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WMA questions...

post #1 of 3
6/16/05 at 9:03pm
Thread Starter 
I'm somewhat interested in buying individual songs online. So far, the only place I've found to have a good selection of (er...make that any of) the music I'm interested in is WalMart.com

The only "gotcha" here is that they are in a WMA format, so I have a few questions...
  • Since WMA uses DRM, would I only be able to use it on one computer and/or device? How else might DRM restrict usage of this music?
  • How does the quality of WMA encoding compare to an equiveland bit-rate in MP3s? (I think WalMart uses 128-bit encoding)
  • Would I be better off finding a tool to convert WMAs -> MP3s?
Answers to these questions and any other helpful information would be much appreciated
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post #2 of 3
6/17/05 at 11:34am
1. I think this varies with different download services. Wal-Mart's policy is download to 1 computer, backup to 2 additional computers, 10 burns to CD, unlimited transfers to portable devices.

2. WMA tends to sound better than MP3 at lower bitrates (<128kbps). At 128, WMA and MP3 will be about the same quality. Above 128, MP3 tends to be better. I ripped my entire CD collection with EAC and encoded with LAME at ~192kbps VBR, and I can definitely tell a difference in quality between my MP3s and the WMAs that my wife has purchased online. Not that the 128kbps WMAs sound bad, it's just that my MP3s sound better - I can't tell a difference from the original CD. 128kbps WMA seems to be the standard for music download services, so to purchase individual songs that's probably the best quality you're going to get.

3. I wouldn't convert from WMA to MP3 - converting from one lossy format to another will probably just further degrade the sound quality.
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post #3 of 3
6/17/05 at 2:35pm
Thread Starter 
Erg...that infuriates me. I do NOT need to be bossed around by big brother on how to manage music that I have bought fair and square.

Oh well, thanks for the info - very detailed! I guess I know one place where I won't be buying music.
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