MP2 Stereo versus Joint Stereo

[Incast]

I'm somewhat out of my depth on this and despite having looked at some old posts here on this feel still none the wiser.

I plan on recording some old sports content over the coming days from the BBC, this is old material which I believe is originally mono sound.

There are two options I have:
Digital Terrestrial: 192kbit/s Joint Stereo MP2
Digital Satellite: 128kbit/s Stereo MP2

Can anyone explain to me what is a good option? Since an opportunity to record this stuff may not happen again for many years, I'd like to make a good choice.

[Inspector.Gadget]

Joint stereo is generally the way to go because it takes advantage of similarities across channels in the data to be encoded to increase quality at a given bitrate. Whether you'll be able to hear the difference I'm not sure, but since foobar2000 plays MP2 out of the box you can do a few quick ABX tests to find out if it matters. Then again, with disk space so cheap, who cares about a measly 64kbs? :cool:

Edit: I would expect for a mono original source encoded as stereo that joint stereo would have an even greater benefit because of the near-identicality of the channels.

[Incast]

Many thanks for the prompt reply, I'll go with the Joint Stereo option then.

Hugely appreciate the help! :thanks:

[DJ Bobo]

If you're sure it is mono, go with the Joint Stereo mode.
If it is not, avoid Joint Stereo like hell! The MP2 Joint Stereo implementation is not as good as the MP3 one. So you'll have to go with stereo, which sounds good... starting 224kbps! (similiar to 160kbps MP3)
128kbps is indeed a ve~ry low bitrate for MP2!

[scharfis_brain]

I think that
192kbps joint stereo WILL sound better than 128 kbps stereo.
mostly due to the higher data rate as well as due to channel coupling.

[shon3i]

The MP2 Joint Stereo implementation is not as good as the MP3 oneMaybe in bad mp2 encoder. Joint Stereo MS is lossless proces and should be always used.

[DJ Bobo]

@ shon3i
I don't think TV-stations use tweaked versions.
I used to encode to MP2 when VCDs and SVCDs were "in", Joint Stereo was awful with all programs I tested in the time.
Of course, in his case, it's like choosing between "bad" and "worse", so I'll agree that he will have to go with "bad" (192kbps JS).

I'm wondering which idiot they hired for their satellite channel, 128kbps MP2, that's truly unheard of... stupid! :mad:

[Sunhillow]

Maybe in bad mp2 encoder. Joint Stereo MS is lossless proces and should be always used.

Without any good reason MP2 only allows IS mode for joint stereo which is lossy.
But if I had to choose between 128kbit Stereo and 192 kbit IS stereo, I would prefer the second one. MP2 was never planned for bitrates as low as this.

[shon3i]

Without any good reason MP2 only allows IS mode for joint stereo which is lossy.
But if I had to choose between 128kbit Stereo and 192 kbit IS stereo, I would prefer the second one. MP2 was never planned for bitrates as low as this.
That actually change things from the start, JS/IS totaly destroy stereo table, and it should be avoided completely, it does not matter about which codec is.