Hey,

why does lame.exe, the impersination of quality, default to cbr 128? Why doesnt it encode to V2 if no arguments are set?

The lame(.exe) frontend is currently rather messy (many undocumented/experimental switches). Read the "simplifying LAME switches" thread for more information.

Cause all the people I know that would use a tool... any tool without any options do not know what they want or they do not care.
128 cbr is perfect for those who will not bother with advanced switches and they will not be able to distinguish 320 cbr from 128 cbr even if they had to.
On top of that those users might even complain for larger files and slow execution..so let it be cbr 128, I see no problem with that really.

Compatability. There are hardware players and other things that cannot handle VBR.

Another reason being some people "may" like to just drag and drop wav files onto lame.exe to get an Internet standard quality mp3 without having to use batch files, or a frontend end. However, anyone concerned and curious with or about quality will surely read the documentation and learn about using high quality presets.

What I do have a problem with is that if someone wants to dig slightly deeper, they'll run lame and see how to get help, so they run lame --help and see this:If someone gets that far I'd say they're looking for more than "anything to make it work", so under a heading of Recommended I'd expect to see something more like --preset standard rather than simply -h (which just gets you CBR128 still).

I know I've ranted this point before and got nowhere, so I don't expect to get anywhere this time either, but I can still rant

lol.

Maybe it should be removed all together or add 2-3 recommended options using size/quality ratio criteria.
Anyway it is so easy that anybody can output a few messages modifying the code a little bit but it would be sacrilege

Why don't they make --alt-preset (or --preset or whatever) cbr 128
the default option? That way lame would by default use the best settings for
128 kbps, and make life easier for those who can't be bothered with switches
and simply use the encoder as is (not me he he...)

People who understand the naunces of hardware compatability probably know who to use LAME though.

I'd like it changed to preset standard. Just seems to make sense that the standard preset actually be the default option. Particularly since most people are probably using it anyway.

Thats just my take though.

I also ranted on this post:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....owtopic=21350&#

I also got nowhere, and its sad since APS has been recommended what seems like for ages now and it still isn't "recommended" via the documentation. I'm not even going to bother trying to change any more minds since it seems futile.

Sad but true. My fu**ing Philips DVD 620 can play mp3s. It can play VBR. Unfortunately no one knows exactly, what it plays. Why it crashes on quite a few mp3s (freezes, fastest way is to pull the plug then). This shitstain of a player. Maybe its only cbr safe, who knows.

Yes, but that is not the issue. The issue is average Joe who does not have a clue about lame switches and happily goes out to buy a portable or a DVD-player that may not support VBR. Its for him that the default settings must be cbr.


Philips are claiming that their players support VBR, but that is just nonsense. Their player only support a few bitrates, and from what I seen in the specs, bitrates like 160, 192 and 320 is usually not supported on their players. What kind of VBR algorithm would jump between 128 and 256 only ??? You should stick to CBR for that player...


I thought it was so in 3.95 and forward?

This would just produce additional useless cd roms. I've got some existing ones with good and medium quality vbr, mainly for my car audio and it would have been great to use them with the philips dvd.
BTW, specs: Where did you read them? In the user manual?

IIRC there are compiles of lame available that encode to --alt-preset standard only.

I know that's not what you were asking, but still...


IME most mp3 encoders default to 128kbps. It was the mp3 "standard". It's what mp3 was originally designed for.


It would be foolish to change default lame behaviour now, but it may make sense to review it when 4.0 is reached. ~128k ABR and aps are two obvious alternative defaults.

Cheers,
David.

Changing behaviour, maybe, but changing the "Recommended" string in --help? I don't think that's foolish at all.

Product sheets I found on the Philips website. Here is the 625 for instance:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvd625_...001_pss_eng.pdf
Page 2, under audio, says it support bitrates up to 128 and 256 and VBR. But if 160, 192 and 320 isn't supported, not many VBR files would work...

I don't agree. That would mean trouble for average Joe who does not have a clue about lame switches, and who maybe owns for instance a Philips DVD player. Using Lame he wouldn't be able to play his MP3 files, and most likely he wouldn't bother about looking into switches and just switch to using Musicmatch or something else. I think that the deafult settings should create files that are playable on everything, including crappy hardware...

http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvd620_...001_pss_eng.pdf Does say nothing about bitrates. Not a problem, I've realized this player is simply crap, I'll drop it into my trashbin...