I read/searched, but couldn't find an answer. But was there ever a consensus on what to arguments to use with the command-line encoder for iPod compatibility AND to keep the file size low?

e.g.
-lc forces LC, but has a higher bitrate
leaving out -lc keeps the bitrate much lower, but may or may not be an LC AAC file

Strange enough, both files at Q0.5, but bitrates varying a lot.

Just use -lc and tweak the -q setting until you get the kind of bitrate you like.

The bitrate only increases because the quality scale has a different base. The encoder doesn't suddenly get less efficient or anything.

What is meant by iPod compatibility? Just to force LC profile I suppose? There are no compatibility issues are there?

I don't understand what that means exactly, but just to clarify, Q0.5 with and without -lc should sound the same, but the bitrates would just vary?


Yup, I think iPods only do LC right now.

No. When you force -lc, the quality scale shifts, and Q0.5 doesn't have the same meaning as without -lc.

Basically, -q0.5 means "encode at some constant quality level". But when you force the encoder to LC mode, "-lc -q0.5" means "encode at some other constant quality level". The reasons for this are explained at length in other threads here.


As I stated already in my first answer, just lower the -q setting till you get the bitrates you want again.

so what would the best setting for ~128kbps be?

I would assume 0.4, but foobar2000 has 0.41 = ~130kbps, so I'm a tad uncertain

If you want 128kbps, use "-br 128000". VBR never guarantees a given bitrate.

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=44310

So just to clarify, using -q 0.5 without -lc will still be perfectly iPod compatible, because (at least right now) 0.5 is not using HE anyhow, correct?

And if I want to find the equivalent with -lc enabled, all I need to do is find a -q setting that gives the same bitrate on the same file, and it should be of identical quality to the -q 0.5 file without -lc? Nothing else will be going on there? Different lowpass for example?

I think this is a confusing design decision, while I understand the reasoning.

I'm using this command line with EAC:



and it is producing m4a files that give the error:



when I attempt to add them to my foobar playlist. I have no idea what to do about this problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can provide the specs of my computer if needed.

There is a link to this thread in the HA wiki. I am wondering if that link shouldn't point to the sticky instead of this thread.

Also, all the wiki pages on AAC are all locked for editing. I'm a total noob to the wiki but i thought the whole idea was that anyone could edit/contribute. What's the deal?

Sorry if this isn't the place for this post, but I'm not sure where else to ask this question.

EDIT: Figured it out on my own (found the wiki forum) sorry for the post in the wrong place.

I know that this post is old, but I was having precisely the same problem when I encoded using the latest Nero AAC encoder, and I seem to have found what the problem was. I am using the command line from the sticky-thread about recommended Nero AAC settings, but I kept getting this "moov box not found" error over and over again. iTunes just refused to play it, and Quicktime said it was a format that it did not understand. The problem was that I had the "Add ID3 tag" option in EAC checked by accident, and unchecking it and redoing the rip/encode fixed the problem. I have searched for quite a while on HA and on Google, but nobody seemed to post a solution, so to anybody out there experiencing it, just something to try.

For stereo, right? Multichannel would be higher?