WMA9 or WMAPro?

So I am about to rip by CD collection to WMA format with WMP11. I am
debating between WMA9-VBR or WMAPro codecs. When set to 'best quality',
which would produce better results?

As I understand it, WMAPro supports 5.1 audio, but it encodes at CBR.. Will
I still get multi-channel audio when encoding standard CD source?

WM9-VBR supports variable rate codec, which would presumably optimize
quality while keeping down the file size.

Which do you recommend for standard music CD's?

 

Hello, AS you know, there are a lot of Windows Media Codec, and every codec
is suitful for a specific scenario.
and I think the WMV PRO is better than WMV VBR depending on my experinece.
What do you think?

 

HiTekAlex,

WMA Pro supports 5.1 audio, but only if the source is 5.1 audio. Also, in
order to get this 5.1 support, you need to use Windows Media Encoder, not
WMP.

Windows Media Player will not give you 5.1 ripped content from a 2 channel
audio CD.

For typical music CDs I'd choose WMA VBR over WMA Pro *unless* you're using
an electronic device that plays music but has limited space (think
SmartPhones here) and supports the WMA Pro codec.

The thing is that there is no 1 to 1 comparison between WMA Pro and WMA VBR.

There is a 1 to 1 comparison between WMA Pro and WMA Standard, that being
that WMA Pro codec will give you better audio at a lower bitrate when
compared to WMA Standard.

Example: WMA Standard 128kbps is roughly equivilent to WMA Pro 96kbps. Or
so the qualitative geeks who created it claim.

Ripping CDs to WMA Pro is new to WMP in this latest release, so we (the guys
doing this support on the news groups) have no user data to point to to back
up either way.

 

I ripped my old quad discs and some surround CDs to 5.1 using WMP11 - and
playing them back via Xbox 360 got good surround sound (I used 256 bitrate).
Now I have a media center PC connected direct to same amp - but even using
SPDIF connection can only get stereo sound. However the SPIDF does output
Dolby 5.1 when playing a DVD - anything to fiddle with in Media Player
itself??

Howie

 

There are various possible speaker configurations mentioned on this
page (including options like SPDIF passthrough) which might be a guide
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=c00501081&dlc=&printable=yes&encodeUrl=true&

Try the section on "Configuring software for digital audio"

Usually, if you go to the Speaker settings there would be a specific
option to do digital coax instead of analog multichannel from the
sound card.

HTH
Cheers - Neil

 

Neil - many thanks. Just in case I have re-potted my Media Center into a new
quiter case and switched off the on-board RealTek HD audio - and put a PCI
Creative X-FI card in with optical out.

DVDs play back in surround fine, just Media Player 11 shoves everything out
in stereo (including a test 5 channel WAV file). Media Center is set up for
5.1 and the TEST thing works dine (tinkles from all speakers). SO it is down
to Media Player 11 not outputting 5.1......hmmmmm

H