Comments on: Do I lose quality when I move a media file from one place to another? http://askowen.info/2008/06/do-i-lose-quality-when-i-move-a-media-file-from-one-place-to-another/ Your friendly neighbourhood geek Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:57:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: And in other blogs .. | Ugh!!'s Greymatter Honeypot http://askowen.info/2008/06/do-i-lose-quality-when-i-move-a-media-file-from-one-place-to-another/comment-page-1/#comment-2060 And in other blogs .. | Ugh!!'s Greymatter Honeypot Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:35:51 +0000 http://askowen.info/?p=200#comment-2060 [...] AskOwen: Do I lose quality when I move a file from one place to another? [...] [...] AskOwen: Do I lose quality when I move a file from one place to another? [...]

]]> By: Owen http://askowen.info/2008/06/do-i-lose-quality-when-i-move-a-media-file-from-one-place-to-another/comment-page-1/#comment-2058 Owen Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:03:58 +0000 http://askowen.info/?p=200#comment-2058 @Chris: Thanks for the comment. You're right of course. If there is some conversion process taking place, there is room for the same "noise" mentioned above caused by approximation in the conversion process. However, as Ronnie's question was about moving media files from one disk to another, I suspect he's not actually doing any conversion. @Chris: Thanks for the comment. You’re right of course. If there is some conversion process taking place, there is room for the same “noise” mentioned above caused by approximation in the conversion process.

However, as Ronnie’s question was about moving media files from one disk to another, I suspect he’s not actually doing any conversion.

]]> By: ChrisM http://askowen.info/2008/06/do-i-lose-quality-when-i-move-a-media-file-from-one-place-to-another/comment-page-1/#comment-2053 ChrisM Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:05:01 +0000 http://askowen.info/?p=200#comment-2053 One other thing to consider is whether you are indeed simply copying the file, or whether there is some conversion (from one digital format to another) going on in the process. For example, if when you copy a piece of music or video to your portable media player, it is _possible_ that the file format of the original requires your PC to convert it into a new version. This conversion will usually result in some loss of fidelity or raw data. One thing I remember finding a friend do back in the late 90s was re-ripping his 128Kbit MP3s to 320kbit... he was convinced that this would result in better quality sounds. If he had ripped the ORIGINAL MP3 @ 320kbit per second, from a CD or other HQ source, he would have been correct. However, when he ripped it to just 128kbit, the information lost, was just that... lost. No amount of fiddling (for all intents and purposes) with the bitrate after this step in the process would have helped. Anyway, good answer, and for most situations, it hits the nail on the head. An easy way to tell if your media is being converted, rather than directly copied to your portable media player, is the amount of time taken for the transfer to complete - compare this to copying the file to a thumbdrive or other external (non-hard magnetic drive)device. If the PMP xfer time is a lot higher, it might be worth checking what exactly is going on :) One other thing to consider is whether you are indeed simply copying the file, or whether there is some conversion (from one digital format to another) going on in the process. For example, if when you copy a piece of music or video to your portable media player, it is _possible_ that the file format of the original requires your PC to convert it into a new version. This conversion will usually result in some loss of fidelity or raw data.
One thing I remember finding a friend do back in the late 90s was re-ripping his 128Kbit MP3s to 320kbit… he was convinced that this would result in better quality sounds. If he had ripped the ORIGINAL MP3 @ 320kbit per second, from a CD or other HQ source, he would have been correct. However, when he ripped it to just 128kbit, the information lost, was just that… lost. No amount of fiddling (for all intents and purposes) with the bitrate after this step in the process would have helped.

Anyway, good answer, and for most situations, it hits the nail on the head. An easy way to tell if your media is being converted, rather than directly copied to your portable media player, is the amount of time taken for the transfer to complete – compare this to copying the file to a thumbdrive or other external (non-hard magnetic drive)device. If the PMP xfer time is a lot higher, it might be worth checking what exactly is going on :)

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