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MP3 Decoder Review -
Media Jukebox
Media
Jukebox by J. River -- Review
courtesy of David Robinson
| Version: |
5.0.601 © 1998-2000
J. River Inc.
|
|
| Settings: |
convert to
uncompressed wave
|
| Similar
products: |
none
|
| Verdict: |
Excellent |
| VBR: |
All |
| Full
file: |
Always |
| Major
Flaws: |
none |
| Minor
Flaws: |
none |
| Output
level: |
correct |
| 1-bit
relative accuracy: |
Excellent |
| 1-bit
absolute accuracy: |
Excellent |
"Media Jukebox, "The one that
plays it all", is a full featured jukebox program, in competition
with the likes of Music
Match Jukebox. Visit the official website for more details of
its extensive features.
Media Jukebox will convert mp3 files to
wav files, and also burn mp3s directly to audio CD. However, rather than
decoding the mp3s on the fly (as they are written to CD) it converts all
the mp3s to temporary wavs before burning the CD. The whole process is
automatic, but more time consuming than on-the-fly decoding. See The
FAQ for the pros and cons of this.
The decoding quality of Media Jukebox is
excellent. It installs the ACM
1999 codec, but appears to use a different (accurate)
internal decoder instead. Whether converting to wav, or burning to CD
(which is does by creating temporary wav files anyway), there are no
faults in Media Jukeboxes mp3 decoding.
One word of advice: Disable Skinning
(from the skins menu) - this speeds up the software on slower systems.
My system usually runs very quickly, but crawled with skinning enabled.
Also, be warned that Media Jukebox is primarily a jukebox - though it
will convert mp3s to wavs, it requires you to add the mp3s to its
playlist, then convert them. This two step process can become annoying
if you don't require the jukebox features.
The CD recording feature produces CDs in
Disc-at-Once mode (if your CD recorder supports this) - this a
recommended for audio CDs. Unfortunately it will not resample
non-standard mp3 files to CD format - it will only record 44.1kHz
sampled files to CD, rejecting all others. However, the majority of mp3
files are already CD format, so this will rarely be a problem - only
speech (especially comedy shows) are usually recorded at a lower sample
rate.
In conclusion, media jukebox decodes mp3
files faultlessly, and is recommended, especially for burning to CD."
--
Review courtesy of David Robinson
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