Nero Releases FREE Reference Quality MPEG-4 Audio Encoder, Nero Releases Command Line MPEG-4 & 3GPP AAC Solution Options

[woody_woodward]

I finally got around to checking out this encoder. I could not believe my ears regarding how good the sound was. This has been my first experience with this format. Why, oh why, isn't there more hardware and software support for this format? I've been sticking with MP3 because it plays on everything, everywhere. But now.... As Jimmy Carter would say "I have lust in my heart."

[Jebus]

I finally got around to checking out this encoder. I could not believe my ears regarding how good the sound was. This has been my first experience with this format. Why, oh why, isn't there more hardware and software support for this format? I've been sticking with MP3 because it plays on everything, everywhere. But now.... As Jimmy Carter would say "I have lust in my heart."

Probably because, as you put it, everyone has been sticking to MP3. Anyhow - get an iPod!

[optimus]

As this is not an open source encoder, I really hope there are can be more builds for various CPUs (esp. build for AthlonXP).

[bubka]

As this is not an open source encoder, I really hope there are can be more builds for various CPUs (esp. build for AthlonXP).

doesn't later AthlongXPs support SSE2?

or are those just the first K8s

optimus: nice work on mediacoder, keep up the avi to dvd mpeg2 conversion, it seems to be a pretty fast transcoder so far!!!

This post has been edited by bubka: Jul 21 2006, 19:29

[Jebus]

As this is not an open source encoder, I really hope there are can be more builds for various CPUs (esp. build for AthlonXP).

doesn't later AthlongXPs support SSE2?

or are those just the first K8s

optimus: nice work on mediacoder, keep up the avi to dvd mpeg2 conversion, it seems to be a pretty fast transcoder so far!!!

Athlon XP added SSE (vs vanilla Athlon), but it was the first Athlon 64s that included SSE2.

[Garf]

As this is not an open source encoder, I really hope there are can be more builds for various CPUs (esp. build for AthlonXP).

Just use the non-SSE2 build.

[Sagittaire]

Just use the non-SSE2 build.

Your non-SSE build is buggy: lc, he, hev2 switch doesn't work with all RC mode (quality, bitrate, 2 pass). The output file is always he-aac output.

[Garf]

Your non-SSE build is buggy: lc, he, hev2 switch doesn't work with all RC mode (quality, bitrate, 2 pass). The output file is always he-aac output.

Cannot reproduce / user error.

Please provide more information.

[Maurits]

Your non-SSE build is buggy: lc, he, hev2 switch doesn't work with all RC mode (quality, bitrate, 2 pass). The output file is always he-aac output.

IIRC there is a bug in the latest Foobar Final reporting many AAC files as HE-AAC, even if they aren't. It's fixed in the beta's.

How did you test it?

[Sagittaire]

Your non-SSE build is buggy: lc, he, hev2 switch doesn't work with all RC mode (quality, bitrate, 2 pass). The output file is always he-aac output.

Cannot reproduce / user error.

Please provide more information.

I found the problem:

CoreAAC detect always AAC+SBR stream but libfaad2 detect correct stream type (lc, he or hev2)

It's really curious because CoreAAC detect correctly LC or HE with
- your previous version of neroAacEnc.exe
- your old Nero AAC encoder and all the other AAC encoder (QuickTime, Faac, winamp ... etc etc)

This post has been edited by Sagittaire: Aug 1 2006, 08:35

[menno]

Your non-SSE build is buggy: lc, he, hev2 switch doesn't work with all RC mode (quality, bitrate, 2 pass). The output file is always he-aac output.

Cannot reproduce / user error.

Please provide more information.

I found the problem:

CoreAAC detect always AAC+SBR stream but libfaad2 detect correct stream type (lc, he or hev2)

It's really curious because CoreAAC detect correctly LC or HE with
- your previous version of neroAacEnc.exe
- your old Nero AAC encoder and all the other AAC encoder (QuickTime, Faac, winamp ... etc etc)

FAAD2 handles the extended audioSpecificConfig incorrectly.

