I'm sitting here looking at the Nero encoder, but I'm not sure what a good bitrate would be. VBR Normal :: High, or even Transcoding :: Ultra? I've been looking around the forum and haven't seen any accepted bitrates such as when everyone used to encode MP3's with 128 CBR. Is Nero's MP4 encoder safe to start creating some albums with? Thanks!

Try it yourself... If you can't hear any difference then there isn't one (for you)...

I've tried "Normal" myself and it sounds good to me... Quite low bitrate too...

How does one create an MP4 from AAC? I've been playing around and encoded an AAC from WAV using EAC and aacenc_mpeg4, while using the command line: -normal. I then launch mp4creator60 and use the command: mp4creator60 -create=test.aac test.mp4.



The file drops from 1,427KB to 1,417KB. While encoding the same WAV using Ivan's Nero AAC MP4 at -normal I get 1,308KB, (11.7MB originally). Should I be using aacenc_v215 to make the AAC file instead? Any help would be greatly appreciated because I must be doing something wrong :/

That's one possibility, but it would be easier to use Speek's GUI "Ivan&Menno", if you plan to convert many files from AAC to MP4 with mp4creator. You can find it here:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/~w.speek/ivan&menno.htm

If you only want to convert one file at a time, you can also use Winamps's input plugin in_mp4.dll via Alt-3 (file info).



You mean, because bigger files are always better? No, the difference comes from the redesigned psymodel that Ivan implemented into Nero AAC. There are some problems with certain music styles like harpsichord music that need fixing. (Hi guruboolez, I'm already waiting for the next bluescreen... ) But if you have both encoders, you should do some testing on your own with your preferred music and listen closely if the -normal preset sounds OK to you with Nero AAC.

Does anyone else have the problem in XP where DOS programs pop up and disappear when you click them? This seems to happen while trying to encode using Ivan & Menno.

EDIT: btw thanks for the help sach and hans

Does it manage to encode something or doesn't anything happend at all?

Not to make you sound a fool but are you sure that you've placed aacenc_mpeg4.exe , aacenc.exe and mp4creator.exe under the same directory as "Ivan & Menno"...? (Wierd program name by the way. )

They are there, I double checked to make sure. When I push 'encode' or 'convert' it shows a DOS window pop up for less than a sec then disappears. But yeah, it is finding aacenc and aacenc_mpeg4; just not encoding. Strange. I'm thinking it has something to do with WinXP and DOS-based programs... :/

No i don't think it has anything to do with WinXP and command prompt progs, i've never had such a problem. Don't know what the reason can be...

Run the create batch file from command prompt to check what's wrong (window won't disappear there).

No, I use Windows XP myself and I have no problems what so ever. Put one file in the encoding list and try to encode. If it doesn't work, check out the contents of "aacbatch.bat" in the same directory as "Ivan & Menno" and see if everything's like it should...

To prevent us from making wrong suggestions, could you publish contents of your dir?
edit: nevermind.
edit2: Or better contents of aacbatch.bat.
If you enabled that 'mp4' radio button and hit 'convert' everything should work.
Oderweis quit 'I&M', open aacbatch.bat, type 'pause' at the end of it, save it, run and see what happens.

Hmm, I have a similar problem on Win95 when I want to look at the help text from FAAD with "Ivan & Menno". This option creates a help.bat file that will be placed in the task bar and when I click on it, the help screen will run through once without stopping, so I can't read it. This does not happen with AACEnc's help screen which stops after one page like it's meant to be.

As far as I remember the conversion with mp4creator worked the same way, so I had to click on the batch file in the task bar first, and then the AAC file got converted. By the way, watch out if you choose the same input and output directory for this and want to keep the *.aac file: mp4creator and/or Speek's GUI will replace it instead of just copying it like the Winamp plugin.

Another BTW: I think it would be a good idea to also include FAAC (not only PsyTEL FastEnc) as a valid option for the encoder, because this way you could easily produce encodings with different AAC codecs.

And the presets for AACEnc should maybe use -resample 32000 for -tape and radio on default, because this helps with the most obvious flanging artifacts.

Can FAAD work as a real time audio player for AAC files, too? I wonder what this option -w (write output to stdio instead of a file) will do... This way I wouldn't need any other player besides Mpxplay anymore.

I will try that. I tested the same i&m folder on a Win98 comp and the encoder actually popped up and started working. One more question, when converting cd to wav with eac, what wav format do I use? There is like MS IMA ADPCM CODEC, MS PCM Converter, MS G.723.1 CODEC, is there much difference between the ones that make wavs?

Another way to convert all AAC files rooted below Drive:Path would be to cd to Mpeg4ip directory and enter the command
FOR /R Drive:Path %I IN (*.aac) DO mp4creator60.exe -optimize -create="%~fI" "%~dpnI.mp4"

This will recurse all directories below Drive:Path and non-destructively create a MP4 file with the same filename in the same directory as the corresponding AAC file.

1. Put all needed files in directory pointed by path variable. (edit: on XP system. It helped for me (2k sp2))
2. MS PCM Converter 16 bit 44100 kHz stereo. Other are some stupid useless lossy codecs.

Normal::High is transparent for me for the most of music amples
Extreme::High or even for hard to compress music

Is the Nero encoder the best aac/mp4 encoder available?
I'm using aacenc_mpeg4 with Ivan&Menno gui, which is free.
Is this encoder worse than the one in Nero?

Well, I tend to disagree.. at the time, before mp3 was out, the ADPCM 1:4 codec did a pretty decent job on your average 44.1 samples

But then mp3 came out, and ogg, aac, mpc, etc (<- this one is my favourite ) ...