Choice of AAC encoders for public test. Options

[IgorC]

It's related to Public Listening Test (discussion)

[antman]

This is poll madness! I can't keep up.

[kornchild2002]

I voted for "Apple true VBR, Apple constrained VBR, Nero, winner of internal pre-test (Divx vs Coding Technologies)" simply because I want to see how the public perceives Apple's TVBR and CVBR AAC encoder settings. It might be a lot but I think it is worth throwing in there. Then Windows users can either sleep soundly knowing that iTunes CVBR AAC performs on par with QuickTime TVBR AAC or they can pursue other means to get QuickTime TVBR AAC on Windows (which would hopefully push others to make a gapless TVBR encoding option using QuickTime).

[C.R.Helmrich]

This is poll madness! I can't keep up.

You're right. This should be the last poll for the upcoming test.

Chris

[hellokeith]

How will the samples be encoded w/ Nero, Divx, & Coding Technologies ?

Because if you start using lots of special parameters, options, piping, etc in one encoder, then you can't really argue against a non-standard use of the Apple encoder.

[C.R.Helmrich]

Well, I'm in favor of minimal command lines, i.e. no quality switches, just out-of-the-box performance as in iTunes, for example.

In the nero case, that would mean command line: "neroAacEnc.exe -q {} -if input.wav -of output.m4a"

Chris

[jido]

Can you get same average bitrates on a non-problem music collection using iTunes true VBR and iTunes constrained VBR?

[Woodinville]

See if you can get the old AT&T encoder for rates 128kb/s stereo and above.

[C.R.Helmrich]

JJ, actually, I'd be kind of interested to hear that. Is a 128-kb demo version publicly available, or can you make it publicly available?

Chris

[halb27]

Can you get same average bitrates on a non-problem music collection using iTunes true VBR and iTunes constrained VBR?

For my standard test collection of non-problematic various old and new pop music
--tvbr 60 (or 65) takes 128 kbps on average
--cvbr 128 takes 134 kbps on average (down to --cvbr 120 it's still 134 kbps, --cvbr 119 takes 116 kbps, so --cvbr 128 is an appropriate setting for the target bitrate).

[IgorC]

194 files (18 CDs) rock music.

TVBR, HIGHEST (945,764,060 bytes) bitrate(foobar): 133 kbps
CVBR, NORMAL (957,294,913 bytes) bitrate(foobar): 135 kbps

CVBR produces +1.2% larger files. It's more than acceptable taking into account that we will compare compromising VBR settings for Nero and Apple encoders as Nero produces larger files on rock/metal music while Apple does on classic. The difference is considerable ~10%. So 1.2% is much less than 10%.

This post has been edited by IgorC: Jan 24 2010, 18:33

[guruboolez]

For classical music
Encoded this complete box, 55 CD, 730 tracks, 58h30 of music including few mono discs (~30 tracks). I choose it for the test because FLAC bitrate (577 kbps) is very close to the average bitrate of my entire classical collection. So I assume this box is very representative for my usage.

QT 7.6.5 AAC TVBR 60 --highest: 127 kbps (minimum: 70 kbps ; maximum: 148 kbps) l encoding time¹: 1h56 (x30)
Nero AAC 1.5.1 VBR 0.42: 129 kbps (minimum: 87 kbps ; maximum: 143 kbps) l encoding time¹: 1h30 (x39)



____
¹ on Intel Core2Duo E6300, two cores encoding with foobar2000

[IgorC]

For rock, metal, alternative, pop music. 31 CDs.

QT 7.6.5 AAC TVBR 65 --highest: 129 kbps
itunes CVBR : 131 kbps
Nero AAC 1.5.1 VBR 0.41 : 131 kbps

Nero's q 0.41 has comparable bitrate on rock music and q0.42 on classic.
q0.415 will be good compromise.

Albums:

CODE

1    Gustavo Cerati, Fuerza Natural
2    Soda Stereo, Hits
3    AC/DC, Hits CD1
4    U2, No line on the horizon
5    Fear Factory, Demanufacture
6    Steve Vai, The 7th song
7    Tarkan, Karma
8    Pink Floyd, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
9    Sepultura, Roots
10    Korn, Greatest Hits vol.1
11    Queen, A Night At The Opera
12    Queen, Innuendo
13    Bob Dylan, Modern Times
14    Slayer, Seasons in the abyss
15    Slipknot, All hope is gone
16    Ozzy, Prince of Darkness CD3
17    Ashkhabad, City of Love
18    Moby, Play
19    Depeche, Song of faith …..
20    Barkley, Crazy - St. Elsewhere
21    Beck -Güero
22    Coldplay - Viva La Vida
23    Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
24    The Prodigy, Music For The Jilted Generation
25    Type o Negative, Dead Again
26    Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
27    Depeche Mode, Ultra
28    Rolling Stones. Bridge to Babylon
29    Verve, Urban Hymns
30    Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed
31    Roger Taylor, Fun in Space

This post has been edited by IgorC: Jan 25 2010, 20:35