imjustagamer,
Maybe you do because your an advanced/semi-advanced computer user but I know a LOT of people that dont.
I've used other peoples computers and asked them what format/quality they were ripping at and they said they weren't sure.
These were people who had been using computers for 5+ years to a competant level.
They just wanted it to work and weren't too bothered with the details.
You got that right Nila. I actually had to talk a m8 through upping the mp3 quality settings before he ripped a cd for me using musicmatch, and shortly after that, he phoned me back coz he couldn't find the files on his harddrive!!!! MM plays 'em, so he doesn't care/is not interested where the actual files are as long as they're in his library. His HD is a mess, but he's happy
I've also had to firewall the outgoing connection during the M$ codec installation, and have been unable to find out what it is or why. I don't like it. one of the things that I really applaud MC for is that it isn't "spyware". Perhaps the access request is really very innocent, but it comes without warning or explanation, which means that non-firewalled systems just allow the info, whatever it might be, to just march off the system without them even being aware of it.
I maybe wouldn't mind quite so much if the codecs would handle a streaming .wma with ASIO enabled, but they can't do that without a very ugly crash ensuing.
As for it being the default encoder....
mho, for what is worth, is that the default should be mp3, 128kbps, normal quality.
Why use microsoft's proprietry format as the default for an independant app?
mp3 should be the default. I still remember being surprised that it wasn't the 1st time I ever tried MJ/MC.
-marko