[Gwenny]

Originally Posted by scared2mosh

I meant free converters... any decent converter (like tunebite) is going to cost money which defeats the purpose (I mean isn't the whole point of this thread is to find the cheapest option?) plus they can still mess up your files.

I still think iPods are the best for value and reliability and Zunes are a close(ish) second.

Actually, Zunes are more reliable in my opinion. I had two ipods before I switched over to Zune and I have yet to have a problem with my Zune. Both of my ipods froze constantly, failed to import music from itunes, and generally sucked. Plus I got a larger hd on mine and it was less money than an Ipod. Plus the interface and software is way easier to use for the Zune. And the Zune comes preinstalled with games and FM radio. Overall, way better deal for a Zune.

[scared2mosh]

Originally Posted by luvinjesus

Actually, Zunes are more reliable in my opinion. I had two ipods before I switched over to Zune and I have yet to have a problem with my Zune. Both of my ipods froze constantly, failed to import music from itunes, and generally sucked. Plus I got a larger hd on mine and it was less money than an Ipod. Plus the interface and software is way easier to use for the Zune. And the Zune comes preinstalled with games and FM radio. Overall, way better deal for a Zune.

I disagree, but if you like em that's fine.

[Dwight Schrute]

coke and pepsi here, methinks. I'm a die hard zune fanboy who owns five 30-gig Zunes, one for every member of the family. I'm inherently biased, as I imagine most iPod fanboys are biased as well.

but the price difference for a brand new 30-gig Zune with all its features versus a brand new 30-gig iPod video is close to 200 bucks. I'm going simply based on Amazon's prices for them new of 199 vs. 399 - completely avoiding sale prices, Woot selloffs, etc. that's a considerable price difference.

it is sad that Zune won't run on Macs - I personally think someone is shooting themselves in the foot on this one. not sure who to blame though. and it's irrelevant if you only have a Mac household, you're pretty much stuck with the iPods. sorry.

[tht00]

Originally Posted by Cam42

...in multiple formats. Seriously. I have most of mine burned onto a CD, and in .mp3 and .ogg

What about flac?

Originally Posted by luvinjesus

Actually, I use Tunebite. I purchased it for $30, but I rarely have problems with it. So no, not all converters are unreliable.

The trouble is that lossy codecs* throw out information, so converting from one lossy codec to another will lose more information, in different locations, due to the conversion.

*lossy codecs examples: mp3, wma, m4a, ra, etc.
lossless codecs: wav, flac, Apple lossless, etc.


It's very similar to image compression. JPG throws out information to make the filesize smaller. GIF also throws out information to make the filesize smaller, but it goes about it in an entirely different manner. Converting between these two will give you less than ideal results containing artifacts from both compression methods.

Ideally, you'd want a lossless version (Photoshop file, PNG, BMP) to create your lossy versions from (JPEG, GIF), and different formats are better for different applications. The same ideas apply for audio applications.

The good news is that most good codecs encoded above 160kbps are usually good enough to be difficult to distinguish from the original in most applications.

[Cam42]

Originally Posted by tht00

What about flac?

Yes, I haven't had enough storage space for flac, but as soon as I get a decent sized external drive, I'll rip my cds to it, in flac format.

[Dwight Schrute]

wma has a lossless format as well