Using your own encoders
 

Hi,
I just searched all the forums and could not find the answer to this question. can you use your own encoder without developing a plug-in. You see i have an mp3pro encoder that i have got from the internet and i don't really like the interface it uses and various other aspects. on the other hand the winamp encoder has a much better interface but only supports mp3. (i would rather use the ogg vorbis format because of the supreme quality it offers and it's open source however my portabke player doesn't suport ogg vorbis format so i have to use themp3pro format.) So can i add this mp3pro encoder to the drop down list in winamp and then use that instead of the other encoder i am using atm.

thanx 4 any help

Please do not use the mp3Pro format. Read here most reasons WHY: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....threadid=81838

What is your desired bitrate? Probably even LAME would offer a better quality at most bitrates.

What formats does your portable accept? What portable is it? I ask because only very few (I didn`t see any) portables support mp3Pro.

i have an archos gmini400. it only supports .wav (pointless for music but good when using the microphone) MP3 and WMA. Personally i don't like the WMA format (think it sounds worse than mp3 at similar bitrates) and microsoft keep complaining about everything so can't be bothered with all that crap. So i'm left with mp3. mp3pro at 96kbps is better than mp3 at 128kbps when using that extra plugin. However when i use my gmini400 the difference in sound can't really be heard but the file is 3/4 the size. But like you said it is not as good as the OGG format. I would personally use it over any audio format i have heard at the moment because it is better, however my gmini400 doesn't support it!

anyway thanx 4 the reply

the_godfather

Just because something supports MP3 doesn't mean it will support MP3Pro. So you will just have a larger then normal MP3 that sounds bad. Unless it flat out says it supports MP3Pro, it doesn't.

And the anwser to the question is no, though.

An mp3pro file is split into 2 parts. The normal sounds are in the mp3 part and the higher frequencies that mp3 can't replicate well (understatement - its basically terrible at replicating) is part of the pro. My gmini can't read the pro part so it just reads the mp3 part and it sounds just as good through headphones at 96kbps with mp3pro as it does with mp3 at 128kbps. The file size is just smaller.

Placebo!
You are playing a lower bit-rate MP3, without any of the extras that MP3Pro adds if the player doesn't support MP3. But, hey, that is your call to make. You still can't encode Mp3Pro with Winamp.

No. If your player doesn't support explicitely mp3Pro, do not use it. You will not benefit from the extra SBR part not even on your PC because NO regular audio program supports this stuff. Even the Winamp plugin is flawed and will not be fixed.

I would go with MP3s then. But in the end it is up to you.

It is just a fact that you don't have to expect good results from mp3Pro at low bitrates either if you can`t use the SBR part. There were some blind audio tests at hydrogenaudio that confirmed that.