs... I take all back what I said about the E61 audio reproduction - it's obviously the Nokia Music Manager which is destroying my tracks! I placed an MP3 file (ripped straight from CD) into the E61 and it sounds just as sweet as the Nokia 9500, so the issue is the Nokia process to reduce file sizes making the resulting track difficult to enjoy really. This is good news as when OggPlay arrives, presumably, the E61 will be able to perform well in this department with the benefit of the reduced size OGG files.
Tim
I imagine Nokia's tweaking of the music files is just a bit too extreme. You can change the bitrate in the Settings of Music Manager. The default seems to be AAC on high (128 kbps), but you can up this to Ultra High 160 kbps. Or change the formats to M4A. This would probably make a difference.
Thanks again. I'll continue to play with options and see what lies beneath the hood of NMM.
Tim