Ok I have lurked for awhile, used the search function, and still can't find definitive answers to what I am looking for. Probably a little bit dense too


I just ripped 90gigs of hiphop onto my HD using WMA9 Lossless audio. I don't wish to keep it on there b/c its taking too much space, but I do wish to keep the format. So...

1) do you guys rip to DVD in case your HD goes down and you don't want to rip your collection again?
2) if i burn as wma lossless files to dvd, do i lose anything in the burning process?
3) really noobish, can i at a later time, put some music back on my HD and switch the format to mp3 for my portable player? ( i think yes, and i will lose some sound quality)
4) this seems like a pro flac forum, and maybe i should have gone that way, but i just started ripping with wmp9 before really coming here, and it defaulted to wma lossless (yes i double checked) aside from lack of support out there, is this file close to or equivalent of other lossless files?
5) can i use foobar2000 which i have or winamp which i have to convert my tracks at a later time to mp3?


ok, too tired right now to ask anything else, but i am sure i have forgotten something.....

feel free to post your opinions, keep in mind i am not likely to go through 7 days of continuous cd ripping unless someone can tell me unequivicably (spelling?) that wma lossless just blows

cheers, and thanks in advance for all the info i am hoping to receive!

• Have a look at this thread. The lifetime of burned optical media is usually low. I believe your best bet is to back up on an offline hard drive. This is also cheaper per GB until the blu-ray media comes out (don't know their prices). Here is another related thread.
• During burning the files might be corrupted in rare cases due to a media or memory problem. Moreover all optical media get corrupted within a few years. For that purpose you might want to use PAR2 recovery files. Read about PAR here. I don't know how an optical media usually goes bad (i.e. entirely or file by file). But I think when it does PARing would still rarely help. Here's another related thread. There's also a dead CD thread here.
• Yes, because you have the lossless originals.
• Have a look at the lossless codec comparison. I think Wavpack and FLAC are regarded as the top contenders here. All lossless encoders are lossless so the result is bit identical to the original no matter which one you choose. The difference is all in the efficiency of the algorithm (i.e. new file size), what platforms it is supported, etc. Using WMP as your ripping software, you might incur loss due to ripping errors causing pops and clicks -- because it is not as good a ripper as EAC, CDex, cdparanoia, etc.
• There are tons of software to convert any format to another. Since you have it in lossless you can easily convert to another lossless format (with no loss) or into a lossy format (like mp3) as if it were ripped from the original CD.

Thanks for your post....i had a chance to read those threads.....

As for which seems to be best for lossless, really i get the impression its a matter of opinion. I can't imagine many have the ears to differentiate the difference, or am i wrong?

just to clarify, you state that once in lossless format, i can then switch to another lossless format w/out and loss in qauality?

i guess i should dump all that i have done and rip again with a better ripper than the WMP that i used b/c there is no point having any more pops than necessary.

OK, now i am trying to use EAC....for whatever reason no matter the setting i use for gap detection ....nothing happens? help?