Windows XP Supports MP3
Published: October 1, 2001
By Galan Bridgman
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I've been into digital media professionally since 1991. But it's only within the last two years that I've started to convert everything audio– and video–based in my personal life to digital media formats. And the gratification and sense of power it provides is addicting.
It started quite innocently with ripping CD tracks and remixing CDs to get perfect ones that contained only my favorite tracks. It then progressed to TiVo for watching TV, which transformed my TV expectations forever. Then I got a personal audio player and became hooked on the elegance of that solution, which freed me from carrying a CD player and CDs everywhere. Apparently, from what I hear, millions of other people have made the same discovery!
My first player, a Compaq PA–1
Some Background on MP3
Back when portable audio players were being developed, memory was still at a premium. Obviously, audio compression would be required to get more than one song on a portable device. At the time, there were few compression schemes that were both based on an open standard and cross–platform. But in the late 1980s, one digital compressed format stood out, which was a subset of the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) standard. This standard contained an audio compression scheme called MPEG Audio Layer–3. (Now you can see where the name MP3 comes from.) It was one of the first compression technologies to make use of a science called psychoacoustics. Rather than trying to preserve every bit of data like the Zip format does, psychoacoustics analyzes the characteristics of an audio sample and preserves only as much as the human ear and mind are likely to perceive.
When the decisions were being made about compressed music solutions, MP3 technology was deemed of high enough quality for the bit rates it required that it was adopted by many audio software and portable device manufacturers as the de facto audio compression standard. (If you're new to digital media, the term bit rates refers to the number of data bits required per second of audio or video. The higher the rate, the higher the quality, but also the more space the file requires and the more time it requires to transfer.)
Then MP3 became a household name thanks to Napster, and some of the lawsuits that later emerged. The two shared the spotlight in the Internet music scene for a couple of years. Recent court decisions against Napster have now dimmed this light, but many MP3 enthusiasts are determined to keep MP3 itself alive. After all, it gave them music listening options known to no other generation, and who wants to go backwards?
Although the MP3 technology itself is now a bit dated, there are still a lot of legacy devices out there that support only MP3. Plus, lots of people have hundreds or even thousands of tracks they've already encoded into MP3 format. It might be easy to convince newcomers to the digital audio world to encode their tracks in the newer Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, but anyone with thousands of songs in the MP3 format is unlikely to go back and re–encode them.
We've all seen the legacy scenario before: look no further than the simultaneous availability of cassette tapes and CDs as an example. There's no argument which is the superior technology—in every respect—but legacy support for tapes means that tape players are a standard part of almost every boom box and car stereo sold today, years after the introduction of CDs. Only recently has support for tapes started to wane.
MP3 and MPXP
In the Windows XP operating system, Microsoft not only supports the MP3 legacy base, it also gives MP3 a high degree of access to the advanced capabilities of the Windows Media Player. In essence, Windows Media Player in Windows XP (MPXP) bestows first–class status to MP3 by adding support for recent add–on technologies, such as full ID3v2 tag editing that allows MP3 files to contain metadata (information about the song), and also by giving MP3 equal access to the same device copying, Audio CD burning, and Media Library management features that WMA enjoys. MPXP can also add album art and lyrics to your MP3 collection, and can both create and playback your .M3U playlists.
Although MPXP does provide full playback capabilities for all bit rates of MP3 encoded files, it does not provide out–of–the–box MP3 encoding support. The license fees for such encoding are not insignificant, and rather than adding to the retail price of Windows XP, Microsoft developed a plug–in architecture that allows other vendors to create MP3 encoding add–ins, as well as DVD playback add–ins. Microsoft worked closely with three vendors who will provide their respective versions of the MP3 Creation Pack for Windows XP in October 2001, when Windows XP is officially available. Additional vendors will be listed on the Microsoft Web site as their products become available.
MP3 Ripping in MPXP
To locate a vendor providing an MP3 Creation Pack, start by clicking the MP3 Information button available when you open the Windows Media Player, then clicking Tools from the menu, then Options, and then clicking the Copy Music tab.
After you have purchased and installed an MP3 Creation Pack, you can select MP3 as your default encoding format and specify the encoding rate you desire by going to the same Copy Music tab, as shown in the figure below.
The File format list that by default contains only Windows Media Audio now drops down and allows you to select MP3. Additionally, the Copy music at this quality slider now supports selections for whatever encoding rates your MP3 Creation Pack provides. Until you change this setting, all CD tracks you rip will be encoded using this codec. If the CD you inserted is listed by the service AMG, then the resulting MP3 files will also automatically be encoded with ID3v2 tags describing the content, to make your media management tasks easier, and the Media Library and Windows XP folders will also display Album Art if it was available.
Remember 8–Track Tapes, Anyone?
 | As important as the MP3 format was to the development of the personal digital audio revolution, it's hard to say how much longer it will be a major player...audiophiles of today agree that more recent audio compression technologies, such as the Microsoft WMA 8 format, have superior quality for the same (and even lower) bit rates. |  | |
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As important as the MP3 format was to the development of the personal digital audio revolution, it's hard to say how much longer it will be a major player. As I said earlier, better compression technologies do exist. And audiophiles of today agree that more recent audio compression technologies, such as the Microsoft WMA 8 format, have superior quality for the same (and even lower) bit rates.
For example, to obtain near CD–quality audio, MP3 requires a bit rate in the range of 128 to 192 Kbps. WMA 8, on the other hand, achieves this with approximately 64 to 96 Kbps. So a device that holds about 20 songs in MP3 format can hold about 40 songs in WMA 8 format. Similarly, a CD that holds about 63 minutes in CD Audio format holds about 11 hours of songs in MP3, or about 22 hours in WMA. A lot of vendors now include native support for WMA in their devices, since consumers are always looking for higher quality audio in a smaller file size. MP3 may someday go the way of 8–track tapes (and soon cassette tapes), but until that happens, the MPXP support of MP3 is among the best in the industry.
Galan Bridgman is a developer, architect, and enthusiast for digital media technologies. He co-developed QuickTime for Windows for Apple Computer. At Starlight Networks he developed innovative client and backend technologies using ActiveMovie® and NetShow® Server, the precursors to Windows Media Technology. He is a full-time consultant, and is currently developing a next-generation, fully-automated radio station using Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series technologies. After hours he enjoys showing others how to make the most of Microsoft's latest Windows Media applications. Check Galan's Web site for more information about him.
