I'm looking for what switches/arguments the --dm presets represent .. and links to where that info is listed.

I've seen conflicting reports, but this may simply be cuz the arguments themselves have changed.

One is here:

http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs...y=date#rev1.124 (under 'annotate')

Thx.

Yes, in the last month or so a lot of things have been changing around.

For the ABR presets you have to look in the link you specified above and piece together how they switch around and stuff.

For the new --alt-preset standard, some of the behavior cannot be toggled via the raw command line interface. Meaning there are no switches to enable some of the newer behavior. As I've explained before, I'm not keen on adding even more experimental switches when they shouldn't be there in the first place (the behavior in question should be handled internally by default). Some of these particular changes are going to be making their way into the other VBR presets as well. So to duplicate the particular behavior of the preset you would have to actually specify that preset at the command line. In a way this makes it more than just a simple preset, it is more of a "tuned mode" now, similar in a way to --nspsytune and it's tweaks to the psymodel and how it also defaults other switches (noise shaping 2 for example). In this case, it is just usually higher level.

However, modifying the preset via a separate option specified afterwards still works... something like "--alt-preset standard --lowpass 12" for example. Depending on how I finally implement some of this stuff though certain things may no longer work, like specifying a given -X mode or toggling -Z. This is because some of those things are switched around on the fly for optimal encoding quality and no 1 particular setting is used in the first place.

Interesting - I was just looking at the code for your ABR presets, and there's a variable in there called kbps_compensate which I don't find referenced in help or longhelp.

Out of curiosity, what does it do?

After lots of encoding, it was found that ABR 128 doesn't really give an ABR of 128. Then it was found that ABR 134 gives an ABR of 128. So kbps_compensate is used to compensate from the inaccuracies in bitrate estimation in the ABR engine. User specifies --alt-preset 128, and the preset looks up the kbps_compensate for that bitrate (which is 6) and tells the ABR engine to encode at ABR 134.

Hi & thanks.

I'm trying to help out some encoding newbies, so simpler is better.

I didn't know about the new 'alt' presets .. should I? (are they worth learning?)

I particuipated in the listening test at r3mix forums a few months ago, and was impressed by the quality of the -dm presets (I have good equipment).

Can anyone verify whether any other the following are accurate?:

Std: --nspsytune -V2 -mj -h --lowpass 19.5 -b112 --nssafejoint --athtype 4 --dm-highfreq 3
Xtr: --nspsytune -V2 -mj -h --lowpass 19.5 -b112 --nssafejoint --athtype 2 --dm-highfreq 3
Ins: --nspsytune -V0 -mj -h --lowpass 19.5 -b128 --nssafejoint --athtype 2 -Z


// Standard Preset == --nspsytune -V2 -mj -h --lowpass 19.5 -b112 --nssafejoint --athtype 4 --ns-sfb21 3
// Xtreme Preset == --nspsytune -V2 -mj -h --lowpass 19.5 -b128 --nssafejoint --athtype 2 --ns-sfb21 3 -X3
// Insane Preset == --nspsytune -b320 -h -mj --nssafejoint --lowpass 20 --athtype 2 -X3

Thanks.

Nice to know that some people seem to agree with this sentiment



Well probably. --alt-preset is just --dm-preset renamed. The idea is that instead of only a handful of vbr presets as with the dm-presets, the alt-presets build upon that and add abr and cbr modes as well as signifying changes in the older dm-preset vbr modes. I'm trying to create a totally new "suite" of presets so that there should be something for nearly every situation.



The new --alt-preset standard should be significantly higher quality than --dm-preset standard in some cases, and the bitrate is lower as well. Currently this mode is still in a "testing" phase, though for the most part it should be more "stable" in relation to quality than even the old --dm-preset standard was. You can learn more about it in this thread:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/showth...s=&threadid=411



If you consider the new "standard" mode which is soon to replace this, then this is no longer accurate. However, for the current "official" LAME compiles this is correct, even if it is not up to date with what I am working on at the moment.



Add an -X3 and you'd be up to date.



Insane is no longer VBR. Instead it is 320kbps CBR.

The equivalent line would be:

--nspsytune -b320 -h -mj --nssafejoint --lowpass 20 --athtype 2 -X3 -Z

Note however that with the extreme and insane profile, I will be adding some of the same modifications that --alt-preset standard uses, for which there are no actual command line switches, they have to be enabled internally instead.