I've searched the forums but could not find a good answer for my question. I recently got into MP3 encoding and LAME with EAC is fantastic. I would like to make a set of albums for my PPC on the go, but unsure of what bitrates I should go after. In a busy enviorment, a high bitrate wouldn't be that useful (and I listen to alot of trance and techno), so what would be some of the member's recommendations? Thanks in advance? James in Knoxville
As a big time PocketPC/overall PDA freak, this is rather interesting topic. But the question, IMHO, isn't that relevant anymore as the storage for PDAs is getting much cheaper (thanks to digital camera revolution) and the CPU power of modern PDAs is more than enough to play any MP3 file -- I struggled with this issue in 1999 with my HP Jornada -- 32MB of RAM, no external storage and 133MHz CPU. Anyway, I would suggest that you use the same compression that you would use for any other MP3 compression -- like when you encode music to your car stereo or home stereo. ~160 - ~192kbps would be my choice as I'm not one of those "guy with a golden ear" that can hear sound difference between 320kbps MP3 and an actual CD I'd just save a bit and buy 256MB or 512MB memory card (SD, CF, whatever your PDA eats) and fill it with good selection of music.
I agree. I've had only a 64 MB SD card with my iPaq 3835 and haven't upgraded in awhile. Maybe I'll drop by Best Buy and see what they're offering now as far as memory goes. Thanks for the info!
Yep, even the 1GB MicroDrives are affordable nowadays and even cheaper price per megabyte you get if you get a PCMCIA jacket and get 5GB Kingston HDD like I did. Only prob is obviously that my otherwise rather slim 5450 looks like a brick with the jacket on ;-) But that's why I carry one 256MB SD inside the machine and use the jacket only when I take longer trips to carry all the music/videos/backups/etc with me
AFAIK there are audio players for PDAs that can play back Ogg Vorbis. I am quite well trained in hearing encoding artifacts but for portable use something between q2 (96kbps) and q4 (128kbps) would be ok for me. (Unfortunately I don't have a PDA.) From decoding speed Musepack (MPC) should work on PDAs that can play back mp3s but I don't know if decoders/players exist. It outperforms other codecs at 128kbps and higher (VBR) bitrates, but for portable use it'd be probably overkill quality-wise._X_X_X_X_X_[small]AFTERDAWN FORUM RULES: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487[/small]
tigre: Yep, but unfortunately if you prefer to keep your music totally portable -- i.e. it plays on your car, etc -- MP3 is the only option now. But yes, PocketMVP plays Ogg Vorbis files (and OGM-wrapped videos with Ogg Vorbis audio tracks as well) -- and the player is anyway a must-have for any PocketPC user as it is the only decent DivX-capable player for PocketPC
Pocket PC's lol - computers are meant to be kept in the house. that way when you go out you are more sociable and not attached to a computer. We are all turning into anti-social computer generation (though dRD is a a bit older).
Oriphus: For me, PPC is a) laptop replacement, I don't have a laptop and hardly need one. b) method of pulling up servers if they've crashed and I don't have desktop computer anywhere near me (I use GPRS to get to the Net) c) MP3 player with 5GB + 64MB + 256MB + 256MB or storage space d) method of spending cigarette breaks at the office watching DivX clips of old Friends series ;-)
