[Informatics] RIP MP3

Thu Jul 20 22:01:17 AEST 2017

Have done similar on a smaller scale. I lost part of two tapes to a
cassette-to-mp3 setup and then resurrected a cassette dictation unit which
has worked fine for me. I used good old Audacity and did store as higher
quality mp3 which is fine given the audio quality of the original tapes. 

Cassettes will vanish as have floppy disks but I am sure the mp3 format is
safe for some time. The main concern is the physical media used for storage.
All moving media, ie CDs, DVDs and HDDs will be replaced by solid state
storage. I'll be interested to see what becomes the preferred archival
storage medium for digital data.

Robert Hind
Ex Traralgon and Ashwood
Retired

  _____  

From: informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:informatics-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Thursday, 20 July 2017 9:31 PM
To: Year 12 VCE Informatics Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Informatics] RIP MP3

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-progr
am/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

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