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[221bBS]

I've always used mp3 format but I been hearing alot of good stuff about MPC. Which is better?? Or is there a better encoder??

[Charlemagne 8]

I can only speak for myself but I believe that you are in APE territory, more or less.
But if your storage space limits your file size, then there are good lossy alternatives. Generally speaking, the higher the bit rate, the better the quality, whichever format you choose. But not necessarily. Nothing is concrete. It's all a matter of Personal Preference.
Try encoding a familiar song from a CD into a variety of formats and bit rates. Give them all a try. You'll find a good compromise between quality and file size. One that fits your own PP.

[Omni]

Yeah, personal preference, audio hardware (audio path + speakers + ears!!!)--too many factors to deem one "better" than another in a one-size-fits-all sense.

As far as transparency is concerned though, and with all things being equal, it is generally agreed that MPC surpasses MP3,  particularly at higher bitrates (like, around 180-220 kbps).

For a personal testimonal, I used to rip everything to MP3, but then I discovered MPC; and to my ears and through my equipment, it blew MP3 away.  Then I discovered ape and have been a happy camper ever since.  (Free at last!  Free at last!  Free from the perceived loss in quality!  Free at last!)  




(Shhhhhhhhhhh!  I don't want anyone to know about my brief foray with WMA Lossless.)

[skeeterfood]

I did a lot of research a few years ago when I ripped the majority of my CDs and MPC was the format I chose.  I've been happy with my choice so far, but now that I'm building a new house and trying to work out a whole-house multi-zone audio system, I'm beginning to regret the decision.  It seems the mpc decoder plugin can't decode more than one audio stream at the same time  

I could transcode it all to MP3, but I may just re-rip everything in APE and know that I can transcode it to MP3 for portable use, or any other future format that gains me something without losing any quality.  Space is getting so cheap, that it seems silly not to use APE, or some other lossless format these days and transcode to MP3/AAC for portables.  If only MC could handle having multiple formats for a single file better...  

-John

[GRAYDOG]

min221bbs, Another thing to think about is what are You going to do with the tracks ?  do You have a portable player ?  do You have a big hard drive? I use ape to store in My hard drive and mp3 320 to put in my Nomad . And My ears are happy

[221bBS]

I have just over 1000 CDs...200GB of audio on my computer...I have about 100GB of free space reserved for my audio files. So far I have 4 hard drives and from what I've heard windows XP won't support any more hard drives.

I would love to rip everything in APE format but don't have the space  

I guess I'll test out a few songs and compare mp3 with mpc...

[kiwi]

I've had more than 4 hard drives in a WinXP box w/o problems.

If you're going to go through the trouble and time of ripping everything, do it losslessly.  Then you can convert it to any lossy format of your choice easily later (leaving the original in tact).   And you'll never have to see your CDs again.  

kiwi

[221bBS]

SWEET!! Can someone tell me how many Hard drives Windows XP can Handle ?

[Jaguu]

SWEET!! Can someone tell me how many Hard drives Windows XP can Handle ?

That depends on how many controllers you have! Just get some extra controllers, but then you might have too many disks in a standard pc.
Better is to replace some disks with larger ones such as 4x160GB = 640 GB.

[jleerigby]

SWEET!! Can someone tell me how many Hard drives Windows XP can Handle ?

That depends on how many controllers you have! Just get some extra controllers, but then you might have too many disks in a standard pc.
Better is to replace some disks with larger ones such as 4x160GB = 640 GB.

I have a couple of 250 GB in mine and if I were to use the raid controller I could have another 4.  If you have other pc's on a network with spare room you could also chuck some more 250's in there too.

[221bBS]

Hmmm...not sure what ya guys mean by controllers ? But I have 2 internal and 2 external (USB 2) hard drives. They total like 450GB.

[Jaguu]

Hmmm...not sure what ya guys mean by controllers ? But I have 2 internal and 2 external (USB 2) hard drives. They total like 450GB.

You could buy an extra IDE or S-ATA controller, plug it into your PC and add 2-4 more disks into your PC, if there is enough space inside the case.

But with a 1000 CD's on disk you may have to consider some more sophisticated solution. Did you ever think of backup your cd's? I only have 120GB of data (audio, images, video, docs), but I replicate everything from one pc to another just in case that one should fail!

[jleerigby]

But with a 1000 CD's on disk you may have to consider some more sophisticated solution. Did you ever think of backup your cd's? I only have 120GB of data (audio, images, video, docs), but I replicate everything from one pc to another just in case that one should fail!

I hear a lot of people saying this.  I bet that the other PC is in the same building though and this means that you risk losing everything in the event of fire or theft.  I like to reduce the risk even further by taking my back up (done every few weeks) to work and keeping it in my desk drawer.  

I still have some risk though because when I do a fresh back up the new one overwrites the previous one so if something were to go wrong half way through the new back up (e.g. a power cut) then I would be in trouble.  I know there is such a thing as an incremental back up but this (as the term suggests) results in your backup getting bigger and bigger.  I suppose the ultimate solution for me is to have 2 back up drives instead of 1.

[221bBS]

I'm backing them up onto DVD.  

[Jaguu]

Jlee,

well, we are talking about different risks, one is data loss risk, the other one is down time risk. If like me, you use your home pc for work, you cannot allow large down times. If your pc breaks, you need to be up again in the matter of a few hours. If you ever tried to repair a pc, then you may know how long it takes (at least in my country to repair it). And usually companies don't want to repair but sell you new stuff.
If your car breaks, you go to your garage and get a spare car for the repair time needed. This is not the case with pc's. This is why I have two almost identical pc's with all my user data (docs, Audio, images) replicated.

By the way, replication is another word for differential backup. There only changed files are replaced, so the backup volume does not increase, unless the size of your files increases.

[hit_ny]

I still have some risk though because when I do a fresh back up the new one overwrites the previous one so if something were to go wrong half way through the new back up (e.g. a power cut) then I would be in trouble

i have not tested this but i'm under the impression its the drive thats been written to that would have the problem. The other one is just being read from.

In any case a UPS could help alleviate this problem.

[GHammer]

SCSI

The only limit on SCSI drives is the room in your computer case.
Well, ok, the length of the SCSI cable, but I have 6 drives in one system and all is well.

Other advantage is that they are actually independent. Nothing has to wait for the other. I can have writes going to 3 drives while reading from the others. That don't happen with any brand of IDE/SATA just yet.

[221bBS]

Could I just add another USB 2 hard drive??? or do I still need a controller ?

[Jaguu]

External disks attached through USB do not need an internal controller. You just need enough USB plugs, and if you do not have enough plugs you can attach a USB hub with more USB plugs. I think with USB 1 you could theoretically attach up to 128 peripheral devices.

2 Things: External USB disks are usually more expensive and I have no idea about performance degradation.

[Folbo]

I also went for MPC because my ears said it was the best, but I am fed up with the limits of the encoder, and with 'broken frames' etc.

I am thinking about re-ripping my CDs into APE, storage is cheap enough today, but I am concerned that I would lose all the tagged data of my MPC files.

Is there a way to rip a CD, and have it replace an existing file of a different format, taking all of the tagged data across with it automatically? Can this be done album at a time?

[Jaguu]

Not 100% sure, but you should be able to export all tags to an *.mpl file and then reimport them by using import media. You may have to change the file ending to import properly. But as an *.mpl file is a text file, it can easily be done with any editor such as notepad. Just be sure that the file is in UTF-8 format and not Ansi.

You can export selected albums individually or the whole library in one go (File>Export Playlists)