MP3 Help Needed - Blu-ray Forum

FreddieFerric · 11-10-2012, 12:54 AM

Hi guys. I find myself (oddly enough) in need of some pointers on the lowly MP3 format.

Here's my issue. The audio system in my car has a slot for a PCMCIA card adapter. I bought one of these 6 in 1 adapters that accepts SDHC cards. I was thinking of getting a 32 GB one to use in this system. The audio system, however, appears to only accept MP3, WMA and AAC formats.

First question: are any of these 3 "better" than the others? Also, it seems that the cars audio system will play these files at relatively high bit rates. It would seem sensible to me that the higher bit rate would translate to higher audio quality. So I guess the question is: can you compensate for the loss in sound quality due to the inherent compression of the file by saving the file at a higher bit rate?

My interest here is to try and preserve the best sound quality within the constraints that the audio system places on the file format.

Any thoughtful help or suggestions on this would be most greatly appreciated.

nmycon · 11-10-2012, 01:39 AM

I would go with AAC.

Better slightly better quality than MP3 and a smaller file size to boot

And as you suggested, export at the highest possible bitrate.

pentatonic · 11-10-2012, 01:52 AM

First time I hear of such a setup in a car. Just curious, which car radio do you have?

As for formats, AAC, for the same bitrate as MP3 is known to be better, how much is another thing. WMA is also similar. But MP3 is usually supported by more devices. Whichever codec you use, encode at the highest bitrate supported by your device. It's not really CD quality but decent enough.

If you go MP3 LAME encoder is generally recognized as the best. iTunes does AAC.

11-10-2012, 12:54 AM	#1
FreddieFerric Blu-ray Knight Top ranked HT gallery Member since:Mar 2008 Location:NOLA Home Theater Gallery:146 4K collection:14 Blu-ray collection:238 Blu-ray reviews:7 Trading Score:1	MP3 Help Needed Hi guys. I find myself (oddly enough) in need of some pointers on the lowly MP3 format. Here's my issue. The audio system in my car has a slot for a PCMCIA card adapter. I bought one of these 6 in 1 adapters that accepts SDHC cards. I was thinking of getting a 32 GB one to use in this system. The audio system, however, appears to only accept MP3, WMA and AAC formats. First question: are any of these 3 "better" than the others? Also, it seems that the cars audio system will play these files at relatively high bit rates. It would seem sensible to me that the higher bit rate would translate to higher audio quality. So I guess the question is: can you compensate for the loss in sound quality due to the inherent compression of the file by saving the file at a higher bit rate? My interest here is to try and preserve the best sound quality within the constraints that the audio system places on the file format. Any thoughtful help or suggestions on this would be most greatly appreciated.

11-10-2012, 01:39 AM	#2
nmycon Blu-ray Guru Top contributor Member since:Jan 2009 Location:Toronto, Ontario 4K collection:3 Blu-ray collection:446 DVD collection:87 Blu-ray reviews:4 Trading Score:1	I would go with AAC. Better slightly better quality than MP3 and a smaller file size to boot And as you suggested, export at the highest possible bitrate.

11-10-2012, 01:52 AM	#3
pentatonic Blu-ray Ninja Top contributor Member since:Jan 2009 Location:Montreal, Canada Blu-ray collection:570 DVD collection:1 Blu-ray reviews: 6 Trading Score:158	First time I hear of such a setup in a car. Just curious, which car radio do you have? As for formats, AAC, for the same bitrate as MP3 is known to be better, how much is another thing. WMA is also similar. But MP3 is usually supported by more devices. Whichever codec you use, encode at the highest bitrate supported by your device. It's not really CD quality but decent enough. If you go MP3 LAME encoder is generally recognized as the best. iTunes does AAC.

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