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[paulr]

Matt,

Would there be any benefit to converting all of my 3.97 and 3.98 APE files to 3.99?  If I am not mistaken, 3.98 gave some compression benefits over 3.97...  Just curious if I should set this up to convert over night or not.

Thanks!
Paul

[Matt]

It's your call really.  You can still play and tag APE 2.00 files -- they just don't have as efficient of a compression engine, or as elegant of a file structure. (but are still bit-perfect)

You'll save some space with 3.99, but it isn't earth shattering.  3.98 added an improved file structure and MD5 checking. (for running a super fast verify)

If you do convert, I'd recommend using the actual Monkey's Audio program because it does it without an intermediate file and knows to skip needless conversions.

I have a mix of APE file versions in my library, but I kind of like that for testing reasons.

Thanks Paul.

[GRAYDOG]

Matt , being fairly new to all this stuf  would converting all of My 3.98 's to 3.99 be the best thing in the long run? or Should I just let them be and rip all the new ones to 3.99 ?  I know You sorta answerd this for paulr I guess I'm just think down the line

[paulr]

Well, since I have a bunch of 3.97's, I might as well convert them all in one shot (for consistency's sake)...

Thanks for the info!

Edit:  I just tried to batch some of my apes (with Monkey's Audio 3.99 as suggested) and the entire list just went green (status - skipped).  I have it set to Convert, mode-Normal, delete original files.  It just zipped down the list and skipped everything.

I am sure I am doing something wrong, but I can't figure out what it is.  

[paulr]

It seems as if it doesn't like going *from* APE, *to* APE in the same directory.  I added a subdirectory to one of my folders and it's running fine on those.  But, in order to batch this for my entire library, I'll have to move all the apes out, and specify the directory to move them back in to...

Edit:  I've decided it's not an issue.... Thank goodness the naming convention I used for my library is: artist-album-track#-trackname.  Only 22 hours of conversion to go!    It's actually pretty fast considering what it's doing.

[GHammer]

It seems as if it doesn't like going *from* APE, *to* APE in the same directory.  I added a subdirectory to one of my folders and it's running fine on those.  But, in order to batch this for my entire library, I'll have to move all the apes out, and specify the directory to move them back in to...

Can't you use the standalone app, set to overwrite files with the same name and do a convert?

[paulr]

It wasn't working for me for some reason.  I tried it and it was just skipping all the files.

It's no big dea, and in fact I am glad I am doing it this way now.  Apparently, a few of my 3.97 ape files are invalid.  Since I told it to move all the converted files to a new directory, the corrupt ape files are left in the original directories, so it will be easy for me to find them and re-rip them.

[Matt]

Apparently, a few of my 3.97 ape files are invalid.

With a stable computer, this should never happen.  I haven't had a bad bit after 1000's of GB of APE processing.

If you're worried about it, I'd run a RAM test and scale back any overclocking. (if you do any)  Silly software could also do this, but there aren't any conflicts I know about.

Hopefully you have the original CD to avoid any major hassles.

Thanks Paul.

[paulr]

Well, they are all 3.97's... Ones which I ripped a long time ago (a year or more?).  I have done lots of things between then and now, including overclocking (and underclocking), testing software and settings, repartitioning...  Right now, I am not overclocking or doing any weird stuff with my system.

Anyway... It's not an issue.  I have all the CD's somewhere and can re-rip them.  I figured that it had something to do with the 3.97 version of APE because none of the problem files are 3.98 versions.

Incidentally, I think all, or at least most of the files that are invalid were generated from EAC.  I was using EAC before I learned to trust MC's secure rip..

Also, they will still play in MC...  I just cannot convert or decompress them.

[Sir Alan]

FWIW I just deleted and re-ripped an album ("Union Café" - Penguin Café Orchestra) to see how much smaller the resulting APE files would be.

Original CD: 748.8 Mb
Old APE: 252.4 Mb
APE 3.99: 251.4 Mb

Both using the "extra high" setting.

No obvious change in ripping speed.

So I think I'll let my collection stay as it is.  Certainly not worth the effort of reprocessing everything just to save maybe 350 Mb.

[Sir Alan]

Is 250 Mb typical for a full album on the "extra high" setting? What size do you get at normal setting? I think I get around 450 Mb. Is there that much difference between normal and high settings?

I don't use the Normal setting, so I can't offer a comparison.  I had to use Extra High due to limited disk space.

The total file size for an album seems to correlate only loosely with the playing time, for example:

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 488.7 Mb 1:16:12
Union Café 251.4 Mb 1:13:59
Bloody Tourists 324.1 Mb 0:54:52.
Love Over Gold 210.5 Mb 0:41:05
Rumours 187.7 Mb 0:39:35
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme 132.7 Mb 0:28:11

Presumably the complexity of the content affects the final file size.

[paulr]

Check http://www.monkeysaudio.com/comparison.html for a comparison.  The difference in file size is typically less than 2%, and it requires a lot more CPU to encode/decode then.

I always just use Normal as that seems the best bang for the buck.