Confusion about Streaming vs Mp3's

R

Rusty K

New member
Some of you here are streaming your tunes. I thought that music streaming required encoding to RealAudio, ra format, which I do from my band's webpage. But in listening to some other's tunes here in the Mp3 clinic, my Media Player opened and after a minute or two of buffering played the song. My Real Audio Player never buffers for that length of time even for a 10 min. demo.

Are these Mp3's that are being streamed? How much difference is there between an Mp3 and an ra file?

Thanks
Rusty K
 
Difference between RA and mp3 is that RA caters to the lower end of the quality spectrum better than mp3 but both should stream or download the same with decent players.
BTW- all the stuff that you say 'streams' at my site is mp3.
 
drstawl,

So I just set up just as I would for Real Audio. Can you think of a reason for me to keep my Real Audio Player, Real Jukebox, and Real Producer since I'm now running the Media Player.

Thank you again drstawl. If you haven't heard it enough then let me say again how I appreciate the help from the more experienced folk here. As I learn I'll do my part to return the favor by passing my knowledge along as I can.

Rusty K
 
MP3s WILL stream at a low bit rate

but there is a new sheriff in town and his name is .asf (this windows media player format only just out a few months ago).If you set up your mp3 at a high enough bit-stream rate to get good fidelity,it will only stream over ISDN or better.Drop the stream under 56kbps for dialup modems and quality turns into "tin can" sound.
But the new .asf is much smaller file sizes AND will stream with decent fidelity at 32kbps.
Tom
 
Tom,

How does it compare to Real Audio?
I already stream RA but was hoping for something more like an Mp3 quality.

I've downloaded an updated media package, I get update notification automatically with ME, but now I can't remember what all was in the package or where it's all located. Is it the codec 7 encoder I need and what else?

Thanks,
Rusty K
 
I think the collection of programs is called something like Windows Media Authoring Tools.The critical one is Windows Media Encoder.The sound is (in my opinion) better for the file size tham mp3.Source files for conversion can be waves,mp3 or just a live signal.You can stream live (like an internet radio station) or output to the .asf format.Using "metafiles" with .asx extension you can control the stream to make downloads impossible.If for instance you have copyrighted music that you are trying to sell and only want to let folks "taste" it without giving a free download away.Or if you are a hobbiest like me,the .asf format is a downloadable kind of the next generation in formats.I've been using .asf in preference to mp3 ever since the mp3.com court suit made so many servers get very wary of posting your mp3 even if you do have copyrights!
Tom
 
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