Lossless Music Files
It's not so much the files, but the people who actually give a shit about them that bug the fuck out of me.

Bit of background for the less terminally geeky; when you store music or video on your computer it is generally compressed to buggery. This is because binary isn't an especially wonderful way to store sound so you get stupidly big files as a result. Even when these are compressed you are left with slightly less stupidly big files.

So one solution is to compress them in such a way that a bit of information is lost, (lossy compression) it's more or less the same but at a much smaller size. You'll honestly not notice the difference unless you compress it to a stupidly small size or start compressing it over and over again. (You lose information every time it's compressed)

Yet I am forever plagued by smug pricks going "Oh I can't listen to mp3s, they're nowhere near as good as flac" or more commonly "I can't listen to mp3s that are less than X kb/s". (Where X is usually a number around 300)

Over about 128 kb/s for most songs it makes no difference. There are exceptions admittedly, not everything compresses well and some programs do a better job than others, but these people seriously need to stop being so damn picky about this crap. Most of them probably download it for free anyway.

Sorry for the excess nerdiness and swearing there. If it helps I now feel oddly relaxed for getting that off my chest.
(BoneIdol, Fri 2 May 2008, 13:16, 6 replies)

It doesn't really annoy me,
but I agree with you. The bit rate apathy viewpoint is too seldom expressed.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Fri 2 May 2008, 13:36, closed)

The worst thing is...
...some of these people then go and play them on their mobiles.

These people should be amongst the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
(BoneIdol, Fri 2 May 2008, 13:50, closed)

I've always preferred 192kbps myself
The reason being that I can actually tell the different between 128 and 192. It's in the drum beats on a song. I don't know why I can tell, but I can. It's like the break squeal on a car. Doesn't bother most people but sets my teeth right on edge.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Fri 2 May 2008, 14:01, closed)

I've got one of those gadgets...
...that you plug in to your mp3 player and the radio will pick it up. If I don't use lossless, as the radio picks up the signal and it comes out the speakers it begins to break or buzz, particularly on drum beats. So I'm all for lossless.
(Big Smurf Brush me daddy-O, Fri 2 May 2008, 14:40, closed)

I can generally tell the difference between 256 and 320
it does depend what music I'm listening to though. I encode it all at 320, and I can't see huge differences between the CD and MP3 unless it's being played ridiculously loud, much louder than I ever have it.

I have 2.5 terabytes of storage...why should I shrink down my collection that takes up barely 50 gig?
( Mr.Ons knows you can hear him, Earthmen., Fri 2 May 2008, 15:20, closed)

do you have a girlfiend?

( spimf ™ is whoever you want him to be, Sat 3 May 2008, 3:05, closed)