About MP3/WMA, 17-EN | Alpine IVA-D310 guide

About MP3/WMA

CAUTION

Except for private use, duplicating audio data (including MP3/ WMA data) or distributing, transferring, or copying it, whether for free or for a fee, without permission of the copyright holder is strictly prohibited by the Copyright Act and by international treaty.

What is MP3?

MP3, whose official name is “MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3,” is a compression standard prescribed by the ISO, the International Standardization Organization and MPEG which is a joint activity institution of the IEC.

MP3 files contain compressed audio data. MP3 encoding is capable of compressing audio data at extremely high ratios, reducing the size of music files to as much as one-tenth their original size. This is achieved while still maintaining near CD quality. The MP3 format realizes such high compression ratios by eliminating the sounds that are either inaudible to the human ear or masked by other sounds.

What is WMA?

WMA, or “Windows Media™ Audio,” is compressed audio data. WMA allows you to create music files and store them at higher ratios of compression than MP3 audio data (approx. half original size). This is achieved while still maintaining CD quality sound.

Method for creating MP3/WMA files

Audio data is compressed by using MP3/WMA specified software. For details on creating MP3/WMA files, refer to the user’s manual for that software.

MP3/WMA files that can be played back by this device have the file extension “mp3” / “wma”. Files with no extension cannot be played back. (WMA ver. 7.1 and 8 are supported)

Supported playback sampling rates and bit rates

MP3

Sampling rates: 32 kHz ~ 48 kHz

Bit rates: 32 - 320 kbps

WMA

Sampling rates: 32 kHz ~ 48 kHz

Bit rates: 32 - 320 kbps

This device may not play back correctly depending on sampling rates or bit rates.

ID3 tags/WMA tags

If tag data is in an MP3/WMA file, this device can display the title (track title), artist name, and album name ID3 tag/WMA tag data (maximum 128 characters).

This device can only display single-byte alphanumeric characters and the underscore. For non-supported characters, “NO SUPPORT” is displayed.

The number of characters may be limited, or not correctly displayed, depending on the tag information.

Producing MP3/WMA discs

MP3/WMA files are prepared, then written to a CD-R or CD-RW using CD-R writing software. A disc can hold up to 1024 files/ 256 folders (including Root Folders).

Depending on the structure of the folders or files, it may take time to read a disc. In this case, it is recommended to decrease the number of folders or files.

Media supported

The media that this device can play back are CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs.

Corresponding File Systems

This device supports discs formatted with ISO9660 Level 1 or Level 2.

Under the ISO9660 standard, there are some restrictions to remember.

The maximum nested folder depth is 8 (including the root directory). The number of characters for a folder/file name is limited.

Valid characters for folder/file names are letters A-Z (all caps), numbers 0-9, and ‘_’ (underscore).

This device also can play back discs in Joliet, Romeo, etc., and other standards that conform to ISO9660. However, sometimes the file names, folder names, etc., are not displayed correctly.

Formats supported

This device supports CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, Mixed Mode CD, Enhanced CD (CD-Extra) and Multi-Session.

This device cannot correctly play back discs recorded with Track At Once or packet writing.

Order of files

The unit plays the files in the order that the writing software writes them. Therefore, the playing order may not be the same as the order you input. The playback order of the folders and files is as follows. However, the folder and file playback order differs from the folder no. and file no. indicated on the display.

Root
Folder
Folder	MP3/WMA File