AMTuring
17th April 2005, 14:43
I have been working for several months on using a computer based method for Codec comparison. I think I have solved a lot of the objections that have been raised in the past regarding non-listening based tests. Here is a summary of the results:
In this Study, I compare two stable versions of LAME in common use (3.96.1 recommend by the LAME project and 3.90.3 recommended by Hydrogenaudio) and two alpha versions from the LAME project (3.97 alpha 9 and alpha 10).
It was found that at the time of this writing the latest LAME alpha version (10) produces the highest fidelity in most situations. However, alpha version of software should generally be avoided. Once a stable version of 3.97 is released it promises to be a better program than either of the stable versions of LAME.
For now I would recommend that you use either of the stable versions for encoding. If forced to make a recommendation I would say that 3.90.3 is better for –alt-preset medium. Version 3.96.1 is better for –preset extreme, -V6 and –V8. There is very little difference for the standard presets. However, 3.96.1 is faster than 3.90.3 so you may prefer using it for the standard preset also.
The full text, including graphs and source code for the correlation program can be downloaded from LAME Study (http://home.broadpark.no/~clarkt/LAME.pdf) .
Feedback on the study would be greatly appreciated.
In this Study, I compare two stable versions of LAME in common use (3.96.1 recommend by the LAME project and 3.90.3 recommended by Hydrogenaudio) and two alpha versions from the LAME project (3.97 alpha 9 and alpha 10).
It was found that at the time of this writing the latest LAME alpha version (10) produces the highest fidelity in most situations. However, alpha version of software should generally be avoided. Once a stable version of 3.97 is released it promises to be a better program than either of the stable versions of LAME.
For now I would recommend that you use either of the stable versions for encoding. If forced to make a recommendation I would say that 3.90.3 is better for –alt-preset medium. Version 3.96.1 is better for –preset extreme, -V6 and –V8. There is very little difference for the standard presets. However, 3.96.1 is faster than 3.90.3 so you may prefer using it for the standard preset also.
The full text, including graphs and source code for the correlation program can be downloaded from LAME Study (http://home.broadpark.no/~clarkt/LAME.pdf) .
Feedback on the study would be greatly appreciated.