What codec do o2 active music downloads use?

[Energize]

I downloaded "high" from the o2 music shop, then I encoded the same song on my pc which had been ripped at 320kbps mp3 to 45kbps ogg. When I played them on my pda, the o2 download one sounded better than the ogg one and the file was even 200kbps smaller! I thought ogg was supposed to be the best lossy codec? The file extension was .sdc.

 

[mrk]

ogg is not the best compressed format, it may be one of the better ones for low bitrate tracks but lame mp3 is the best for high bitrate or vbr tracks.

if you load the ogg file in winamp you can view it's properties from the playlist window and see what bitrate it is etc or in any media app for that matter.

 

[Energize]

The thing is these files sounded better than ogg but were even lower bitrates than 45kbps.