Re: Why bother with lossy encoding?

>From what I understand, wav files sound great on the air, so radio stations
use them. That being said, the processing used by the station, combined with
the nature of fm radio means that by the time I record it, I'm not going to
be able to tell the difference between a wav file and an mp3 file. As has
been pointed out before, why take up so much space on your hard drive with
wav files when the same amount of audio can be used in half the space? My
aircheck collection is about 3 gb, most of which is 128 kbps mp3 files.
Imagine how much that would be in wav files. 

-----Original Message-----
From: J.B. Nicholson [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 2:36 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Audacity-users] Why bother with lossy encoding?

Clyde Lyman wrote:
> With the vast amounts of memory we have today, why bother with lossy 
> files at all unless it's to keep continuity with other elements of a 
> collection?

I'm not sure what "continuity with other elements of a collection" means.

Lossy encoding is useful for:

- delivering multimedia over slow links or to low-end computers (mobile
phones, tablets, some laptops, toys). Even YouTube finds it useful to encode
a lot of audio as Opus and a lot of video with VP9 nowadays.

- embedded players that don't handle lossless encoding (some cars and some
portable playing devices don't support FLAC, WAV, or AIFF files, for
example)

- maximizing use of (as you point out) inexpensive storage. If I can't tell
the difference between a high-quality Opus encoding over the same audio
ripped from an ordinary Red Book audio CD and encoded as a FLAC (which is
lossless), I might choose to keep the Opus file because it uses
significantly less space and works with every computer program I use for
playback. Thus my casual listening needs are met and I get to store a lot
more audio.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging
tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
*********** ASKING FOR HELP *************

When asking for help on this list, please include the following information,
so we can help you properly: 

* What operating system you are using (for example, Windows XP or Mac OS X
10.5.1)   

* Exactly what three digit version number of Audacity you are using (Help >
About 
   Audacity, or Audacity >  About Audacity on a Mac computer)   

* If this is a recording problem, what equipment you are recording with, and
how is it 
   connected to the computer?

Mailing list: [email protected]
To UNSUBSCRIBE, use the form at the bottom of this web page:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-users


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Announcing the Oxford Dictionaries API! The API offers world-renowned
dictionary content that is easy and intuitive to access. Sign up for an
account today to start using our lexical data to power your apps and
projects. Get started today and enter our developer competition.
http://sdm.link/oxford
*********** ASKING FOR HELP *************

When asking for help on this list, please include the following information, so we can 
help you properly: 

* What operating system you are using (for example, Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.5.1)   

* Exactly what three digit version number of Audacity you are using (Help > About 
   Audacity, or Audacity >  About Audacity on a Mac computer)   

* If this is a recording problem, what equipment you are recording with, and how is it 
   connected to the computer?

Mailing list: [email protected]
To UNSUBSCRIBE, use the form at the bottom of this web page:
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-users