[Artefacto]

I replaced the May 1 build and regretted it:

CODE

C:\Programas\allow\Exact Audio Copy>naac -lc -br 140 -2pass -if "X:\ARQ\Strappin
g Young Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.wav" -of "
X:\ARQ\Strapping Young Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevor
kian.mp4"
*************************************************************
* *
* Nero Digital Audio Reference MPEG-4 & 3GPP Audio Encoder *
* Copyright © 2006 Nero AG *
* All Rights Reserved Worldwide *
* *
* Package build date: May 26 2006 *
* *
* See -help for a complete list of available parameters. *
* *
*************************************************************

First pass: processed 76 seconds...
ERROR: could not open AAC encoder

C:\Programas\allow\Exact Audio Copy>naac -lc -br 140 -if "X:\ARQ\Strapping Young
Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.wav" -of "X:\ARQ\
Strapping Young Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.mp
4"
*************************************************************
* *
* Nero Digital Audio Reference MPEG-4 & 3GPP Audio Encoder *
* Copyright © 2006 Nero AG *
* All Rights Reserved Worldwide *
* *
* Package build date: May 26 2006 *
* *
* See -help for a complete list of available parameters. *
* *
*************************************************************

ERROR: could not open AAC encoder

C:\Programas\allow\Exact Audio Copy>naac -lc -q 0.3 -if "X:\ARQ\Strapping Young
Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.wav" -of "X:\ARQ\S
trapping Young Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.mp4
"
*************************************************************
* *
* Nero Digital Audio Reference MPEG-4 & 3GPP Audio Encoder *
* Copyright © 2006 Nero AG *
* All Rights Reserved Worldwide *
* *
* Package build date: May 26 2006 *
* *
* See -help for a complete list of available parameters. *
* *
*************************************************************

ERROR: Could not create temporary file
-----> (comment) There was a correct output file though

C:\Programas\allow\Exact Audio Copy>naac -br 140 -2pass -if "X:\ARQ\Strapping Yo
ung Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian.wav" -of "X:\A
RQ\Strapping Young Lad - City [1997]\Strapping Young Lad - 01 - Velvet Kevorkian
.mp4"
*************************************************************
* *
* Nero Digital Audio Reference MPEG-4 & 3GPP Audio Encoder *
* Copyright © 2006 Nero AG *
* All Rights Reserved Worldwide *
* *
* Package build date: May 26 2006 *
* *
* See -help for a complete list of available parameters. *
* *
*************************************************************

ERROR: no valid SBR configuration found

[Garf]

I replaced the May 1 build and regretted it:

Why? I am sure the May 1 version fails in a similar way.

The error is the user not reading the manual.

[shackbu]

Select User Defined Encoder and point the path for the encoder to C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
Set file extension to .m4a

In the commandline box you should enter

CODE

/c C:\"Program Files\Exact Audio Copy"\Nero\neroaacenc.exe -q 0.5 -if %s -of %d && C:\"Program Files\Exact Audio Copy"\Nero\neroaactag.exe %d -meta:artist="%a" -meta:album="%g" -meta:track="%n" -meta:title="%t" -meta:genre="%m" -meta:year="%y"

I am using the command line specified above which appears to produce the file correctly; however the file has not tags and when I try to play it with foobar 0.9.1 i get the following error:

CODE

Unable to open item for playback (Error parsing MP4 file : invalid or missing mvhd data):

followed by the path to the file.

Any ideas for a relative noob?

Thanks

[Artefacto]

I replaced the May 1 build and regretted it:

Why? I am sure the May 1 version fails in a similar way.

The error is the user not reading the manual.

I'm afraid that comment wasn't particularly useful. By manual do you mean "-help"? I had a foobar diskwrite preset (2 pass) that used to work. I didn't use it for a while and it's possible that something was accidentally changed in the interim, but I definitely don't get this "ERROR: could not open AAC encoder", esp when it works anyway...

