So... which one is the easiest way to trancode ac3 -> aac (faac) ?

[ookzDVD]

I hope besweet will support it soon :)

[hans-jürgen]

I don't know if and when this might happen, but at the moment there is no other way for this than the method with foobar2000 and its CLI encoder, as far as I know. But this isn't very complicated, all you need (except for the latest FAAC compile) is already inside Case's special installer of foobar (latest version is v0.7 beta 17 from yesterday):

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~cse/html/foobar0.7.html

And that method has the advantage to use all features (internal and external) of foobar2000 while transcoding, one of the most important being the SSRC resample module. Now you can also try out lower bitrates with FAAC than ~100 kbps/stereo (-q90 -c14000 already gave a reasonable sound quality for this bitrate without resampling), e.g. ~80 kbps with -q80 and an activated resample DSP set to 24 kHz. As far as I know, AC-3 files have a sample rate of 48 kHz, so downsampling to e.g. 44.1 kHz would also be possible. And adding ReplayGain during the transcoding should work, too, but I haven't tested it. By the way, the new 24bit input bit depth of FAAC will also help to use these foobar2000 features more efficiently.

One thing I forgot though: if you want to produce MP4 (or M4A) files with this combination, you would also need mp4creator of course. The latest version has renamed the -mpeg-version switch to -aac-profile, so you should use an older version than v0.9.9 or adapt the FAAC preset in the CLI encoder to this change.

[bobsc]

I hope besweet will support it soon

So do I.

Say some prayers - even if you are an atheist.:D

[ookzDVD]

@hans-jürgen,

thank you so much for your reply,
I will try to explore the foobar soon,
I've been using foobar for playing the .mp3 files with it's
kernel streaming support (which produce better sound).
but never try to use it to encode.

[hans-jürgen]

Originally posted by ookzDVD
I've been using foobar for playing the .mp3 files with it's
kernel streaming support (which produce better sound).
but never try to use it to encode. Case's CLI encoder is still quite new, and I only "discovered" it and what it could do when combining it with FAAC, because I was looking for a new foo_mp4.dll input plugin on his site. Now a big part of the "implementations in other applications" passage of the Wiki page is dedicated to that combination. ;)

http://www.audiocoding.com/wiki/index.php?page=FAAC

By the way, the latest foobar2000 version is v0.7 beta 20 now, and the best way to make sure that you have the appropriate plugins is to download the special installer from Case's site which includes foo_ac3.dll, foo_clienc.dll and foo_mp4.dll. The latest source code package of FAAC v1.18 from yesterday is available in the download section of Audiocoding.com:

http://www.audiocoding.com/download.php

There won't be a binary on RareWares before the next week, because Roberto is not at home at the moment.

[ookzDVD]

@hans-jürgen,

Yesterday I did test the foobar to transcode the ac3 into aac
and the result is nice! :)

Btw, is that possible to applay delay just like besweet does ?

thank you.

[hans-jürgen]

Originally posted by ookzDVD
Yesterday I did test the foobar to transcode the ac3 into aac
and the result is nice! :) Thanks, it's always better to trust your own ears than others. ;) I hope you chose a fresh compile of FAAC v1.18 for your test? Did you use the new -I switch, too?

Btw, is that possible to applay delay just like besweet does ? I don't know if there is a DSP plugin for foobar2000 that could add a delay at the beginning of the AAC file. If not, maybe someone will create it if you ask at the foobar2000 forum.

But if you want to use this for interleaving the audio and video tracks, it depends on the container format you're using how or if this is done at all, as far as I know. For example MP4 only uses interleaving for streaming purposes (i.e. "hinting" the tracks inside of the container and adding a RTP payload for audio) and not for storing/playing multimedia files on your HDD. For other container formats this is different, so it would probably be the best to use the appropriate file muxer/editor (e.g. VirtualDub) for adding a delay to the audio (or video) track.