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[ankpualani]

right now I use .ape files but I dont think the world will catch on...certainly any windows format will be included in the format wars
are there copy right restrictions or other reasons to be wary ?
thank you ? ?

[LonWar]

While wma is more recognized then ape, not all machines that handle wma, will play wma lossless.

It's about the same size, maybe a touch bigger. I have used both and have found no differences...

[DougHamm]

right now I use .ape files but I dont think the world will catch on...certainly any windows format will be included in the format wars
are there copy right restrictions or other reasons to be wary ?
thank you ? ?

Biggest thing I've found is that most any Windows app that can read WMA can read lossless WMA's.  So I can drag audio into my video editing suite, or share a music playlist with a buddy over Microsoft's 3Degrees MusicMix (very cool app!) and it "just works".  Good luck with other lossless formats.  Other than that there's no audible difference between APE, WMA, FLAC, SHN, WAV, etc.

-Doug

[GHammer]

There's one difference.
Using APE files I can create APL fiels from a cue sheet to play indivisual sections.
With WM lossless, I can't do that.

Anyone have a good method of have an entire CD in lossless and playing only certain selections?

[rocketsauce]

are there copy right restrictions or other reasons to be wary?

I guess it depends on how paranoid you are.

Currently, Microsoft allows users to disable digital rights management when encoding to windows media formats and current versions of Windows allow users to play files that don't have DRM. Will this always be the case? Noone knows.

Also, by using windows media formats, you're kind of assuming that your music will always reside on a computer running Windows. Even though you might not think so now, it's entirely conceivable that at some point in the future you might want to play those files on an OS that is not Microsoft/Windows Media friendly.

Those are a couple of reasons I would choose a more "open" lossless format like ape or flac.

Rob

[DocLotus]

Good point.

Linux comes to mind for a possible future operating system.

Would really love to get rid of all the problems of Windows.

I am open to a change in the future if only a viable operating system would come forth to replace clunky ol Windows.

[iCamp]

Doesn't WMA lossless have some tagging limitations in comparison to APE & FLAC?  I seem to remember it not being as flexible (though MC's database makes up for this issue).

[PhatPhreddy]

Also remember that default WMA settings (at lossless) perform normalization so when you rip and then attempt a burn you dont actually get a 1:1 bit perfect copy   this can be turned off but its not simply in options (As I dont use it I cant remember but think powertoys can do it)...