File formats most definitely play an important role in their use. For me personally, I prefer to use the lossy MP3 file format only when storage issues are a concern. For instance, if a person owns an 8 Gig IPod, then the 128Kbps MP3 file format would be suitable for allowing more music to be added to the device. I have a 32Gig IPod Touch and prefer the MP3 file format at 320Kbps. I can personally hear the difference when MP3 files are compressed any lower than 320Kbps. I also prefer the MP3 file format when encoding for Internet usage. This allows for faster downloads and/or streams to multicast end users.

When I’m editing, I prefer to use a lossless file format such as the .WAV file. The reason for this is I like to work with all of my RAW materials in uncompressed format because it renders higher quality compression when files are converted into other formats such as QuickTime. This is true for video as well. We all know that when copying a digital file, the quality never changes, but, can we say the same is true when copying a compressed file and then compressing it again from that compressed file, and so on…

I personally do not like the ACC file format because it has given me many headaches in the past. For instance, the proprietary digital rights management software, that Apple recently dumped, makes using the file format utterly difficult when burning an MP3 disk. Once the disk is completed, most of the track information is lost and the MP3 file is buried under multiple subdirectories, which causes a file management nightmare. Even when using ITunes to convert the ACC file formats to a CD disk, most of the file information is still lost and as a result, an individual is required to reenter most of the file management data manually! Argghhh!!!!!