Darn Winamp... (Boo)

[maw1]

I've been using Winamp for years and finally used it for more than just listening to mp3s, and what does winamp do... screw me!

Now, I admit, the fault is my own, but when I heard I could "burn" using Winamp, I thought "cool" I respect Winamp.

So I proceeded to burn 84 song off my CDs and then to my dismay, I see they are all in .acc format! What the heck?

Why not mp3... oh I see, they want money for that... well ok, but WHY THE F*CK COULDN'T YOU GUYS HAVE MADE IT MORE CLEAR? I would have stopped in my tracks if I noticed it after the first song.

What a joke, screw on me... maybe WMP isn't that bad afterall, I least I don't have any expectation of WMP.

Sorry this had to be my first post, perhaps a moderator will make it my last.

[Russ]

Firstly, "ripping" is the process of extracting audio from a CD, "burning" is writing to it.

It's AAC format, which is apparently destined to be the new standard format for audio compression. There's no DRM or anything on what Winamp rips, and it can be played by most new portable players these days. It's better quality than MP3. So what's the problem?

In contrast, if you rip using WMP by default, files will be in WMA format, which is restricted to play on one computer by default.

In addition, you may remember seeing this image when you went to download (http://www.winamp.com/player) Winamp 5:
http://www.winamp.com/images/player/player_features.gif
Note that there is clearly no tick in the "Rip/Encode Music into MP3" column for Free. Is that not clear enough for you?

[maw1]

Originally posted by Russ
Firstly, "ripping" is the process of extracting audio from a CD, "burning" is writing to it.

Yes, you are right... sorry, I was pissed.


It's AAC format, which is apparently destined to be the new standard format for audio compression. There's no DRM or anything on what Winamp rips, and it can be played by most new portable players these days. It's better quality than MP3. So what's the problem?

So, would you want your whole collection to be .aac or .mp3? Your use of "apparently" does not make me too confident"

In contrast, if you rip using WMP by default, files will be in WMA format, which is restricted to play on one computer by default.

I know, so I'll use cDex. Sorry man -- like I said, my bad, but I'm still pissed that this wasn't more clear. IMHO

[Russ]

Yeah, I'm not too confident :). I rip most of my files losslessly (http://flac.sf.net) now, so it's a bit of a moot point, I can encode into whatever I want whenever I want.

But the MPEG group say AAC is the next big thing, and we're meant to believe them :).

[BongFish]

Still nothing wrong with good old LAME --alt-preset standard though, sounds good to me.