Audio formats
The following is a list of audio formats supported by CDBurnerXP.
Type | Full name | Quality | |
---|---|---|---|
AIFF | Audio Interchange File Format | lossless | |
ALAC | Apple Lossless (extensions M4A or MP4) | lossless | |
APE | Monkey's Audio | lossless | |
BWF | Broadcast Wave Format | lossless | |
FLAC | Free Lossless Audio Codec | lossless | |
MP2 | MPEG-1 Audio Layer 2 | lossy | |
MP3 | MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 | lossy | |
MPC | Musepack | lossy | |
OGG | Ogg Vorbis | lossy | |
Opus | Opus | lossy | |
WAV | Waveform Audio Format | lossless | |
WMA | Windows Media Audio | lossy / lossless | |
WV | WavPack | lossless |
Variable and constant bit rates
The bit rate of an audio file determines how many bits (1 byte = 8 bit) are used to encode data per unit of time. The higher the value, the higher is the quality. The bitrate is not the only factor deciding on the quality of a file, it also depends on the actual format and encoder being used.
If, for example, an audio file has the bitrate 192Kbit/s = 192.000Bit/s = 24.000Byte/s, it will require approx. 4.12MiB for 3 minutes of audio.
A constant bit rate means that the disc space distribution is the same throughout the file. This makes it easy to determine the disc space required for an encoded file with given bit rate, or to decide which bit rate to use for a given target size.
A variable bit rate, however, yields a higher audio quality, because it allows the encoder to increase or decrease the bit rate dynamically to match the complexity of the music.
The formats MP3, OGG and WMA allow you to use either constant or variable bitrates. FLAC uses the lowest bitrate possible without losing any quality and WAV is not capable of any compression.
Bit rates
MP3 encoded with a CBR has one of the following bit rates (all in KBit/s): 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320. 192 is recommended. If a file does not use any of these bit rates, it's using a variable bit rate.
OGG is usually encoded with VBR, using one of the following nominal bit rates (along with the correspdonding quality setting): 64 (0), 80 (1), 96 (2), 112 (3), 128 (4), 160 (5), 192 (6), 224 (7), 256 (8), 320 (9), 500 (10). Using higher bit rates than 224 (7) is not recommended.