[Informatics] RIP MP3

[Mark]

Hi Litsa and List,

I'm in the process of digitising about 400 audio cassettes containing
recordings of British radio comedy from the 1970s and 1980s.
(I belong to a secret society of old time radio enthusiasts. Shh. I've
already said too much.)

Just finding a decent cassette deck was tough enough. They are rare, and
getting rarer.
(Tip: The cassette-to-MP3 units you see on eBay and Aldi are *not* very
good.)

In a couple of decades, the ability to read audio cassettes may be arcane
magic, and all of their information may be lost.
Not long after, MP3 may be a quaint and unsupported format.
Does anyone else remember AVI/DIVX ?
I distinctly remember seeing the first discussion of Matroska (mkv) and
chuckling at the idea of *anything* competing with AVI.
Giants are quickly slain in the battlefield of media formats.

And yes, I *am* saving the digital audio files to FLAC.
Entropy cannot decrease. Information must be preserved.

Mark

On Thu, 20 Jul 2017 at 9:04 PM, Litsa Tzelepis <htzelepis at msj.vic.edu.au>
wrote:

> So sad ....
> I'm sticking to my tape deck.
> :-)
>
> On Thu, 20 Jul 2017 at 3:43 pm, Mark <mark at vceit.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all
>>
>> In case you had not noticed this milestone, MP3 is now officially dead.
>>
>>
>> http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-15/mp3-founders-terminate-licensing-program/8526292
>>
>> Long live (lossy) AAC.
>> But I prefer lossless FLAC.
>>
>> Because: who needs to compress audio in these days of multi-gigabyte
>> media player devices, 10TB hard disks, and broadband transmission speeds?
>> And if your device can't decode FLAC, you *really* need a new player.
>>
>> So, off you go. Avert the digital dark age.
>> Convert your MP3 files to another format before software makers discard
>> MP3 and the format becomes as unreadable as a 5.25" floppy disk.
>>
>> Yes, converting your lossy MP3 files to AAC will cost you a
>> generational loss of quality.
>> That's why lossless formats such as FLAC are preferable.
>>
>> Have fun
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> --
>>
>> Mark Kelly
>>
>> mark at vceit.com
>> http://vceit.com
>>
>> Powered by *losslessness.*
>>
>>
>>
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-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com

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