Tests find DRM shortens player battery life by up to 25%

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 5:30 pm

When it comes to the Creative Zen Vision:M's 14-hour claim, CNET got about 16 hours of playback time with MP3s from a full charge, which was a nice surprise. However, when they tried playing WMA 10 DRM crippled subscription tracks on it, they only got just over 12 hours; a loss of almost 4 hours (~25%) of playback time due to the battery-hungry DRM. CNET found similar results with other players with WMA DRM drastically reducing battery life by up to around 20%. Apple's FairPlay DRM seems to have less of an effect with battery life being reduced by around 8% when compared with MP3 playback.

Linky

Anyone else hate this new DRM stuff?

Post by **Illuminati** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:08 pm

heh... sound off!

Zelig · Post by **Zelig** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:07 pm

Comparing WMA vs. MP3s isn't really a good way of determining how DRM affects battery life...

DRM is lame, I only go for lossless music though, so it hasn't affected me yet.

Razorbacx · Post by **Razorbacx** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:30 pm

I'm not a real fan of DRM and not because it eats your batteries up as the article would suggest. I have experienced problems in the past when trying to play or transport DRM encoded songs, so I stay away from it. I choose to rip my CD's in MP3 format, so I not only have an archive of it, but an easily portable and compatible version of my music.

Tim Burton · Post by **Tim Burton** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:35 pm

You guys actually buy music online? I don't mind buying a CD, but I refuse to get anything online. I just got Johnny Cash from Starbucks. I love it, but Lord knows I wouldn't buy the songs online.