Using FAAC for encoding movie audio track Options

[Dark Shadow]

Hi,

For capturing analogue TV shows (yes, old stuff isn't it?), I'm using mencoder and x264. Not sure about what to use for the audio track though.
With mencoder, I can only use FAAC and no other AAC encoder, at least without going through a hassle. Now I wonder, is that better or worse than lame at the same bitrate? Bitrate should be around 80 or 96, definitely not above 128 (if using AAC, for lame I'd go with 128 to be on the safe side).

I tried looking for information about this, but most sources are from 2005 and therefore not very up-to-date. How does FAAC (1.28) compare nowadays?

[LithosZA]

FAAC does not do well at all at 128Kbit/s last time I checked. You would be better off using LAME or an alternative AAC encoder such as Apple's AAC encoder.

Edit: I don't know mencoder, but Vorbis might be the best option by muxing Vorbis and H.264 into a MKV container.

This post has been edited by LithosZA: Oct 11 2012, 11:58

[hlloyge]

I've encoded, with Handbrake (which uses faac aac encoder), numerous DVDs, with average bitrate of 112 kbit stereo. No problem as far as I can hear.

[jossilint]

ffmpeg with hi-quality fdk-aac integrated does the job too.

ffmpeg -i INFILENAME -c:a libfdk_aac -profile:a aac_low -flags +qscale -global_quality 3 -afterburner 1 -vn OUTPUT_AAC.m4a

[Dark Shadow]

Thank you all for your suggestions and recommendations. I think I'll just use lame preset 96, my capture card does only mono anyway, and that should be enough for that task and is easy and unproblematic.