[The Captain]

I feel the same way, which is why I usually don't download music in the first place. 128kbps is just not enough. Most songs encoded in 128kbps either have annoying clicks/pops or the drums in the background have a wishy-washy sound to them.

One of my friends pointed me to a Russian pay site where you could specify the bitrate for the song you were buying, but I lost the link.

 

[The Captain]

I don't know what's your problem with 128 kbps music ? 128 is ok for me , very good . But yes I know they are bad compared to 192 and above ones .

I'm just very picky when it comes to audio... <looks at his 5.1 system >

 

[The Captain]

Isn't there a decompressor for this kind of thing? I don't know for sure, but don't programs that rip the music compress and remove quality?

It's the same for downloading pirated movies, people compress the files and they lose quality. But you can use special plugins with an MPEG encoder called VirtualDub to remove the compression, getting a full quality movie, uncompressed and as good quality as it was made from.

Of course, then there's the problem of FINDING the plugin. I can't seem to find it, but I know it exists, so anyone who does know please redirect me.

Umm, I don't think you can decompress most types, such as mp3. In the encoding process, you actually lose data. For example, the encoding program uses the bitrate assigned to it to accurately similate the original file as close as possible. The music/movie file itself doesn't get compressed.

To think of it in another way, movie and music players such as winamp and wmp decompress the audio/video into a playable form on the fly when you play them.

 

[The Captain]

hey that site someone just submited is it good and legal and not a credit card fraud website.. has anyone used it

That was the russian site I mentioned earlier. I know some people who have used it, but I can't say I trust Russian sites, considering that Russia is known for having elite hackers.