MP3 KBPS

[jstevens]

I use Musicmatch Jukebox to create MP3 files some are recorded at 128 kbps and others at a lower rate. I would like to take those files of a lower rate and convert them to 128. Unfortunately I don't know which files were recorded at the lower rate. Is there something in W2K that will allow me to see the kbps?

One other thing..is it possible to find which files are MP3Pro vs MP3?

Thanks,
John

[WyllyWylly]

Well, before you think about converting them - you're not going to gain anything by doing so. MP3 is a lossy format, so if the original audio is encoded at a lower bitrate, the compression throws away some zeros and ones. There isn't anything that I know of that will reconstruct a complex audio signal and fill in the missing information.

Windows Media Player 9 is a free download for Windows 2000, and its library functions should give you much better control and more detail than anything that's built into the operating system. I believe, though, that if you hover over the file in Explorer while it's in the tile view (the default) that you will see the bitrate information. I don't have a 2000 machine at the moment to check my theory, but it's simple enough to try.

[Bruce K]

Hi, John ~<UL><LI>Right-click on the MP3 > 'Properties'<LI>'Summary' tab > 'Advanced' button<LI>Scroll down to 'Audio' and you will see the bitrate[/list]

[diegol]

In addition to Bruce's directions, if you use Winamp, Version 2.x at least will display the compression rate in the main window, just to the right of the Time display. If you see a number (say, 64, 128), that means the file was created with a Constat Bit Rate (CBR). If the number 'goes crazy' (one second it's 64, then 128, later 192, etc), it means it was created with a Variable Bit Rate (VBR).
It's possible to reduce an mp3's size by compressing it at a lower bitrate (say, from 128 Kbps to 64 Kbps), but as Mark says, it won't work the other way round, because the information that makes for the added quality is simply lost when you first converted a CD song track to a 64 Kbps mp3.