What is lame mp3?

[oceanauk]

What is lame mp3 and does it vary from any just plain old mp3?  Are there any other versions of mp3 and if so which is the best????

[Potatoman]

all mp3's are the same format - Lame is just software that can decode them so they can be played.

[Thunderchild]

lame is an opensource codec that is integrated into many conversion programs. more that worry about the Q of the software u should make sure u set the encoding quality in the encoding proghram as high as possible as although taking longer will make a better quality conversion. be wary of a program that does conversion real fast. i used a fat mp3pro converter and the result was worse than a slow normal mp3 conversion with a lowish bitrate.