Re: MP3 vs. WMA

ibook wrote:

lots of pc users are dumping windows media player from what I hear.
You should use the one that most people will be able to access - MP3
is easily the most popular and will play in most applications.

As long as 90% of the PC users in the world are using Windows they're going
to have WMP on their computer, meaning they can view a .wma file. Even if
they "dump" WMP they have it and it will pop up and play it. Though as I
said before, I still thing MP3 is the most universal format.

WMP was only bundled (pushed down your throat) with windows a few years
ago if not just two years ago, so I'm sure lots of PC users don't have
it (yet). Besides, you're still free to decide which format you want to
use, and since MP3 is the most widely used format AND it doesn't belong
to Microsoft, you should definitely use MP3.

Thirdly, for sound in a web page, the best and easiest way to go is
Flash. You can embed an invisible falsh movie (or a flash movie showing
only sound controls) with the sound in it, and set the sound to stream,
as well as set the compression mode. It will work on 90% browsers, and
is more reliable than any other pluggin that users might or might not
have, to seemlessly play sound in your page.

Mad Dog wrote:

ibook wrote:

lots of pc users are dumping windows media player from what I hear.
You should use the one that most people will be able to access - MP3
is easily the most popular and will play in most applications.


As long as 90% of the PC users in the world are using Windows they're going
to have WMP on their computer, meaning they can view a .wma file. Even if
they "dump" WMP they have it and it will pop up and play it. Though as I
said before, I still thing MP3 is the most universal format.

I'd go with wma I don't like having to download files to hear them I'd rather
stop the download and move on.
You can also attach this code to wma...

<embed src="_____.wma" width=245 height=35 autostart=true repeat=true
loop=true></embed>

That gets there default player and shows a play, stop, and timeline which
gives the user full access to a player without downloading the file. (you have
to configure the code above how you want it it's set to start playing on load
and repeat)

Flash