On Sun, 23 May 2004 21:23:18 -0700, DaveC wrote:


I think I understand everything except why a file that is not streamed has a
bit rate spec. Digitized content should be described by the sample rate and,
in some cases, sample size. But only streamed content should be described by
a bit rate. Any other use of these terms is misleading.

Just giving the sample rate would not tell you anything about the quality
of the encoding. The same sample rate can be mp3'd at a number of
different bit rates.

There is no difference to an MP3 decoder if the file is streamed from the
net or streamed from a hard drive.
The messy stuff about getting the data to the right place at the right
time is dealt with in another layer.