I have Nero 7 & it has three main audio options for compressing CD audio tracks. 1) Powerpack LAME MP3 encoder 2) MP3Pro encoder 3) MP4 encoder I've read that the LAME MP3 encoder is the best straight MP3 encoder & MP3Pro is proprietary & essentially dead. I've read about using MP4 as a way to further compress/improve MP3 audio files that can still be played by MP3 players. I admit I'm a little confused. I know MP4 is the latest, greatest from MPEG & it can process video & audio, but I thought it was incompatible with MP3 players. Please educate me about MP4. What I want to do is compress my CD's & copy them to DVD's so I can play them on a portable DVD player.
if you want to extract audio from your CDs and compress them, use EAC (exact audio copy) as your CD ripper. It is hands down the best (and free) ripper there is. If you wish to use mp3, you are correct, LAME is the best encoder there is. using VBR (variable bitrate) with EAC & LAME you will create the best quality mp3s possible. We have a guide on how to setup and use EAC/LAME here: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/mydeneaclame.cfm and here is a link about mp4 if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mp4 though mp4 is gaining popularity, virtually no portable players/car stereo players will support mp4. check the capabilities of your portable DVD player, but chances are it only supports mp3 and wma files.
