garbled audio from Nero Recode 3 @ 48kHz

[rollier]

Hi
I'm using the latest version of Nero Recode 3 to encode movies using H264@2Mb/s and AAC audio at 48KHz, 224Kb/s. The audio is garbled (sounds like it's from down a toilet!) – I’ve tried this on various players. If I keep the same settings but just encode a few chapters, the audio is perfect. If I change to 24KHz everything is ok (but I want to encode at 48Kkz for quality and compatibility). I assume this is a bug – has anyone else noticed it and is there a fix available? Thanks, Rob

[menno]

If I understand correctly you have audio problems encoding the full movie but it is fine when you encode a few chapters? Are you setting some limit on the output size of the encoded file? This could cause the audio bitrate to be dropped to something lower to make it fit. That would explain why it sounds fine when encoding just part of the movie (it might fit in your limit).
Setting to 24kHz about halves the required bitrate, same reasoning to explain why then it would sound better, it might fit in your limit.

[rollier]

Hi, thanks for your reply and suggestions.

I'm not using any size limits. The problem only appeared in the latest Nero release (with Recode 3). It only happens with 5.1 audio, I've done some more testing and most DVDs encoded with 5.1 audio give problems (I've tried LC and HE AAC options and different bit rates and sample rates). When the audio is garbled, MP4box reports an encoding rate of around 70kb/s (while the setting is 224kb/s).

I posted this on the Nero community blog today and someone else reported back with exactly the same problem. It does look like a bug!

[menno]

Ok, thanks. We are looking into this at the moment.

[rollier]

Hi, I've discovered that the problem is with 2-pass encoding. 1-pass encoding works ok. Can you please advise when this bug will be fixed - I bought Nero specifically for high-quality H264 encoding so not having 2-pass encoding is a problem.

[menno]

Yeah we figured that out, too. The 2pass issue will be solved with the next update. I'm not sure yet when that is coming.