most decent encoding bit rate for mp3

[Maggoty]

Howdy, Ok, was just wondering about why people usually encode their movie audio streams at 128kb or more? Of course this purely a personal decision and what not but yeah... i have mucked around with this side of things for a while now. For the reason being, the smaller the audio file, the more room i leave for a larger bit rate encoded movie. I also only usually do 1 cd rips too, unless its a 3 hour movie or something. Anyway, lately i have been encoding my audio at 112kb, using the latest lame 3.92 and ripping it with besweet. I'm also using gordian knot. I must say lame is pretty darn nifty, cause i can get a rather decent soundtrack at 112k? My question is... do some people out there go lower than this? Say.. 96kb or even 80kb depending on the movie??, leaving even more space for the actual avi ??
I'm also a musician and am pretty darn picky when it comes to crapply encoded mp3's... but yeah.. just curious on this matter...

Maggoty...:D

[pacohaas]

the general consensus is to use VBR or ABR, you will find that a 112kbps ABR mp3 will generally sound better than a 128kbps CBR mp3. Especially at these low bitrates, ABR is a must, VBR isn't quite tuned enough to beat out ABR this low, but ABR definately beats CBR, especially with the --alt-preset's (soon to be just --preset)

[eXistenZ]

why don't you give a try to ogg Vorbis?

if you're going for 1 cd rip, with low audio bitrate to maximize video quality, ogg Vorbis is the answer!

(These are the same reasons that make me drop MP3 and pick up Ogg)

Bye, eXistenZ

[Herske]

>most decent encoding bit rate for mp3

LAME > 3.9. --alt preset standard. That should be enough for most people.

[Maggoty]

Yup... i use the vbr option as well, never cbr.
I would go ogg but personally for me its just not mainstream enough for me to switch over. Everything i have is mp3. It just makes it easier to stick with one format instead of worrying about 2. And sharing my rips with a guy on a mac, i have to use mp3 anyway, if he wants to watch em....
but i'm all for open source, so if ogg can get a domminent user base i'm there...

[johnvick]

I think you need to consider the type of movie. A movie with lots of music needs a higher bitrate than a drama with only dialogue.

I always go for ABR and have had reasonable results with Lame at 96 for dramas.

It can be enlightening to try blind testing yourself with the same music encoded at different bitrates with a program like (I think it's called) PCABX. you can then judge what is the minimum bitrate that satisfies you.

[BiaTch 5.0]

Mp3 most effective (size/quality) bitrate is 128kbps BUT the encoder is what matters FHG as found in cool edit pro is “fixed” & is IMO highest quality mp3@128kbps CBR LAME’s ABR –alt preset –128 will most likely out perform FHG CBR especially with movies changes, voice/music/silence scenes.

--alt preset standard, only a boob would use this, expect bitrates of 170-200kbps having said this original AC3 @192kbps cant be beaten

[Got Milk?]

Originally posted by BiaTch 5.0
--alt preset standard, only a boob would use this, expect bitrates of 170-200kbps having said this original AC3 @192kbps cant be beaten I don't think this is the case, it might be true when encoding music but not movies. I can't say for sure as I use --r3mix (yeah, yeah - should be using --alt preset instead :D), but the bitrate is far lower when using --r3mix on a film than it is for music tracks.