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too much music....need more memory space

Posted: 27 Apr 2006, 08:46
by tnyper21
i have about six hundred songs on my media player its taking up too much memory do i compress the files with winrar? Could i lose all that music if i do it wrong? i know this is proably pretty simple and i seem like an idiot but im new and eager to learn. :P

Posted: 27 Apr 2006, 08:50
by Stavros
You have two choices. You can either convert them to .zip files but you won't be able to play them in that format, but you can store them, or you can convert them to .mp3 which will take up considerably less space than .wav files (assuming they are in .wav format).

zip this

Posted: 27 Apr 2006, 09:12
by DNR
if you chose your settings carefully, winzip, winrar, etc creates a -new- file, rather than overwriting the originals.

I guess the question should be, will you lose sound quality with certain compression schemes?

DNR

Posted: 27 Apr 2006, 10:15
by bad_brain
I don´t think compressing/decompressing the music file would lead to a loss of quality because only exactly the same sequences are replaced, else applications would be damaged too by compressing them.
but if the files are mp3s compressing makes no real sense anyway, because mp3s are already compressed. I tried it with a 3.72mb mp3 file, the smallest size I was able to produce was 3.68mb (7z-format, Ultra compression level).
so if you would compress 100 mp3s all you would get is space for 1-2 extra mp3s....
all you can do is decrease the bitrate of the mp3s, but this would lead to a quality loss (some say 128kbps is enough, but imo it´s 256kbps).

:wink:

Re: too much music....need more memory space

Posted: 28 Apr 2006, 08:16
by LaBlueGirl
bad_brain is correct.

I crashed my last computer b/c of too many .mp3 and .avi files heeheehee

Burn 'em to a disc.
Make it a data disc to have more room, instead of a "music" disc.
After you have them stored on a CD, delete them off your computer. Then, if you ever want to play them, pop the CD in.

backup your hard earned data often

Posted: 28 Apr 2006, 08:25
by DNR
lablue has a good point, if you have not used the 'program/file' in 6 months, its time to get it off your harddrive, use external storage, USB HD, CDRW, or even internet based portal. It is also a good idea to backup your files to another source in case your HD goes bellyup.

if ya got 10,000 songs, you'd have to listen to 417 songs a day to run through the list of mp3 every 23 days. Sounds like mp3 hell...

DNR