Neither WMP or windows recognize the VBR I'm ripping

[crashwg]

I'm following the guide at the top of this forum written up by DrewKaree which he got from Maxim.  Well, mostly following it.  I'm using a more updated lame because I've read that the current version is better.

I've selected "Variable Bitrate 192 kBit/s" as the highest VBR setting available.

After ripping and encoding a CD I check the properties of a song on my laptop it claims the song is 474 kbps, my desktop claims it's 192 and WMP on the same PC says 190.

I'm considering going back to my original plan of ripping everything at 320 CBR... 

[edit]
my SanDisk Sansa recognizes the VBR...
[/edit]

[GadgetGeek]

Since HD space is cheap, I ripped everything to FLAC and then modified a perl script to batch convert to MP3 to slap on my iPod.  So if my compression choices change in the future, I can just re-convert to whatever format is appropriate at that time.

[crashwg]

While I appreciate your input, and agree with your logic, I am very limited on funds so being able store 3-4 times the amount of music into the same space is a big deal.
Some other reasons I will be sticking to MP3 are that it is one of, if not the, most common compression formats available for audio with support for it found in 99% of consumer products that play audio files and also that encoded well, I can not tell the difference between the MP3 and the CD it was ripped from.

Since my original posting I have found some info on the web that states that WMP is absolute garbage when it comes to VBR and that it doesn't display bitrate or track time correctly.  I've downloaded winamp since then and it has been fluctuating the bitrate display as would be expected so it seems I am doing something right with my ripping.

It still is a PITA that windows doesn't show that MP3s are VBR though...  Some show up as 320, 256, 229, 232, 224.  Stupid M$!

[richms]

Considering that windows cant even handle tags properly, nothing surprises me about its display.

[DrewKaree]

Sorry I missed this.  IIRC, the reason it's showing up as something higher than 192 is the max bitrate it compresses to and how Windows then interprets the file.  Unless you use some of the more arcane switches in EAC, you'll compress to higher bitrates than 192 at certain times within the song, and lower bitrates at others, and average out to 192. 

Windows and WMP both deal with this phenomenon in different ways, as you've found out, and while it's puzzling, they should still handle the file just fine (it's just annoying that they want to interpret things their own way).

Oh, and you might wanna check out Foobar.  I dunno what your needs are, but Foobar is a stellar player.  Learning curve, but worth it (again, depending on your needs)

*edit*
And it was MaximumPC   I'd hate for anyone here to head to Maxim's site and get "sidetracked" looking for music help