4 ms·

VBR have been the red-headed step-child of MP3 since the beginning. I have no idea why, maybe it was difficult to write good encoders and decoders for it for ba

VBR have been the red-headed step-child of MP3 since the beginning. I have no idea why, maybe it was difficult to write good encoders and decoders for it for back in the day. The few times I used them, I found trivial space savings compared to a CBR and to be honest I thought I could hear a difference (maybe its not humanly possible if the implementation of the encoder/decoder is good but what if the implementation is sub-par?). Storage and bandwidth are so cheap, why bother today?

aianus 10y ago
iPhone storage and cellular bandwidth are still extremely expensive. Over $100 for a measly 16gb of storage or 4gb of LTE.
- mikeash 10y ago
  $100 gets you 48GB of storage these days, and at my overage rates it would buy about 7GB of transmission. Not that this really changes your point.
- GavinMcG 10y ago
  Is 16GB really that measly when it comes to podcasts? Even at, say, 128MB per hour (!) you've got over 100 hours of capacity there. Enough for a full waking week, nonstop.
  - sthrs 10y ago
    People with 16 GB iPhones really struggle with running out of storage. Some may be lucky to fit one 128 MB podcast on their phone.
  - slavik81 10y ago
    Android takes up 6.5GB, the dozen-ish apps I use seem to take 3.5GB. So, that leaves 6GB of general storage. The browser cache and all music, photos and podcasts need to fit into those 6GB. A single episode of a podcast may be an hour and a half. If you are subscribed to 5 weekly podcasts, then that's about 1GB of data you'll need. If you're going on a long trip, maybe you stock up. That might take 3GB or 4GB... But that probably won't fit on your phone. It certainly doesn't fit on mine.
- douche 10y ago
  It's completely absurd when a 64GB microSD card is less than $20. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Standard-Packaging-SDSQUNC-064G-GN6MA/dp/B010Q588D4 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Standard-Packaging-...
- mixedCase 10y ago
  >iPhone storage and cellular bandwidth are still extremely expensive. Over $100 for a measly 16gb of storage or 4gb of LTE. ...is "don't use an iPhone until they start adding microSDs to their phones and don't stream" too obvious or am I missing something here?

aianus 10y ago

iPhone storage and cellular bandwidth are still extremely expensive. Over $100 for a measly 16gb of storage or 4gb of LTE.

mikeash 10y ago
$100 gets you 48GB of storage these days, and at my overage rates it would buy about 7GB of transmission. Not that this really changes your point.
GavinMcG 10y ago
Is 16GB really that measly when it comes to podcasts? Even at, say, 128MB per hour (!) you've got over 100 hours of capacity there. Enough for a full waking week, nonstop.
- sthrs 10y ago
  People with 16 GB iPhones really struggle with running out of storage. Some may be lucky to fit one 128 MB podcast on their phone.
- slavik81 10y ago
  Android takes up 6.5GB, the dozen-ish apps I use seem to take 3.5GB. So, that leaves 6GB of general storage. The browser cache and all music, photos and podcasts need to fit into those 6GB. A single episode of a podcast may be an hour and a half. If you are subscribed to 5 weekly podcasts, then that's about 1GB of data you'll need. If you're going on a long trip, maybe you stock up. That might take 3GB or 4GB... But that probably won't fit on your phone. It certainly doesn't fit on mine.
douche 10y ago
It's completely absurd when a 64GB microSD card is less than $20. https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Standard-Packaging-SDSQUNC-064G-GN6MA/dp/B010Q588D4 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSDXC-Standard-Packaging-...
mixedCase 10y ago
>iPhone storage and cellular bandwidth are still extremely expensive. Over $100 for a measly 16gb of storage or 4gb of LTE. ...is "don't use an iPhone until they start adding microSDs to their phones and don't stream" too obvious or am I missing something here?