is Mp3's the end?

[ModestMouse13]

i was wondering are there gonna be a diffrent type of music format ya know how it was recordsthan cassetes then those old CD players now mp3s but i do not know how you can go further than a mp3 player. its no disck or cassete i kno there will be diffrent advancments but what i am saying is Is the MP3 it.

[MixingMaster300]

Well. There is a next step from mp3, although it's not really a next step for as far as I know its avaliable now, but its just not used, and rightly so.

The next step if will prob be the WAV format. As you may know a JPEG is a BMP with many of the pixels taken out, but the quality is not as good, but not noticable to the human eye unless stretched. The same is with WAV and MP3. I'm not sure how it's compressed but an MP3 is a WAV with a loada, im guessing, kb/s taken out. Which is also why a MP3 with a higher bit rate has a bigger file size.

As I said, I think that alot of MP3 players can play WAV so its not really a next step, but I don't think WAV will be used as the quality between a WAV and a 320kb/s mp3 is hard to tell apart.

Also a pretty obvious prediction for MP3 players are that they are gonna shrink, and are gonna be imcorporated into mobile phones (cell phones for all you americans). MP3 players are already on some of the phones at the top end of the market so i'll give it 2 years untill a 1GB mp3 will be on a phone pricing about £150 (soz but i have no idea about prices of phones in america).

But in the end, technoligy is always improving, so these predictions are only probably valid for the next 3-4 years.

P.S. If this is all completely wrong, could someone plz tell me.

[ECA]

what TYPE of improvement or change??
Ogg is out...for Quality..
SIZE wise, You just loose more Quality by reducing it.
DVDA, and SACD are decent..

[Ioman]

I think the next audio formats could be MP3 PRO or a high quality WMA from Microsoft. I like AAC and Ogg, but I just do not see them being commercialized like MP3 has been

[ECA]

Do you REALLY think MP3 has been commercialized??
I consider that its only been widely used on Computers, and from the net.
I see NO stores trying to sell it.
I see products that USE it, which is forcing us to USE that format.
And EVEN that, they are trying to FORCE us to use Modified versions..

[Ioman]

Commercialized as in being the standard ECA.

[ECA]

Standard, for WHO??
Who is incoding there music???
Only ones I know that ARE doing it, are those at home and a BUNCH of internet sites, that SELL it in that format.
CD music isnt published in the format..

[Archon]

WMA is probably gonna be always be a player. AAC I don't see doing much. ogg, I would like to say could be the next thing, but MP3 has been the top dog in this field for quite a while, and until the time a major player converts to ogg as their primary transcoder I dont see MP3 being taken down.

Everyone is trying to push their own thing, with their own DRM. I doubt WAV will ever replace anything outside of people who work in the audio field, and even then, FLAC or another lossless format might take that over.

Anyways, I used ogg, until I got my dumb iPod, since it can't read ogg, I had to convert everything to mp3.

And ECA.. MP3 is pushed. That, and the fact that it is in the mind of the consumers... who goes out and says, "yea, I just got this new digital audio player," no.. they got an "mp3 player."

[ECA]

Its the PLAYERS that are pushing the market. Not the MP3, protocol.
MP3, became the choie because it was readily accepted by ALOT of computers, and MP3 isnt good for anything but Stereo/mono playing.

when we get better HEADPHONES, at a reasonable price, thenwe can get PAST stereo..

[MixingMaster300]

Does n e body remember the Napster days? Many years ago now when p2p first started, because MP3s were small and had pretty good quality and could also be burned onto CD by most programs, MP3s became the most used file for audio files on the p2p networks. Then Napster got closed down and many new p2p networks opened up, and MP3s were still used and still are the main type of audio files on the p2p networks. Eventually people built up their collection of MP3s and when MP3 players first started getting big, MP3s were not only already well used, but they already had a good reputation. So rather than the companies that make the players make their own format alot of them just used MP3s.

[ECA]

But its the companies that FOLLOWEd a trend...
And MP3, isnt used by the companies, its USED by us/we.
The companies only followed a trend, and the format was almost FREE.

[ModestMouse13]

Sry that was a bit confusing....But i think MP3 players is one of the last steps on the road.