What determines which encoders/settings you use. (2011) Options

[antman]

Isn't this a new years tradition.

I thought instead of doing yet another "which lossy/lossless/bitrate do you use" poll, we'd do something a little different. I'm more interested in the reason why people use which encoders and settings they do.

And to start:

Lossy: Compatibility, MP3 (AAC tags have given me problems in the past, mostly on cell phones).
Lossless: Compatibility, FLAC (if a media player doesn't support FLAC, there's a plugin somewhere that will make it).
Encode: Absolutely pack out whatever mp3 player/cell phone I got. I can't ABX for shiznit. V5 most of the time, V4 when I'm feelin fancy

Compatibility can also be read as: compatibility with the devices I own.

I know there's gonna be a firestorm for leaving a quality as an option on lossy, but we're adults here. Let's be civil.

And maybe this way we'll a trend not just within codecs but for everyone that's on here.

[zombiewerewolf]

Lossy: Quality, AAC (Most electronic devices released in the past few years support AAC; DVD\Blu-ray players, Mobile phones, DAPs... There's no reason to stick with MP3 anymore).
Lossless: Compression, TAK (It's hard to beat TAK's compression/speed ratio. I also like the fact that the developer actively improves his codec).
Encode: Based On What I Can ABX, Since I fail to ABX even MP3@128kbps. So, just to be safe, I choose to encode one step further; AAC@160kbps.