Entries tagged as personal mp3 player

No, lossless compression has nothing to do with liposuction as someone asked me just recently. Obviously this person was just being cheeky. Lossless compression is a process quite similar to what people who enjoy listening to digital music do when they encode their favorite songs into compressed format.

The difference lies in how much data is kept intact. When you encode a song from a compact disc into mp3 or Windows Media Audio (WMA) or AAC, about 90% of all the data from the original track is thrown away in order to compress the file down to a fraction of the original size. This is lossy compression.

Lossless compression on the other hand, compresses the original file size down to only about 60-75%. Quite bulky still as compared to the significantly pared down mp3's or WMA's. But nothing is thrown away. Yes, no data is lost. This is lossless compression. And if you'd like to store your original music in smaller files but without losing any of the original data, then this is the format for you.

The Creative Technology Corporation of Singapore is probably the de facto name in PC sound cards. Their brand Sound Blaster is to sound cards as Rolls Royce is to luxury automobiles. The high-end Sound Blaster cards can be used to set up a home theater system. Their marketing spin (which I find grossly exaggerated and outright impossible) is that these cards can make mp3's sound better than compact discs.

Not too many people probably realize it, but Creative manufactured the first personal mp3 players. I recall buying the very first Creative Nomad mp3 player I'd say around ten years ago. But it seemed like somewhere along the way, their creative process stopped which opened the door for Apple's Ipod to take over the digital music world.