2007 ripping/encoding general poll Options

[guruboolez]

With the agreement of Synthetic Soul, I started a new bunch of polls. As explained in a private message, I'd like to see a more rationalized usage of polls, with a fixed duration. Polls are interesting to see how what tools they're using at home. But a succession of identical polls could also teach us how people are changing with time. It could interest people fond of statistics but it could also give to developers (especially lossless' ones) good information about the popularity of their product.

This poll merge the two most popular questions into one single topic. Please answer to all questions when it's possible. Even if you rarely use a lossy or a lossless format, tell us which one you prefer to perform this rare task.

N.B. As said, the opening period should now be fixed but the duration haven't been set. It could be one new poll per year, or two polls/year, or one each quarter.


link to previous polls (2006):
• your lossy codec of choice in 2006
• your lossless codec of choice in 2006


N.B. I deliberately ignore some possible answers (like mp3pro, vqf, LA, TTA) based on results obtained in the last poll. I already add TAK lossless encoder even if it's not available for the public. Future voters could therefore give their voice to this promising encoder. The formats are sorted by popularity (results of last polls).

P.S. This thread's right place belongs to the "poll" forum but I don't own the right to directly create it at the right place.

This post has been edited by guruboolez: Jan 2 2007, 00:33

[Synthetic Soul]

With the agreement of Synthetic Soul, I started a new bunch of polls.

This started with a discussion in the 2006 lossless poll. guruboolez and I agree that a fixed term poll, preferably with a short duration (3 or 6 months in my opinion), will provide a more accurate representation of users' preferences.

The current TAK situation is a good example: If the majority of voters vote before TAK is released, and then many start using it, if the poll is left open for a year or more (2005's was open for twenty months) the poll will not accurately reflect usage for 2007. If two or four polls are taken in that time the migration is well documented.

The idea to join the two is a good one; I think the number of votes already reflects that. I agree with one poster that perhaps "I don't use any" should be a separate option so all such votes to that question can be "discounted". I could add the option now if you want guruboolez, but it should probably wait until the next one, considering the number of votes already.

I told guruboolez that I would be interested in the image vs tracks question, but I'm afraid that the votes are being polluted by users that only rip to lossy. I mean, 99% of people use tracks for listening, we're more interested in your archive/lossless version. Maybe only people who use lossless should answer the question, and an option added for a null vote?

For my part I use LAME -V5 --vbr-new for general playing (car stereo, Nano Plus, PC) and WavPack image with cuesheet for my archive. I use EAC with REACT to rip, and foobar2000 to play and manage my files.

Good work guruboolez, and kudos for geting this so close to the start of the year!

[guruboolez]

I agree with one poster that perhaps "I don't use any" should be a separate option so all such votes to that question can be "discounted". I could add the option now if you want guruboolez, but it should probably wait until the next one, considering the number of votes already.

As you wish. I guess that will reset the poll but revoting shouldn't be too hard
I already had the possibility to split the last aswer (10 answers are allowed) but I hesitated and finally merged both into a single one. I originally tried to avoid or limit 'ghost' answers - you know, all answers that only end with 1 or 2‰ of voters and which can't therefore be considered as totally useless. My choice seems to be valid but only for the lossy part; for lossless it seems that an important part of voters don't use lossless - hence the 10% after 160 votes. The poll is only 12 hours old; voting a second time is just a matter of few seconds so I guess it shouldn't be annoying for most people to vote again. Editing the title (provisionally) could be worth :
2007 ripping/encoding poll [UPDATED 02/01/07: VOTE AGAIN] or something like that.

What do you think?

And if you see something else to change (poor wording, etc...) especially on the thirs poll: don't hesitate.



This post has been edited by guruboolez: Jan 2 2007, 12:43