mp3 or wma formats. pros cons which should I be using?

[SlightlyMadScotland]

I alwasys assumed digital music was mp3 or mp3.

Was a bit surprised that I have ripped it and it has appeared as wma files. MP3 seems happy with that though. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to either format?

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no expert on this but wma means it's ripped into Windows Media Player format and hence will not play on other software eg Realplayer. Poss even ipod, but wouldn't know as I don't have one. Guess that is the main disadvantage of .wma

You can change the rip settings in Windows Media Player options so it will always rip into mp3 which is more versatile.

btw you can convert wma stuff into mp3, dh showed me how last week, but it seemed a faff to me. Much quicker to re-rip CD with corrected settings.

Hope that makes sense!

but is mp3 the correct settings. wma seems more compact for more songs.

depends what you want to be able to do with the file. only ever play it in windows media player then .wma setting is ok. want to transfer it to your mp3 player (assuming you have one) or listen via realplayer then .mp3 is needed.

also more compact generally means poorer replay quality. personally i don't notice over pc speakers but dh who is a bit of a sound "snob" does, but i can tell if we play songs off laptop via surround sound in our lounge.

i think it comes down to personal preference/requirements and not correct/incorrect. for example dh wants to put a bunch of music onto our new personal video recorder box (like a sky+ box) but most of our ripped stuff is in .wma format so he can't transfer it as the box does not recognise .wma as it does not run a microsoft windows system.

apologies if that got a bit too geeky

It is for use on an mp3 player. But the mp3 player seems perfectly happy with the wma format.

Sounds like I should probably rip all future stuff as mp3 though to make it more versatile.

good to hear your mp3 player recognises .wma

i'd agree with changing future settings, updated ours last week after the issue with pvr box.