A simple question regarding AC3 vs MP3 Audio

[axxo]

Simply put,
which audio is better? 448 kbps 2.0 channel AC3 or 256kbps VBR MP3?

I am asking this question, because AC3 is used in DVDs, 448kbps is obviously higher bitrate than 256kbps VBR which I am using in MP3. But somehow, I feel that loudness of MP3 Audio is higher. And I think loudness is an important thing to consider. So what should I opt for, in general, if I don't care about file size, but quality is what I want.

thanx in advance.

[Adub]

For one, loudness as nothing to do with quality. It's just loudness. Volume.

Remember, neither audio is "better". AC3 was standardized for DVD's, specifically multichannel streams. It has a higher max bitrate than MP3, and with that, it can reach greater levels of quality. However, if you want a bit by bit comparison of AC3 and MP3, I believe that MP3 is more efficient, but don't quote me on that.

[axxo]

okay.. I don't understand, but when I encode using AutoGK, the DOS Screen comes up when MP3 Encoding is done, and some Decibel Gain takes place along with Normalization and finally MP3 audio is obtained, which has higher loudness than original AC3 Audio.

Suppose, I am encoding a Music Video, what should I opt for? MP3 or original AC3? If I plan to watch on my TV, MP3 is giving me better results because songs are supposed to be watched in a high volume (aren't they? :) ). But suppose I get better DVD Player with great quality speakers in near future, will 256 kbps MP3 VBR Audio will be able to give the power boost results which I am thinking of? or will I need to re-encode using AC3 audio that day? I mean, if anybody can answer, is MP3 Audio at 256 kbps VBR can give greeat results at high volumes using good quality speakers or AC3 audio is needed for that purpose?

[BigDid]

okay.. I don't understand, but when I encode using AutoGK, the DOS Screen comes up when MP3 Encoding is done, and some Decibel Gain takes place along with Normalization and finally MP3 audio is obtained, which has higher loudness than original AC3 Audio.
Hi,

What you feel as "loudness" is volume normalisation+amplification
You can have the same effects using and tuning ffdshow as an audio decoder for an ac3 source.


Suppose, I am encoding a Music Video, what should I opt for? MP3 or original AC3? If I plan to watch on my TV, MP3 is giving me better results because songs are supposed to be watched in a high volume (aren't they? :) ). But suppose I get better DVD Player with great quality speakers in near future, will 256 kbps MP3 VBR Audio will be able to give the power boost results which I am thinking of?
If you get a audio set 5+1 or 6+1 you wont get the same 3d/surround/space sensation with Mp3 surround (2+1 pseudo channel) than with multichannels Ac3 or DTS

or will I need to re-encode using AC3 audio that day? I mean, if anybody can answer, is MP3 Audio at 256 kbps VBR can give greeat results at high volumes using good quality speakers or AC3 audio is needed for that purpose?
That is for you to test. I like AC3 sound but not it's very wide dynamic range (volume up for people whipering, volume down for gunshot or explosion etc...) I like Mp3 re-encoding for it's volume normalisation (or narrower dynamic range ). So some movies I re-encode to Mp3, some I re-encode from Ac3 to Ac3 like 448 to 384 kbps + normalisation/amplification*.

Did

Edit: Megui can do it not Autogk, Ripbot also has that kind of option

[CWR03]

which audio is better? 448 kbps 2.0 channel AC3 or 256kbps VBR MP3?
Quite simply, the original AC3 audio. Any time you convert from one lossy format to another you lose quality.

[yetanotherid]

Why not keep the AC3 audio and convert to MP3 as well if at the moment you can't decide which way to go or think you'll wish you'd done it differently later?
When AutoGK extracts the AC3 audio from the vob files it writes it to a file in the temp folder it creates where the output AVI is saved. Once AutoGK has finished extracting the AC3 audio, you could always just copy that file and store it wherever you store the AVI. Then you could let AutoGK go about converting the audio to MP3. The MP3 file AutoGK creates is also written to the same temp folder, so you could even save it too. Later on, if you wished you'd kept the AC3 audio you could simply use VirtualDubMod to add it to the AVI while removing the MP3 version.
I'm pretty sure AVIs will allow you to include more than one audio stream so you could even add both to the AVI, although I have no idea how standalone players handle multiple audio streams.

I've never really been particularly crazy about surround sound, so I usually convert to MP3 because it keeps the file size down, and not having magic ears I can't really here a quality difference. I know in reality there's a quality loss, but if I can't hear it......
The one exception I'd make there is with music videos. I find the 5+1 AC3 audio sounds better, even when mixed down to stereo for listening on my computer speakers than the stereo MP3 version. Even the stereo AC3 stream from the original DVD doesn't sound as good as the 5+1 version played through stereo speakers. I'm not really sure why that is though, I guess it must mean the 5+1 audio is mixed down to stereo differently when played through stereo speakers than when it's mixed down to a stereo file. Anyone else experience this or know why it's the case?