Basic questions

[wvpinballguy]

After looking around for a while, I still haven't found enough answers to some questions. I'd like to put together a system with a touchscreen and maybe SK Jukebox. Rather than using a cabinet, the touchscreen would be accessable, and the PC tucked away with the audio system.
 Since I'm much more interested in sound quality than the ability to store more music, won't storing my music as WAV files on a big HD work OK? Other than getting a jukebox program that works with WAV, any issues? A P3 or better, and a good sound card are planned.
 I don't understand what tags or skinning are, or if I need either. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks, Mark

[More_Beer]

I plan on going with a lossless format for my next jukebox also. Lossless meaning no loss of quality.

Tags, or ID Tags, is information stored within each file, such as artist, song title, album title, year, genre...etc. Like MP3's for example.

I'm pretty sure WAV does not support this, but there is another lossless format called FLAC (as in song_name.flac) It supports this tagging concept.

I'd recommend you check out nordbeats jukebox if you haven't already done so...pretty cool touch screen program.

http://www.nordbeat.com/

So yeah, no probs with goin with a WAV library if you want too. Especially with the price of hard drives these days.

[Space Fractal]

I also recommed FLAC, since it just a compressed files, like zip does (but is a LOTS better to doing that task).

Look on the wiki to checkout wich format they support:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Jukebox_Software

You can even try WMA, wich should support loseless compression as well, but I dosen

[wvpinballguy]

 Great, my first post here, and you guys give me FLAC. I'll check into that.
Thanks!

[Crafty]

Great, my first post here, and you guys give me FLAC.

 

Seeing as we are talking about  lossless format but not wanting to hijack the post.

Is there a minimum compression from CD to say MP3 or WAV that will sound acceptable from a juke box or is the feeling that no compression should be the standard.
I have huge numbers of MP3 about 60GB and was wondering about further expanding this with the 700+ CD's that I have.
There is no point converting CD's down if they are going to sound inferior especially as I am toying with the idea of losing the Cd format altogether...

[Barry Barcrest]

In 99.9% of cases MP3's will sound fine for music playback. It is anoying that there is this .1% of people that still refuse to use them and claim the sound quality is not up to the task. If you really feel that you are going to notice a difference then rip one of your CD's using audio grabber and try some of the higher bitrates..

320 down to 128 and see for yourself what the quality is like. I doubt many people have a set up audiophile enough to notice any difference until you get bellow 192, however it is just my opinion which is why i suggest you try for yourself. You should be able to rip a CD in a couple of minutes to check the differences in compression vs quality and i think it would be a worth while test.

[Space Fractal]

Today, the harddrive prices today is not a issue anymore, since they got cheeper and cheeper!

Even on a 250gb, you can have about 600 Flac based albums in full quality. Flac is simply better than Wav, because they can compress aboug 45-55% without a lose of quality. Not all cd is even on 72 minuttes.

Flac but advante is, they can burn back in full quality, if one of the cd is scracted and it can not use the original anymore.

Many users do not have so many cd's, so it should not been a issue. It simply depend type of collection, and they like to preserve the full quality. You can even hear the difficent in a losebased format, when they are played used on a hi-hi sound system.

[Barry Barcrest]

Many users do not have so many cd's, so it should not been a issue. It simply depend type of collection, and they like to preserve the full quality. You can even hear the difficent in a losebased format, when they are played used on a hi-hi sound system.

This is the real point though, most people do not have a sound system in the hi end catagory and the systems that the majority of people use mean that you will not notice a difference between hi quality mp3's and CD's... The majority of mobile DJ's over here use MP3's now and you just can't tell the difference. I agree if you have a cyrus hi fi and a turtle beach sound card with optical connections you might notice. I bet most people who play music off a pc do not even look at ohm ratings of speakers they are using let alone this type of stuff.

Another thing to remeber is if your CD's are not original then chances are they were degraded at some point anyway.

Sorry to go on but this kind of snobbery really gets me goat.

[wvpinballguy]

I have avoided buying or building a jukebox for years. Since I have put together a quality audio system in the gameroom, I know I wouldn't be happy with the sound from jukebox speakers. The ability to get pretty much 100% out of my CDs, plus selection via a touchscreen, really got my interest up. Guess I'm in the annoying .1%.
 I'm willing to try high bitrate MP3 recording, but FLAC or WAV looks more like what I want. While MP3s allow me to store more music, I'm personally looking for the best quality sound at a reasonable price. To me, the added cost for a bigger hard drive is a small price to pay. My next step will be to buy hardware, and select programs. Thanks for all the helpful advice.

[Space Fractal]

(don

[Barry Barcrest]

DVD vs DIVX  We'll end the argument there.. Since i am sure you are aware of the differences between Mpeg2 and Mpeg4....

[Space Fractal]

First, Barcrest, You are going to being more more respectless with your chooise of word, and beginng to call me snoopy and so on. What hell do you going on? It not like you!

So respect!

Yes, DVD use compressing, but DIVX movie IS compressed from DVD

[wvpinballguy]

Thanks again for the advice. I see that SK Jukebox will soon support FLAC. I think I'll try that first. Arcade Music Box also looks good, but I'm set on a touchscreen. I'm glad I found this group.

[Space Fractal]

Of course, Im dosen

[Barry Barcrest]

Sorry fractal i wasn't trying to upset you... When i mentioned MPEG2 and MPEG4 i was refering to DVD being MPEG 2 and DIVX being MPEG 4. Yes DIVX from DVD might loose quality but side by side from an uncompressed source i would prefer DIVX as this can be captured at a higher resolution for the same space and quality due to the compression being better...

I thought we were just having some light hearted banter, i didn't mean to upset you. Sorry if it cam across like that.

[Space Fractal]

Yes, it correct.

I refered the dvd vs divX, because most illigal/backup copies is normally taken out from dvd's. It was by typical use, and not about compressing.