Hey there. Ran across your forum doing a Google search for an answer to my problem. Obviously I didn't find an answer anywhere else :-).
Here's the problem: I'm trying to use Windows Media 9 Encoder to archive some old recordings for web streaming (I'm making Multiple-Bitrate files). I have made my own encoding profiles for different sorts of recordings, but I have some recordings which are mono, yet have a frequency range that exceeds what I get with a 48k WMA file. No matter where I go, no matter what I try, it seems that Windows Media Encoder will not encode a mono WMA file at a bitrate higher than 48k. Every bitrate above 48k is stereo only.
That would be fine, except that the quality of a mono WMA file is about twice that of its stereo bitrate equivilent (obviously, it's encoding half the info). So, basically, I can encode very nicely up to 48k in mono, and then when I create the 64k stereo version, we're basically going backwards in quality, as it's basically encoding two 32k copies, one per channel, even though they're the same.
I would hate to have to waste the bandwidth pushing a 128k stereo WMA file of a mono WAV when a 64k mono WMA would sound just fine at half the cost. Am I doomed? For multi-bitrate web streaming, WMA is flat-out the best option I have (trust me, I've lost sleep over this... never mind the three years I waited for Vorbis to do something on the streaming side with bitrate-peeling, then just said the hell with it. Actually, Real isn't bad for this kind of thing, but my target audience largely refuses to install RealPlayer. And I don't blame them). I'd hate to think there isn't just an option somewhere I'm missing.
Thanks for the forum and thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this.
-Mark