I"m currently ripping all my music into WMA Lossless. Is it safe to assume if I put this music on a CD it will remain in that format and will it sound as good as the original CD because it's in lossless format? And if I rip that CD to another computer in the same format will there be any quality loss?

It depends what you want to play it on. Most CD players can't handle WMA lossless.

I've got a Vista audio server with all my CDs ripped to WMA lossless, however when I burn anything to CD it gets converted back to normal CD format (whatever that's called).

Most CD players can't handle WMA lossless.

Does anyone know of a car deck that plays WMA lossless from a USB stick (or other memory card)?

Thanks,
Mike

It depends what you want to play it on. Most CD players can't handle WMA lossless.

I've got a Vista audio server with all my CDs ripped to WMA lossless, however when I burn anything to CD it gets converted back to normal CD format (whatever that's called).

But the conversion of WMA lossless to CD format and back to WMA lossless wouldn't hurt audio quality correct?

WMA lossless can be converted back to WAV files for burning onto CD's. Other lossless formats like FLAC can as well. And no you will not have any loss in quality it will be bit for bit the same.

You can certainly burn the data onto a CD as WMA Lossless, but unless you're going to use a player that supports WMA Lossless, the CD will be useless. Of course, you WILL be able to play it back on a computer.


But the conversion of WMA lossless to CD format and back to WMA lossless wouldn't hurt audio quality correct?
Why in the world would you want to do that?

You can certainly burn the data onto a CD as WMA Lossless, but unless you're going to use a player that supports WMA Lossless, the CD will be useless. Of course, you WILL be able to play it back on a computer.



Why in the world would you want to do that?

If I rip a CD to WMA lossless, then make a backup of it, and for whatever reason rip that backup in the future I want it to be as good as the original rip.

But the conversion of WMA lossless to CD format and back to WMA lossless wouldn't hurt audio quality correct?
Why in the world would you want to do that?
If I rip a CD to WMA lossless, then make a backup of it, and for whatever reason rip that backup in the future I want it to be as good as the original rip.
That's not what you asked. You asked about converting WMA Lossless files back to WAV (I presume this is what you are calling "CD format") and then back again to WMA Lossless.

What do you mean by "rip a CD to WMA lossless, then make a backup of it"? And how would you "rip that backup in the future", exactly? You're not making sense. "Ripping" is what it's called when you "rip" the music tracks off of a CD. The music from a "ripped CD" can be stored in ANY number of formats, be that WAV, MP3, WMA Lossless, etc.. You can certainly make a backup of the WMA Lossless files and convert them back to WAV in the future, but why would you ever convert them back to WAV and then back again to WMA Lossless?

That's not what you asked. You asked about converting WMA Lossless files back to WAV (I presume this is what you are calling "CD format") and then back again to WMA Lossless.

What do you mean by "rip a CD to WMA lossless, then make a backup of it"? And how would you "rip that backup in the future", exactly? You're not making sense. "Ripping" is what it's called when you "rip" the music tracks off of a CD. The music from a "ripped CD" can be stored in ANY number of formats, be that WAV, MP3, WMA Lossless, etc.. You can certainly make a backup of the WMA Lossless files and convert them back to WAV in the future, but why would you ever convert them back to WAV and then back again to WMA Lossless?

I don't know what's not making sense. First of all I'm fully aware of the definition of the word rip. I'm going to rip my CD collection, as well as a few CDs I've borrowed from friends of mine, into WMA Lossless so I can A) Have a convenient digital catalog of my music and B) have all my music in a lossless format to transfer to a Zune I plan to buy.

I'll probably back up some of the CDs that I don't own on to CDs in regular CD format. I don't know what the hell regular CD format is, that's part of what I'm asking here. When I burn those WMA lossless files to a CD do they remain in lossless format or is it just like any regular off the shelf CD?

I'm then asking if in the future I rip one of those CDs that I burned the lossless files to will the audio quality remain the same as the ORIGINAL CD?

I didn't want to bore everyone with the details of why I'm doing this that's why I didn't explain this all in detail. I figured people would understand what I'm doing without me explaining why I'm doing it, I guess I wasn't clear enough, I apologize for that. Now do you get what I'm saying?

When I burn those WMA lossless files to a CD do they remain in lossless format or is it just like any regular off the shelf CD?
You can convert them back to WAV (what a CD is) prior to or as you're burning them, or you can simply burn them onto discs as data as WMA Lossless files. But the utility of a CD of WMA Lossless files would be limited to a player that could read WMA Lossless files. A computer's CD drive could read WMA Lossless files off a CD so they could be played back directly via a computer.


I'm then asking if in the future I rip one of those CDs that I burned the lossless files to will the audio quality remain the same as the ORIGINAL CD?
Again, I'm not sure what you're asking here. What does "rip one of those CDs that I burned the lossless files to" mean? If you have a CD of WMA Lossless files, or you have WMA Lossless files on your computer, you can convert those files back to WAV and burn a "CD" with them.


