Mp 3 Player Mp 3 Files Essay - 1,289 words

Two years ago, MP 3 was just another audio compression format. Today, it's a Net phenomenon that's at the center of an enormous controversy. That's because MP 3 makes it possible for people with an Internet connection to bypass record stores (and cashiers) and download CD-quality music by their favorite artists -- for free. MP 3 is great for music lovers and cheapskates, who can download funky tunes to their hearts' content without spending a dime; however, it's a nightmare for musicians and record companies, who can only watch helplessly as their profits drop into a digital black hole. MP 3 is short for MPEG- 1 Layer 3 (Moving Pictures Expert Group), a format for storing digital audio.


It uses an advanced type of audio compression which reduces the filesize with little reduction in quality. MP 3 is used particularly for music distribution over the Internet, but is also use for other purposes such as real-time digital audio transmissions over ISDN (used by reporters). MPEG- 1 has been around since 1992, but during he last few years (1998 / 99) it has started to get widespread attention from regular media and ordinary users. An MP 3 file (or simply "an MP 3 ") is a file that contains MP 3 -compressed sound data. It is played using an MP 3 player. You can recognize MP 3 files by their file-extension (the end of the filename), which is ." mp 3 ." MP 3 was invented by Fraunhofer IIS leading organization of applied research in Germany In a joint cooperation with the University of Erlangen (Prof.


Dieter Seitzer) under the sponsorship of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and formalized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The original 50 MB wave file (about 5 minutes of CD quality audio) MP 3 -compressed will end up as an MP 3 file using only about 5 megabytes of space with little or no audible loss in quality. The size depends on the length of the song and the bitrate (quality). The data is automatically decompressed while the MP 3 is being played. How is it possible to do this you ask? Well, I won't get into the technical details, but basically the MP 3 encoder removes the parts of the sound not audible to the human ear.


This means that MP 3 is a 'lossy' type of compression (comparable to JPEG in the graphics area). This means that what comes out from your CD or Wave file is NOT the same thing that comes out of the MP 3 that has been created from the CD/Wav. The sound data that has been lost will not be returned if the MP 3 is decoded back to WAV. REQUIREMENTS You will first of all need a MP 3 player, players are available for all computer platforms.


If you are using Windows 95 / 98 /NT we can warmly recommend Winamp, the most common MP 3 player. It also supports a lot of other audio formats, like WAV, MID, MOD and CD audio. Another well-known player is Sonique. Winamp has a very simple interface that can be used by anybody who has operated a CD player. To load an MP 3 in Winamp, use the button (in Winamp) that looks like it would open a CD tray, or just double-click the MP 3 file you want to play. The reason why it has been so successful is undoubtedly due to its simple, attractive look, its numerous options and the fact that it is a shareware program with no limits on the number of functions To play the MP 3 s will need a soundcard (preferably 16 -bit), speakers or headphones (preferably good ones) and at least a 486 processor.


Three major MP 3 sites are Lycos MP 3 Search Engine, MP 3. com, and Rio Port. com. Realizing the succ ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: hard disk, digital audio, mp 3 format, mp 3 files, mp 3 player

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