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MP3, WMV and MPG what is the difference?

Media Files 101, ready? What's the difference between DVD, MP3, VCD, itunes and Windows media Player? To start off, DVD, VCD are movie file formats, MP3 and WMF are songs file formats. ITunes and Windows Media Player are audio and video players. They theoretically play all types of media files. There are differences in movie and audio file formats, not only in the file types, but also the methods to create these files. Creating MP3 files from your store bought CD requires a conversion or encoding of the data on the cd to a computer recognized data format. Mp3 encoding uses proprietary algorithms to convert the data into a format that represents sound, and maintains the quality of the original sounds from the cd or other sources. The ultimate goal is to accurately recreate your audio cd with the same quality, using as little file size on your hard drive. These same principles apply to videos and movies.

There are numerous audio and video file formats all competing for market share and top brand recognition. The leaders of the pack are Mp3 for audio; created by the Fraunhofer Society back in 1991, and WM/F/P/V (Windows Media format/player/video). Video formats are led by MPEG (MPG) and Apple Corporation's QuickTime which share the top spots in video player. Had it not been for the PC/MAC separation, MPG would most likely prevail.
The process of encoding audio and video data has evolved in many competing formats by just as many vendors. This is due to the fact the MP3 encoding standards do not exist. There are only guidelines. The drawback is consumer confusion. Which standard to use, what features they offer and so on. Bottom line, there are good-better and best formats. MP3 encoding quality can usually be measured in bit rate sampling. The higher the bit rate, the more original data is preserved from the original recording. Commonly used bit rates are 64, 96, 128, 192, 256 and 320kbits. Audiophiles and professional audio enthusiasts often use 320kbit. Sampling rates are also another factor in recording quality, however to keep things simple we seem to have adopted the sampling rate of that of cd's which is 44.1KHz. A 1 minute cd clip would take about 4 minutes to download from your fast cable internet connection, compared to about 20 seconds for the same clip in MP3 format.

Now that we have thoroughly confused you, lets move on to Digital Movies or MPEG's. Using the same principles as Mp3, movies are encoded into data files

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