... surprisingly, Windows WMA.
I should explain. I spent a whole evening with my favourite ripper/converter, Easy CD-DA, messing around with different formats and containers. My requirements are:
1. Small file size with reasonable quality.
2. Album art in the standard N95 media player, with no additional mucking about.
3. Works with Simple Center, as provided on the N95 CD and updated.
64kb/s .wma fits all those requirements. My old ears, even with decent Sony ear buds, can't tell the difference between 64 and 96kb/s. I get album art, and can stream in both directions between phone and PC. A 3½ minute track at 64kb/s is around 1.7MB; smaller would be nice but then I've got a 4GB card and flash memory is getting cheaper all the time.
Recommending Window$ stuff sticks in my throat as much as the next guy's, but I'm getting pragmatic in my old age.
I run my stuff from the TV-out through the AI-net connection of my car stereo ... so it HAS to be at least 192-Kbps and 256 for preference.
That said, I do listen to internet radio (again via car stereo) at 128 - but it's worth it for not having to listen to FM DJ's and ads. 😃
Try HE-AAC v2 at 48 kbps - you will be amazed at the quality for the file size!
("Scientific testing by the European Broadcasting Union has indicated that HE-AAC at 48 kb/s was ranked as "Excellent" quality using the MUSHRA scale. MP3 in the same testing received a score less than half that of HE-AAC and was ranked "Poor" using the MUSHRA scale. Data from this testing also indicated that some individuals confused 48 kb/s HE-AAC encoded material with an uncompressed original." (that quote refers to HE-AAC v1, version 2 is a even better)) from the AV Science forum.
Cheers,
s.
sturgeon wrote:Try HE-AAC v2 at 48 kbps - you will be amazed at the quality for the file size!
Yes, but then I can't uPNP stream around the house. Simple Center only seems to work fully with MP3s and WMAs.