[mdlug] DRM Wal-Mart

[Michael]

The comment is uninformed. In all reality if size isn't a factor MP3s can be
completely lossless. It is true that there are other formats that have
better compression for sound files, but the recommended FLAC is unsupported
by a lot of major media players (iTunes being one of them). FLAC is open and
highly compressed (think of it like ogg), but what can you do when most
consumers can't easily play it.

In all reality you can't hear the difference between 128k and 320k on 60
percent of all stereo systems people listen to now-a-days (ipods, car
radios, stock sound cards). Apple sells it's stuff at 192k. My dad works in
a recording studio and they output at ~242k (Varible Bitrate Rate) for their
MP3 customers because that handles 99.9% of all sound that they output.

Mp3s have issues with variable bitrate, but at 320k they can handle most of
everything. They are widely supported and they don't have any DRMs on them.
It would be as poor of a business decision for Wal-Mart to switch to FLAC as
it would be to ostracize Firefox users... Only my bet is the typical Firefox
Linux user isn't considered Wal-mart.com's customer base, whereas users who
don't use FLAC are.



On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 1:25 PM, gib at juno.com <gib at juno.com> wrote:

>
> This article talks about Wal-Mart Digital Rights Management (DRM) effort.
> They will only use MP3 format music.
>
> http://technologyexpert.blogspot.com/2008/04/wal-mart-switches-to-mp3-format-only.html
> I see a comment that someone entered that complains about the MP3 format.
> So, what format should I use for music?
>
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