Should Apple add WMA suppot on the iPod?

[Arden]

I think this has been discussed already... Apple doesn't want to add WMA support *at all* because it would give credibility to Microsoft's proprietary standard, instead of pushing for open standards across the board.

And I know exactly how music compression works, I was saying someone should make a program to analyze what was thrown out of a song and where there is compression and then convert the information that is there into the other format.

[pds]

huh?

I was interested in the discussion about the conversion. I agree with Fryke, though Chevy makes sense too.

But... HUH?

How do you analyze what was thrown out? How do you analyze what is not there?

[theed]

you can't export the file if it's a purchased WMA. Just like you can't export a .m4p file from the iTMS. It's not a technical issue, it's philosophical one. What do you do when trying to convert someone else's DRM. Either you're violating the DRM (which may be illegal) or you let the customer get bound to a closed system, most likely losing their investment eventually when that systems collapses, which is immoral though probably legal in all business centric government run countries.

yeah, ok, starting to ramble and get angry, let me reign myself back in here...

So the reason there isn't a WMA importer is the same reason there isn't an AAC to mp3 path for purchased music from the iTMS.

The technical side is this: in order to convert the data you will need to decode the WMA and re-encode the AAC. It is no different from re-ripping, or from grabbing the data straight form the sound card when it plays and encoding that. Which is WHY DRM is such a big joke in audio anyway because anyone who really wants the sound can get it. Keeping the peons in check though is the big part of this fight, and in that DRM like WMA & iTMS is A-OK. Pardon my TLA's.

WMA's currently use a wavelet compression (usually anyway, there are a few codecs in there to my understanding) similar to ogg.vorbis and AAC. The sound quality is generally similar.

So, I think the iPod should start supporting WMA as soon as the WMA spec is released for public usage, encoding and decoding can be done at no charge by third parties on their own software, and then Apple can talk to M$ and work out the details of DRM when converting formats. Under no circumstances should Apple give money to license WMA. Windows Media doesn't offer much if anything over mp4, so it should go away as it is the less compatible standard.

[Arden]

PDS, I have no idea how to do it, or if it's even possible. I imagine it might be like looking at a JPEG and trying to determine what data you have, and transporting that data to another JPEG of the same quality without losing any image quality.

Do you get what I'm saying? It would be processing a sound file to a different format while keeping the same level of audio quality instead of just re-ripping it as Theed described.

[pds]

Yeah, the point Chevy's making is that it is not re-ripping, just re-coding which makes some sense.

I wonder why Apple settled on AAC as the moniker for the codec. People are dumb (in general) and they would see mp4 as better than mp3 without difficulty. Then the only thing needed would be to say that wma is modified mp3, that mp4 is better, and the conversion question is moot.

[Arden]

I believe it stands for Advanced Audio Codec, while the extension is because it's MPEG Level 4. I'm not sure how they figure either... AAC sounds better, though, I think.

[bookem]

In a word:

NO!

What he said.......NO!

[ocelot]

supporting wma will allow users to use roxio's music downloading program with their ipods (as opposed to itunes'), and will also enforce microsoft's ability to create their own standard because they own such a large share.
no way will apple support this. i think every effort to force people to go away from microsoft's own standards is a good effort.

I think it depends how it all pans out - if, in the future, Apple is making more money selling music than iPods then I would think they'd not care to support it... but if they're making more money selling iPods then they'll support everything just to sell more iPods - john.