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[netdog]

I see that I can rip CDs to Lossless WMA files.  Are these truly lossless?  Do I lose any ability to move these to other formats (for iPod, Car, etc.) without sacrifice of quality beyond the compression method I select for those settings?

[MarSies]

I never tried it before but if the compression is lossless then just try this.

Rip a song from CD to wav - convert it to ape or wma lossless - convert it back to wav.

Both wav files shoud be exactly the same, or do I miss something !!


MarSies .....

[tjobbins]

Marsies,

Nope you don't miss anything - that will work.

I did the same a couple of years back when I converted all my music to APEs.  I previously had all my music as WAVs, and was a bit paranoid.  So I converted to APE, back to WAV, and did a compare against the original file.  No differences at all.

If WMA passes that test too, it must be lossless.

I used a Unix tool to do the compare myself, but at a (very) quick glance, this tool:
http://www.tucows.com/preview/321536.html
would seem to do the same job for Windows


Tom

[Eiffel]

Beware that, by defaut, WMA9 lossless isn't truely lossless... You have to disable volume normalization first  .

Also, contrary to APE files, you can't recreate exactly the original track (I can't figure why).

This being said, with volume normalization disabled, it is not altering the sound at all (I played some DTS 44.1 tracks without problem)

Eiffel

[netdog]

But can Media Center then convert them back to WAVs or to MP3s for burning?

[LonWar]

Yes... You can even have MC convert WMA Lossless to Ape...

It will convert to almost anything.