Kindle Unlimited becoming Kindle Plus

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's highly compressed MP3. No way is it film-quality sound. It very much sounds overly compressed.

Over the years, I've found 128kbps fixed rate MP3 to be good for podcasts, audiobooks, etc. I wouldn't use it for complex music but it's not that bad.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gbm

I recommend that you go and carefully reread my post--the compete post-- word for word.

bernie

You can take the MP3 and easily convert it to a WAV file. Just because something is in WAV does not mean it's a lossless format. When you buy audio and it comes in a lossless format, most of the time it will be available as FLAC. Sometimes you can also purchase in ALAC (Apple's lossless compression).

I don't get why BAEN would use WAV instead of FLAC if the WAV is lossless. Is the WAV lossless?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Over the years, I've found 128kbps fixed rate MP3 to be good for podcasts, audiobooks, etc. I wouldn't use it for complex music but it's not that bad.

128K is OK for voice only. But if the Audiobook has a sound effects and music, then it should be a higher bitrate then 128K.

GraphicAudio allows you to by lossless audiobooks in FLAC.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't get why BAEN would use WAV instead of FLAC if the WAV is lossless. Is the WAV lossless?

Jon, would you feel insulted if I suggested that you make use of Internet search engines before posting many of your questions?

Going back to the original definition of a .wav file:

Standard audio file container format used mainly in Windows PCs. Commonly used for storing uncompressed (PCM), CD-quality sound files, which means that they can be large in size—around 10 MB per minute.

Note that later variants allowed compression since .wav files use the Resource Interchange File Format to store information.

Note that .wav was introduced circa 1991 while .flac was invented in 2000 and not really available until 2001. Windows 3.1 could play .wav files natively while .flac required an external program.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Jon, would you feel insulted if I suggested that you make use of Internet search engines before posting many of your questions?

Going back to the original definition of a .wav file:


Note that later variants allowed compression since .wav files use the Resource Interchange File Format to store information.

Note that .wav was introduced circa 1991 while .flac was invented in 2000 and not really available until 2001. Windows 3.1 could play .wav files natively while .flac required an external program.

That definition of WAV is not fully accurate. You can have WAV of lossy audio. Just as FLAC can be lossy audio.

There is no reason not to use a different format then WAV. Nobody else sells audio in WAV.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Note that later variants allowed compression since .wav files use the Resource Interchange File Format to store information.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That definition of WAV is not fully accurate. You can have WAV of lossy audio. Just as FLAC can be lossy audio.

There is no reason not to use a different format then WAV. Nobody else sells audio in WAV.

Jon, did you read my post? Especially the section I've quoted above? The original WAV format was uncompressed PCM. The ability to embedded compressed audio was a later add-on.

As for not using a different format from WAV? Way back when WAV was first introduced, I was running OS/2 which allowed me to do other things with my computer while running the BBS in the background. In one of the updates, IBM allowed using WAV format audio files, with the same limits as Microsoft's implementation so uncompressed PCM was the only supported format.

I used variable bit rate MP3 for a while and then went to FLAC for my CD rips.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Apache

Authors should never read their works. Voice acting and storytelling are skills that narrators have practiced for many years so they can deliver an exciting story. There may be a few authors that could narrate their stories. They are probably few and far between.
Apache

Could not agree more. That's a strict no-go for me.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Apache

Authors should never read their works. Voice acting and storytelling are skills that narrators have practiced for many years so they can deliver an exciting story. There may be a few authors that could narrate their stories. They are probably few and far between.
Apache

Originally Posted by issybird

Could not agree more. That's a strict no-go for me.

I just bailed on a purchase recently when I noticed the author was the narrator. I've never consciously given such an audiobook a shot. I just know it seems like a terrible idea.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Jon, did you read my post? Especially the section I've quoted above? The original WAV format was uncompressed PCM. The ability to embedded compressed audio was a later add-on.

As for not using a different format from WAV? Way back when WAV was first introduced, I was running OS/2 which allowed me to do other things with my computer while running the BBS in the background. In one of the updates, IBM allowed using WAV format audio files, with the same limits as Microsoft's implementation so uncompressed PCM was the only supported format.

I used variable bit rate MP3 for a while and then went to FLAC for my CD rips.

I never said anything about WAV compression. I'm talking compression using FLAC.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can take the MP3 and easily convert it to a WAV file. Just because something is in WAV does not mean it's a lossless format. When you buy audio and it comes in a lossless format, most of the time it will be available as FLAC. Sometimes you can also purchase in ALAC (Apple's lossless compression).

I don't get why BAEN would use WAV instead of FLAC if the WAV is lossless. Is the WAV lossless?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That definition of WAV is not fully accurate. You can have WAV of lossy audio. Just as FLAC can be lossy audio.

There is no reason not to use a different format then WAV. Nobody else sells audio in WAV.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I never said anything about WAV compression. I'm talking compression using FLAC.

Really, Jon? Are you going to stand by your statement that you never said anything about WAV compression? Did I misread the phrase "Is the WAV lossless?" You did not write the chunks of text I've quoted above?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Really, Jon? Are you going to stand by your statement that you never said anything about WAV compression? Did I misread the phrase "Is the WAV lossless?" You did not write the chunks of text I've quoted above?

Compressing WAV using FLAC is not the same as this WAV compression. Also, WAV does not have to be lossless. It's very easy to convert MP3 to WAV and that WAV would in no way be lossless.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Compressing WAV using FLAC is not the same as this WAV compression. Also, WAV does not have to be lossless. It's very easy to convert MP3 to WAV and that WAV would in no way be lossless.

Jon, please answer the question asked about whether those messages mentioning WAV/compression/lossy audio which you claimed to not have written were written by you.

I have stated several times that the RIFF container used for WAV files can contained lossy compressed audio files so that topic is not up for discussion. Heck, Google using RIFF for WebP images.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Compressing WAV using FLAC is not the same as this WAV compression. Also, WAV does not have to be lossless. It's very easy to convert MP3 to WAV and that WAV would in no way be lossless.

You can run it through Spek and get a pretty goood idea if it'd been previously compressed (iirc, the top of the spectrogram will be cut off abruptly if so)

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

LeWAV using FLAC is not the same as this WAV compression. Also, WAV does not have to be lossless. It's very easy to convert MP3 to WAV and that WAV would in no way be lossless.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Jon, please answer the question asked about whether those messages mentioning WAV/compression/lossy audio which you claimed to not have written were written by you.

I have stated several times that the RIFF container used for WAV files can contained lossy compressed audio files so that topic is not up for discussion. Heck, Google using RIFF for WebP images.

Let it go.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

Doesn't Amazon own Audible, the single largest purveyor of online audiobooks?

Seems like adding AI narration to their books would be cannibalizing their own sales.

No, see those require pesky humans to read the books and those cost money.