I have seen many statements on this and no one seems to agree. So, someone who knows - is Quicktime encoded AAC (the encoder used in iTunes) CBR or ABR at the given bit rate indicated?

Many people claim that Nero's encoder is better because it offers true VBR, but I think we should wait until Roberto's test to test the validity of that statement.

to me it seems like it is ABR, since bitrate varies between 180-210 when i've encoded with 192kbps.

It is CBR. It even faithfully encodes slience at the target bitrate...

The first 2 replys disagree. Thus the confusion. My point is made. I'll go with the AAC developer. I would hope he would know. Roberto, you are the AAC guru. Do you agree?

If you knew who skuo is, you wouldn't even ask... He doesn't want it advertized, but you better listen to him especially regarding Apple AAC issues...

Assuming skuo is short for Stanley Kuo, no I wouldn't.

P.S. my dad taught at Rutgers while you were there. Its a nice school.

Indeed, a lot of confusion: http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=16881

JohnV, thanks for the advertisement...
well, this CBR/VBR info is already availabl along with the product release note. I work for Apple so I am more familiar with it and would like to clear the confusion.

Skuo, its great to have people like yourself on the boards!

Thank you.

Are there any plans to inplement VBR encoding with the Quicktime/iTunes AAC encoder? Thanks

Poor Stanley. At this rate, he'll never return to HA

While we're at it can we ask him for HE-AAC support in Quicktime/iTunes also for 32 to 64k bitrates inside .M4A files iTunes creates?

Your question has already been answered once: "I believe Apple received the request, and it has being evaluated."


Yup. (Mac-)users can be very annoying indeed

if iTunes VBR MP3 finishes last place in your 128 test (and chances are pretty good for that imho), we will know who to blame

Hrmmm me thinks we scared him already.... But thats what I call passionate followers.... but we all must learn patience features will be added as users request them and along the lines of software upgrade policy. The more developers here we have the more chances we have for having features that are really needed developed and implemented.

Cheers

AgentMil

Whoa, whoa... slow down, folks. surprised to see how this turned up...

Glad to see that you are interested in Apple products, though.

I wish I could answer all your questions. However, as an Apple engineer, we are not allowed to say anything that has not been released externally for various reasons (and some are good ones, too). Secondly, believe me, I don't know many of those answers either. Even though I may have a answer or plan for now, it may be changed any time before it is officially released. You may notice that some feature was publicized in last year's WWDC, but the plan was changed after the conference and the feature was removed from the official release. so why bother to confuse you and create trouble for Apple?!

However, what I can sure you is that Apple do care and value customers' feedback. The official feedback channel for various Apple products can be found at:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/
somebody does read and process all the submissions. Of course, questions may not be answered but relevant requests/bugs will be forwarded and handled with care (our group just fixed an AAC codec bug forwarded from the feedback channel yesterday). Features will be evaluated and implemented based on the volume of the request as well as business priorities.

If you have bugs or artifacts relate to Apple AAC codec, as you submit it to the feedback channel you can also send me a copy. Since it's under my responsibility, I may be able to handle it directly.

Thanks and hope this helps a little bit too...