Yes, theoretically, you can convert between WAV and WMA Lossless and back to WAV with no loss of audio quality. Be aware, however, that certain aspects of the music on the CD, such as segues from one song into another, may be lost in that process.


But if you want to burn CD copies of your friend's CDs, now, just rip and burn them as WAVs; no reason to go through WMA Lossless.

You can convert them back to WAV (what a CD is) prior to or as you're burning them, or you can simply burn them onto discs as data as WMA Lossless files. But the utility of a CD of WMA Lossless files would be limited to a player that could read WMA Lossless files. A computer's CD drive could read WMA Lossless files off a CD so they could be played back directly via a computer.



Again, I'm not sure what you're asking here. What does "rip one of those CDs that I burned the lossless files to" mean? If you have a CD of WMA Lossless files, or you have WMA Lossless files on your computer, you can convert those files back to WAV and burn a "CD" with them.


Yes, theoretically, you can convert between WAV and WMA Lossless and back to WAV with no loss of audio quality. Be aware, however, that certain aspects of the music on the CD, such as segues from one song into another, may be lost in that process.


But if you want to burn CD copies of your friend's CDs, now, just rip and burn them as WAVs; no reason to go through WMA Lossless.

You've got it figured out, I want to know if ripping one of my burnt CDs will sound as good as the rip of the original. Which you pretty much answered. Thanks very much :)

Anyway I would rip as WAVs unfortunately the Zune I plan to get won't play WAV files, it will however play WMA Lossless.

New question, can anyone recommend a good program to reencode my WMA Lossless files into FLAC and/or WAV in the future if I, for whatever reason (which I honestly don't know what that reason would be), should decide I need and/or want my music in one of those file formats.

Guys, CD's do not store audio in WAV format. WAV is a particular way of encoding PCM audio which is very different from the way CD's store PCM audio. See here for the basics of how CD's store audio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(audio_CD_standard)

Among the major differences between WAV and CD-DA format is that CD-DA stores an enormous amount of error-correction information (I believe 1 error correction bit for every 3 data bits).

So yes, both WAV and CD-DA are ways of storing uncompressed PCM audio, but they aren't the same at all.

Guys, CD's do not store audio in WAV format. WAV is a particular way of encoding PCM audio which is very different from the way CD's store PCM audio. See here for the basics of how CD's store audio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Book_(audio_CD_standard)

Among the major differences between WAV and CD-DA format is that CD-DA stores an enormous amount of error-correction information (I believe 1 error correction bit for every 3 data bits).

So yes, both WAV and CD-DA are ways of storing uncompressed PCM audio, but they aren't the same at all.

I actually figured that out this morning, I got curious so I read through the Wikipedia articles on WAV, PCM, and Redbook Audio. I think I have a pretty good understanding of all that now.

I am curious though, other than for use with PMPs what is the purpose of encoding in other Lossless codecs as opposed to WAV? Does WAV just use a lot more space?

Also I'll say again if anyone has any recommendations for programs to convert WMA Lossless into WAV or other lossless codecs like FLAC I'd really appreciate it. Again thanks for all the info so far guys I really appreciate it. It might help to know this stuff since I'm an audio engineering major :p.

I am curious though, other than for use with PMPs what is the purpose of encoding in other Lossless codecs as opposed to WAV? Does WAV just use a lot more space?


Yes, the advantage of the lossless compressors is saving space. WAV files are roughly twice as large as their compressed versions will be, if you're using a decent lossless compressor. Most of the current lossless codecs seem very similar in the compression ratios they ultimately achieve; the difference in file size between any two compressors is typically just a few percentage points.


Also I'll say again if anyone has any recommendations for programs to convert WMA Lossless into WAV or other lossless codecs like FLAC I'd really appreciate it. Again thanks for all the info so far guys I really appreciate it. It might help to know this stuff since I'm an audio engineering major :p.

I use iTunes on a Mac so I can't help you there. :)

I actually figured that out this morning, I got curious so I read through the Wikipedia articles on WAV, PCM, and Redbook Audio. I think I have a pretty good understanding of all that now.

I am curious though, other than for use with PMPs what is the purpose of encoding in other Lossless codecs as opposed to WAV? Does WAV just use a lot more space?

Also I'll say again if anyone has any recommendations for programs to convert WMA Lossless into WAV or other lossless codecs like FLAC I'd really appreciate it. Again thanks for all the info so far guys I really appreciate it. It might help to know this stuff since I'm an audio engineering major :p.

I can't point you to any software that I know for sure converts from WMA L --> FLAC directly (you might google around to see if it exists -- I do know foobar2000 has a WMA plugin but I don't know if it supports WMA lossless) but if you can convert WMA-L to WAV there are any number of FLAC encoders available to convert WAV to FLAC. E.g. Flac Frontend + flac.exe from the FLAC website.

Alright thanks. I just found a tool from MS that converts WMA to WAV so I guess I'm futureproofed. Thanks all.