StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Is it ok to offer zipped .mp3s and .avis on your website?

What I mean is, does it matter if you offer these files zipped, to keep the file sizes down on your website?

Zipping does nothing for mp3 IIRC.~Jason

Yeah, there's really no point in zipping mp3's, unless the host wont allow it. They wont get smaller and will be somwhat annoying to those downloading them, because it's still the same size and now they have to unzip them. I'm not sure about the avi, depends on the codec, i guess.

You can do it, but there's really no point to compressing already-compressed files.

Bah, tar+bzip2 is better :p

Well zip is useful for packaging several MP3s into one file. If you are doing this on already compressed files, disable compression for speed.

.tar.bzip2 also takes up a lot more CPU time than zip or gzip.

phongn wrote:.tar.bzip2 also takes up a lot more CPU time than zip or gzip.

Yes, and more RAM. So? For purposes that do not require compression on the fly on decently fast computers it is fine. Preferable to having to wait another 20 minutes for something to download on dialup. Also, that few kilobytes saved can allow you to shoehorn stuff onto a floppy.

And the normal file extension is tar.bz2 .

Thanks, everyone. I just uploaded a 7mb .avi file to my website.

BTW, in general, how big would a 30 minute, mostly dialogue MP3 be?

Lord Poe wrote:BTW, in general, how big would a 30 minute, mostly dialogue MP3 be?

Around seven megabytes.

That would depend on the bitrate. at 128kbs, an MP3 is about one megabyte a minute, for a basic rule of thumb.

If it's just dialogue you could get away with a 32kBit MP3, which is around 4 min/MB of audio. Stereo is probably unneccessary, so you might try 16-24kBit as well.

phongn wrote:If it's just dialogue you could get away with a 32kBit MP3, which is around 4 min/MB of audio. Stereo is probably unneccessary, so you might try 16-24kBit as well.

Unfortunately, it compresses the file to the point that the voice is VERY hard to understand. (ie: Like a certain radio interview with David Kemper of Farscape)

2Sense (net talk show) runs for an hour and totals 13 megs. Bitrate is 32kbps and the quality is good.

I'd say use 32 kbps AND mono.

What about VBR?

VBR at low bitrates is virtually useless.

Yeah, VBR is only usefull when the average rate is around 120-160.

And IIRC, making MP3s of audio that's less then ~20 (or something, definately less than 30) seconds doesn't really give much of an advantage over having them as WAVs.

So if they're only about 10-15 seconds or less, just leave them as WAVs.

Even if they are 1second long clips, MP3 means saving at least 9/10 of the disk space.

Lord Poe wrote:Is it ok to offer zipped .mp3s and .avis on your website?

What I mean is, does it matter if you offer these files zipped, to keep the file sizes down on your website?

The only advantage is if you are offering a few and you want them in one easy downloadable package.

I want them to sound good, and not be a burden on my IP. I may chop them up into 5 minute segments.

I have some hilarious Howard Stern clips with interviews with George Takei, one of his reporters at a Star Trek convention, and a lot of non-SW stuff that's incredibly funny.