I got a Sansa e260 for free and i want to put my music on it and i plan on using windows media player 11. I want to know what is better MP3 or WMA. Is windows media players mp3 codec any good. Please help.

I'm not an expert in this or even close to being one but most likely you'll have the experts telling you to use LAME.

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I wouldn't use WMA because it has all the disadvantages of a next-gen format (= low compatibility), but doesn't perform as well as the others (Vorbis, AAC, Musepack). I don't have the links to any listening tests on hand, but I remember that's what the tests showed.

The easiest option if definitely to use MP3. If you use a high bit rate (192 kb/s and over) it won't make much of a difference if you use Fraunhofer (the embedded Windows Media Player encoder) or LAME.

But if you want to use lower bit rates, or VBR, LAME could provide better quality.

i think the wmp 11 mp3's sound good a 256kbps

LAME is the gold standard for MP3 encoding, but at high bitrates the odds that you can ABX a LAME rip from a WMP rip are low.

As for MP3 vs. WMA, just use MP3 for compatibility/portability's sake. There's not practical technical advantage to using WMA if you don't have to.

The quality of WMA makes little difference if in the future you'll be faced with files that don't play at all. Because only Windows Media and ffmpeg can play WMA files.

Not that I'm an advocate, but this is pretty disingenuous. WMA is quite ubiquitous, especially when it comes to hardware support. WMA Pro is a different story.

I've had very good results with WMA 2-pass VBR ~128kbps using Windows Media Encoder. I don't know if ripping from within Windows Media Player can do 2-pass.

Very true. WMA may not be the leading format people listen to, but MS did a good job of getting hardware support for it embedded into just about every non-Apple device out there. I daresay it's second only to MP3 in support, and a close second at that, but I don't have any numbers.

Well, 3rd behind MP3 and AAC considering Apple's market share... but yeah it's certainly ubiquitous enough not to worry about playback support.

Doesn't Rockbox have WMA playback? WMA on an iPod, so wrong but yet so possible...

If you want to talk installed base, sure. But in terms of the number of unique product types that support the format, WMA wins.

Right. There are many, many low cost DVD players that can handle WMA files as well as the Xbox 360, PS3, and PSP. Not to mention all the low cost car CD decks and $50 DAPs at Wal-Mart and Best Buy. I have got to give AAC a lot of credit though in that the popularity of the iPod has fueled its support. Last time I checked at Best Buy, there were 17 out of 35 car CD decks that played AAC data files and about 11 DVD players out of 26 that played AAC files as well. That and other companies such as Creative and Microsoft are ensuring AAC compatibility with their devices. I still think it is easier to stay clear of all this and simply just encode with Lame mp3 since mp3 is still considered the universal lossy audio format.