Free E-AC3 encoder available...

[Kurtnoise]

It's on the way...from Justin Ruggles, the man behind aften, flake and many more. :)

For the moment, it's only available as patches coz it needs reviews first.

This patch set adds basic support for E-AC-3 encoding. The quality is pretty much still the same as normal AC-3, but this is the starting point for adding more E-AC-3 features. It does have the advantage of supporting a wider variety and range of bit rates rather than just the 19 supported by AC-3. For example, 48kHz content can go up to 1024kbps, and will eventually be able to go even higher.

This is part of my project sponsored by the Foundation for Free Multimedia Technology. Future improvements will include:

- E-AC-3 mixing and production metadata support
- high bitrate support using fewer blocks per frame
- AHT encoding (better quality via better quantization)
- Spectral Extension support
- optional: Enhanced Coupling


http://lists.libav.org/pipermail/libav-devel/2011-May/004842.html
http://lists.libav.org/pipermail/libav-devel/2011-May/004843.html
http://lists.libav.org/pipermail/libav-devel/2011-May/004844.html

[tebasuna51]

Good news!
Thanks for the info Kurtnoise.

[SeeMoreDigital]

This looks very interesting indeed...

However, I could not see from the text files whether these patches offer the ability to support more than 5.1 channel encoding? Even, 7.1 channel encoding would be a real bonus feature!

[Kurtnoise]

I don't think that the current FFmpeg/Libav support a such feature (to be able to encode audio tracks with more than 5.1 channels)...

[shon3i]

Can someone do a compile of aften with this patch, i would to test it ;)

Thanks

[Kurtnoise]

why you talk about aften ?

anyways, you can grab some windows builds from here (http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/)...E-AC-3 encoding support has been there in the main tree since 15 days.

[kieranrk]

Can someone do a compile of aften with this patch, i would to test it ;)

Thanks

aften is superseded entirely by libav's ac3/e-ac3 support as far as I know now.

[shon3i]

why you talk about aften ?

anyways, you can grab some windows builds from here (http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/)...E-AC-3 encoding support has been there in the main tree since 15 days.
Because i always see Justin behind aften, i didn't know that he work for ffmpeg too. And what is current status of aften? is possible to integrate this patch to aften? I really love to see simple cli encoder like is aften is.

[Kurtnoise]

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=478AF349.5090206%40bellsouth.net&forum_name=aften-devel

[tebasuna51]

More than 3 years old, seems Aften develop is abandonned.

Not only the eac3 encode, but the channel_coupling and the stereo_rematrixing seems works in ffmpeg and not in Aften.

[SeeMoreDigital]

More than 3 years old, seems Aften develop is abandonned.
Bummer...

LoRd_MuldeR has recently added Aften to his LameXP audio encoding application :(

[kieranrk]

Because i always see Justin behind aften, i didn't know that he work for ffmpeg too. And what is current status of aften? is possible to integrate this patch to aften? I really love to see simple cli encoder like is aften is.

ffmpeg -i in.file -ab 192k -y out.ac3

is that really so hard?

[shon3i]

ffmpeg -i in.file -ab 192k -y out.ac3

is that really so hard?
Why simple, when can be complicated:), ofc, ffmpeg is good, but i still love x264 over ffmpeg :)

[jruggle]

More than 3 years old, seems Aften develop is abandonned.

Not only the eac3 encode, but the channel_coupling and the stereo_rematrixing seems works in ffmpeg and not in Aften.
Well, yeah it's pretty much abandoned. At least I'm not planning on spending my time improving it. It still does have multi-threaded encoding, which the Libav encoder does not have, but in pretty much every other way the Libav encoder is better.

[jruggle]

I don't think that the current FFmpeg/Libav support a such feature (to be able to encode audio tracks with more than 5.1 channels)...
No, it does not encode 7.1 yet. That is not on the short-term TODO list, but it is on my long-term list. Currently I am implementing features that will improve quality.

[tebasuna51]

... It still does have multi-threaded encoding, which the Libav encoder does not have, but in pretty much every other way the Libav encoder is better.

And ffmpeg ac3 encode support the same bitdepth input samples than Aften? 24 bits, 32 bits float, ...

[jruggle]

And ffmpeg ac3 encode support the same bitdepth input samples than Aften? 24 bits, 32 bits float, ...
Yes. With Libav it will do like Aften does and convert any input to float before encoding. It doesn't have double-precision encoding, but that's overkill anyway and isn't even turned on by default in Aften.

And on the other end of things, if you have an embedded processor which does poorly with floating-point math, the fixed-point encoder still works if you use "-acodec ac3_fixed".

[Yobbo]

in pretty much every other way the Libav encoder is better.

May I ask, what is a good Libav encoder w/GUI that can replace my long-loved Aften WavToAC3 Encoder?

[DVB-Freak]

I think, a good choice is Audacity with ffmpeg-plugin.

See here:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg

The disadvantage is, you can't adjust the parameters for
ffmpeg, its just the standard-settings for ac3.