Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    13
    Rep Power
    0

    Default MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

    I am not happy with the way in which RM supports recording to MP3 VBR. The UI offers only very limited control to what LAME can actually do - even for the average, non-expert user.

    By checking "VBR" and one of the four "x Kbps" options there are just four different VBR settings available. Looking at the distribution of frames in VBR recordings from RM it seems that the approach taken by RM is to treat the selected Kbps value as minimum and 320 kbps is always the max limit. E.g. for VBR 192Kbps this results in frames 192..320 Kbps, for VBR 128 Kbps it is 128..320 Kbps. Having such huge ranges does make sense. If I am going for a lower avg bitrate to give smaller file size priority over sound quality, then why should I include frames with max bitrate?

    IMO a much better approach would be to support the LAME "quality setting".
    This setting -Vx which has been introduced with LAME 3.98 defines a 10 level scale for sound quality. The different levels are tuned and oriented towards audible quality and not just kbps figures. They range from "-V0" for for max quality (which is actually 320 CBR) to "-V9" for min quality and storage. The recommended setting for good to excellent quality is "-V2" is VBR with 190 Kbps target bitrate (with most frames in 170–210 Kbps). Which is not possible to directly produce from RM.

    Actually, a long explanation for a short request:
    Would it be possible to support LAME quality setting in one of the next versions?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Posts
    4,488
    Rep Power
    10

    Default Re: MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

    The developer does read the forums so you never know. Thanks for the suggestion.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Posts
    13
    Rep Power
    0

    Default Re: MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

    My experience is that musicreplay doesn't encode VBR at all.
    https://forum.applian.com/showthread...6-VBR-Encoding

    I do not use encoding with Replaymusic any more because of this.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    13
    Rep Power
    0

    Default Re: MP3 VBR (Variable Bit Rate)

    This is exactly what I was thinking when I started this thread:
    https://forum.applian.com/showthread...-and-CBR-files

    But later I found out that the song (rather old one) I recorded from Spotify did just come with 192 kbps. That's why I didn't notice a difference between 192 kbps CBR and 192 kbps VBR.

    I did the same experiment with some recent songs that should come with 320 kbps. Using a tool like Encspot console utility it is obvious that RM indeed does VBR encoding.

    However, as I explained in my earlier post the way how it is done is neither transparent to the user, nor is does it support "real world" use cases.

    I would really very much appreciate if RM could support
    -either LAME quality settings
    - or alternatively, any kind of argument string to be passed to LAME on invocation

    Hoping that the developer reads and understand this ;-)

Similar Threads

  1. Freecorder Bit Rate
    By AcuraTL in forum Freecorder Toolbar
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 10-24-2012, 12:15 AM
  2. Not Getting Set Frame Rate
    By dnlnnhs in forum Replay Converter
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 05-17-2012, 08:00 AM
  3. How to work with FLV captures with variable dimensions/bitrates
    By micha3l in forum Replay Media Catcher
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 04-02-2012, 11:55 PM
  4. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 04-04-2010, 06:58 PM
  5. 48K Sample Rate
    By jen in forum Request New Features
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 11-13-2008, 08:23 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
About these forums...
Applian Technologies makes these discussion forums available for our customers to assist other users. We do read this content and appreciate all your suggestions and comments. If you need technical support or customer service, please visit the links to the right.
Let's Be Friends