.wma support for X5?

[Suicide_Guy]

I read that there will never be .wma support for the Archos line, but will there ever be .wma support for those ports that can decode .wma, in particular the X5? I hate having some of my songs in .wma format and they won't play in Rockbox so I have to switch back to my OF.

[LinusN]

There is a guy who calls himself MarsDaddy that claims he is working on WMA. We have seen very little code from him, and he hasn't replied for quite some time in the forum. Don't hold your breath.

[Febs]

I hate having some of my songs in .wma format

Well, that's understandable.  

You could always re-rip those songs to another format.

[Suicide_Guy]

I hate having some of my songs in .wma format

Well, that's understandable.  

You could always re-rip those songs to another format.

Haha yeah I could. What format would you guys recommend? I've read time and time again about how bad .mp3, yet it is the standard. I don't want to use FLAC because it takes up so much room. Maybe OGG?

[bascule]

Maybe OGG?

Yup

It's my favoured option for filesize vs quality (plus I'm an Open Source kind of guy), although the recent(-ish) LAME builds have a very similar sliding-scale VBR quality setting that makes ease of use up to a par with Vorbis.

The only thing I really dislike about MP3 is having to keep all the different ID3 versions in mind when tagging, which can cause problems with portability.

[saratoga]

I hate having some of my songs in .wma format

Well, that's understandable.  

You could always re-rip those songs to another format.

Haha yeah I could. What format would you guys recommend? I've read time and time again about how bad .mp3, yet it is the standard. I don't want to use FLAC because it takes up so much room. Maybe OGG?

Mp3 is a great format.  Its generally on par with Ogg at reasonable bitrates, and better then WMA.  It just really sucks at low bitrates (<96k), so don't use it if you're really heavily compressing songs.  For 128k+, most formats supported in Rockbox are about the same (assuming good encoder and setting anyway).

[Suicide_Guy]

Ok, I've just heard some really bad things about .mp3

It could just be bias, who knows. Thanks for the help.

[Yotto]

It is bias, but you may be one of those who is biased

Try this.  Encode a song in wma, ogg, flac, and mp3, at a decent bitrate (say 128 or higher, or variable with no cap if that's an option).  Then, put all those songs in winamp or whatever player you use on your comptuer, and have someone else order your playlist.  Play each song, and write down which one is best, which one is worst, or if you can't tell.

Use the format you like best.  If you can't tell (they all sound the same), take the one that makes the smallest file (that isn't wma )

[lachlan]

I have a few albums I ripped in .wma (either 192 or 128k) and have given away or sold since. If I convert them accross to .mp3 will there be much quality loss? I have heard converting one lossy format to another isnt a good idea?

[Yotto]

It's not, but like most things, if you only do it once it won't hurt ya

[Suicide_Guy]

That's a really good idea Yotto. I should have thought of that.