DizRotus Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Last Friday I had to replace the PC that I use for my business. Carbonite has backed up my important files for years. As you can imagine, it's a huge headache getting a new PC into service. Last evening it finally occurred to me that Carbonite needed to be installed on the new PC. Fortunately, I've not yet had to use Carbonite to restore any lost files. As I observed the green dots appearing next to files, indicating that Carbonite had backed up the files, I wondered whether a high resolution FLAC file restored from Carbonite is the equivalent of the original file. I suspect Carbonite would assure me it is. But I wonder if a data compression process, while it might be fine for most files, would compromise high resolution audio files, such as HDTracks, Pono, etc. Edited February 27, 2015 by DizRotus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 that is an interesting question... I would think the original file format would be the determining factor, but you definitely bring up a good point and one of concern for the digital crowd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derrickdj1 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I don't know the real answer but, I would suspect it should be the same. Even if the compressed a file there should be a software program to restore it to the original file type for playback on your system. Do a listening test and see what you think. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muel Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 File compression and compression in audio are not the same thing at all. A compressed file is restored in its complete form. I assume that is what online backup sites do... merely compress the files to save space on their servers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizRotus Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 I don't know the real answer but, I would suspect it should be the same. Even if the compressed a file there should be a software program to restore it to the original file type for playback on your system. Do a listening test and see what you think. I'll try that, but these 66 yo ears might not be able to discern a difference that younger ears could spot immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) you'd have to see it in wave form to know whether or not anything has changed. I tend to agree that the compression would not affect the overall file... but I don't have any evidence to the contrary. Edited February 27, 2015 by Schu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud77 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 File compression and compression in audio are not the same thing at all. A compressed file is restored in its complete form. I assume that is what online backup sites do... merely compress the files to save space on their servers. True audio compression (dynamic range) and data compression are not the same. Only lossless data compression restores to complete form, mp3 the common audio data compression format is not lossless. The easy way to verify that no data has been lost in data compression or transmission is to do a checksum comparison, you can use md5 or sfv to compare the original file to the restored file, if the checksums are the same then no data has been lost, if they are different then the two files are not duplicates and some data has been lost or modified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 As it pertains to file handling, there's nothing magical about music files. I'm tired of guys applying tape and vinyl theory to the bits of data stored on their hard drive. If your word docs are restored fine, so shall your music be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 overall I agree, but to be honest, the digital world has another component that analog does not in your analogy, and that is one of compression... data compression. that means data can be condensed and reconstituted via an algorithm, but using another analogy, one of photography, once a photograph is saved in jpeg format, the data loss is not only permanent it is exponential if the photo is saved over and over in that compressed format. of course, no one wanting to save a photo for later retrieval at full resolution would use jpeg, but that was only an analogy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eth2 Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I'm tired of guys ???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaddeus Smith Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 overall I agree, but to be honest, the digital world has another component that analog does not in your analogy, and that is one of compression... data compression. that means data can be condensed and reconstituted via an algorithm, but using another analogy, one of photography, once a photograph is saved in jpeg format, the data loss is not only permanent it is exponential if the photo is saved over and over in that compressed format. of course, no one wanting to save a photo for later retrieval at full resolution would use jpeg, but that was only an analogy. Yes, but once again that is CONTENT compression and not file compression. Jpeg = mp3 Raw = flac/wav/lossless whatever The act of copying between disks, file compression, ethernet cable swaps, etc.. None of that has any impact whatsoever on the data' integrity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) Oh yes... you are correct sir And for what its worth...the first LP off the master is probably a lot cleaner than the one millionth copy off the press. In essence digital is MUCH BETTER for replication. Edited March 2, 2015 by Schu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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