I'm thinking of reencoding my cd collection at a lower bitrate for use on my iPod to fit more songs. I was wondering if I should re-rip my cd's to do this or if there is a process by which I can reencode(or whatever it would be called) or just do a reencode, my current files to a lower bitrate? I'm using Nero's codec.

thanks!

If you start with a lossly encoded source file and encode it again at a lower rate it will sound worse than if you encode that same lower rate it from a lossless source (like ripping from a CD). Heck if you start with a lossly source and tried to encode it at a higher bitrate it will still sound worse then the original! The moral of the story is each time you encode in a lossly format you are loosing quality and each subsiquent reencoging will only add to those losses.

While that is true, you're also doing it to stick the files on an iPod and listen to them with cheap headphones or earbuds or something. A single transcode to a lower bitrate for a specific reason isn't going to significantly impact quality (excepting that it'll be at a lower bitrate of course). Yes, repeatedly doing it is bad, but one time? Meh.

Steve: Re-encoding an already encoded file is called "transcoding". Search the forum for that term for more information about it.