Should convertion happen on demand?

[boreq]

Initially Eggplant was created to run on a server which had very limited resources. This means that there was little hope in attempting to convert tracks on demand and I decided to use storage space which I had available to convert all files right away and then just serve them from the hard drive.

I have received reports that the fact that all music has to be slowly converted when the program is first run and the fact that it uses more storage space is a problem for some people despite the fact that the full conversion has to only happen once.

The question is which is the better approach. Should both be supported? That would introduce a potentially pointless complexity to the whole thing.

Pros and cons of converting on demand:

+ occupies less storage space
- uses more CPU during normal operation
- slower playback/seek

Pros and cons of converting ahead of time:

+ quicker playback/seek
+ low CPU usage after the tracks are converted
- uses more storage space