[rootkit]

neroaacenc -if mvi.wav -of mvi.mp4 -he -q 0.15
*************************************************************
* *
* Nero Digital Audio Reference MPEG-4 & 3GPP Audio Encoder *
* Copyright © 2006 Nero AG *
* All Rights Reserved Worldwide *
* *
* Package build date: May 26 2006 *
* *
* See -help for a complete list of available parameters. *
* *
*************************************************************

Assertion failed: (m_size <= (u_int64_t)0xFFFFFFFF), file .\mp4atom.cpp, line 712

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

This post has been edited by rootkit: Aug 11 2006, 11:46

[riderforever]

Select User Defined Encoder and point the path for the encoder to C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
Set file extension to .m4a

In the commandline box you should enter

CODE

/c C:\"Program Files\Exact Audio Copy"\Nero\neroaacenc.exe -q 0.5 -if %s -of %d && C:\"Program Files\Exact Audio Copy"\Nero\neroaactag.exe %d -meta:artist="%a" -meta:album="%g" -meta:track="%n" -meta:title="%t" -meta:genre="%m" -meta:year="%y"

I am using the command line specified above which appears to produce the file correctly; however the file has not tags and when I try to play it with foobar 0.9.1 i get the following error:

CODE

Unable to open item for playback (Error parsing MP4 file : invalid or missing mvhd data):

followed by the path to the file.

Any ideas for a relative noob?

Thanks

Same problem for me. I'm using EAC with those options, and when I try to open the m4a with foobar 0.9.3.1 I got ->

CODE

Unable to open item for playback (Data truncated)

Notice that if I use Foobar to convert a wav into a m4a using neroAacEnc I can play it with success, and that the file which Foobar can't open can be played by iTunes without any problem.

Is there a bug in foobar, maybe?

[foosion]

Please make sure that EAC is not configured to write ID3v2 tags to the converted files.

[riderforever]

there was the "Add ID3 tag" option selected!

now it works fine!
Thank you foosion, you're the man

[rmittal]

Hi, I just downloaded the neroAacEnc encoder and used it to encode (transcode) some music files (which was previously encoded to mp3 (lame) with the option as V0 (320kbs vbr)) with the Q=0.5 switch.

I have two questions regarding neroAacEnc :-

First one is that what would be better for transcoding the above files (I want to transfer them to my walkman phone so want to save some space and I don't have the looseless format of the above) lame with the option V2 (original encoding with LAME) or neroAacEnc with the option Q=0.5 as both of them give roughly the same files sizes.

My second question is when I encode a file using neroAacEnc with option Q=0.5, I get a resulting bitrate of 175kbps for a particular file. Now if I again encode the original file with the option ABR 2 pass encoding with the bitrate of 175kbps, will both the encoded file have the same quality, if not which file should sound better.

Thanks.

[jarsonic]

Hi, I just downloaded the neroAacEnc encoder and used it to encode (transcode) some music files (which was previously encoded to mp3 (lame) with the option as V0 (320kbs vbr)) with the Q=0.5 switch.

I have two questions regarding neroAacEnc :-

First one is that what would be better for transcoding the above files (I want to transfer them to my walkman phone so want to save some space and I don't have the looseless format of the above) lame with the option V2 (original encoding with LAME) or neroAacEnc with the option Q=0.5 as both of them give roughly the same files sizes.

My second question is when I encode a file using neroAacEnc with option Q=0.5, I get a resulting bitrate of 175kbps for a particular file. Now if I again encode the original file with the option ABR 2 pass encoding with the bitrate of 175kbps, will both the encoded file have the same quality, if not which file should sound better.

Thanks.

the Q settings use the psymodel to get consistant quality throughout the song at varying bitrates. 2-pass encoding with a -Q switch is pointless and should not be used. Where 2-pass encoding IS useful, however, if when going for a certain bitrate using the -br switch. However, while the bitrate will average around your chosen value, the quality will vary. Going with a -Q switch will give you theoretically better quality; whether you can tell the difference is another story.

This post has been edited by jarsonic: Sep 7 2006, 05:43

[rmittal]

Any answers for my first question.

Thanks

[stephanV]

I think you will have to try that out for yourself. There is not many supporting evidence that either one would be better for transcoding.

[jarsonic]

Any answers for my first question.

Thanks

I have an iPod, so I personally would use Nero AAC. However, MP3 is more compatable across the board with all kinds of players, and recent listening tests show that the quality of AAC and LAME MP3 at portable-type bitrates are rather comparable at this point in time. Not sure if there's much evidence right now which format is "better" for transcoding. Just give both a try with your ears and see which one you like more. They should honestly be rather interchangable at the bitrates you're going for.

This post has been edited by jarsonic: Sep 7 2006, 13:07

[rmittal]

I think I will use Nero AAC for the time being.

Anyway thanks to all who helped.