Re: arsclist Digital knowledge preservation

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 18-Jun-02, Mike Richter wrote:

> There is lossless compression available for digital audio. Two options
> are MonkeysAudio (my choice) and Shorten. I verified that there were
> no losses by compressing a file, uncompressing it, and comparing the
> result with the original. They are identical at the bit level.

This one is free and open source
http://flac.sourceforge.net/

but I haven't tested it.





> However, the available compression is only of the order of a factor of
> two. Whether that is sufficient to be worthwhile and whether the code
> is likely to be available indefinitely or for different platforms are
> factors in the choice. For my purposes, lossless as well as lossy
> compression has its place.

> The cost of the medium per se is no longer a substantial issue. The
> cost of managing it - storing, indexing, accessing - is far greater in
> practice.
> 
> Note that in many contexts I refer to the MP3 discs as catalogues of
> the originals. Thought of in that light, their role is easier to
> recognize. They are (cross-)indexed representations of the archival
> material. Fidelity is sufficient for the purpose just as a catalogue
> of an art exhibit is sufficient for its purpose - and no one would
> confuse the representation in the catalogue with the original.

Good point. And there will be formats with better compression than MP3.

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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