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Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

Please post your fab full screen video method. :)

I like your idea on cutting down the file size of each song.

The past few months, I've been doing the exact opposite though.

Instead, I've been upgrading all of my 128kps music by ripping them again at 320kbs.

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

mp3->wav->mp3? yuck, how about just use FLAC on the original source

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

...tons of music @128kbit "quality"? "Funniest" (or saddest) thing i've read today. Especially with 32GB cards.
That post is a witness why the web in 2013 still won't get rid of so called quality. :(
F*ck file size: the loss of bandwidth too often coupled with decoder/high-frequencies ringing doesn't compensate. Even in 2004 i preferred at least 192kBit MP3s on my SX1, and that thing had a mere 512MB MMC. What are desktops /harddisks for? Storage!

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

If you are unable to hear a difference between at least 128 and 256, you should go see a specialist. Seriously. Maybe over the last 30 years you were living with f*cked-up hearing without noticing; building instruments isn't proof of the opposite. I mean, also Beethoven was deaf and so on. Referring to some pages on the web won't help you with that. My hearing is more than ok, i have the test printouts from this month here in my table, as i took the opportunity during a scheduled visit.

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

Anyway. None of the Nokia Internet Tablets supports mp3pro, so you're just wasting time/money in encoding with that format. A non-mp3pro compatible player will only "see" the mp3-standard part.

From http://www.mp3licensing.com/mp3/mp3pro2.html:

And as @don_falcone says, space is not a factor anymore. For something like a N900 you want hardware decoding and/or low CPU usage.

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

while interesting, i would hesitate to call that experiment a scientific study.
there were no controls and far too many variables {sound equipment, test data, sample selection, sample size}.

however, there are studies that also suggest that perceived audio quality is not directly correlated with data rates. most people cant tell the difference between average and high data rates. however, studies {including the one you posted} also suggest that a non-trivial portion of people who care about it can do much better than average.

the moral of the story is to use ogg vorbis at quality 5 and get better perceived quality, a smaller file size, and a codec unencumbered by patents or commercial ill will.

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

The reason why I stopped using 128 kbs, is probably more psychological than anything else.

Having a bit rate that low somehow began to feel "dirty" to me.

I guess it's a little silly of me to only have 320 kbps songs now because I've also heard of similar studies.

Anyway, my video settings probably tops anyone else using an older, Maemo 4 tablet.

For normal videos and movies:

640x360
.avi (Xvid)
25 fps
900 bit rate
44,100 hertz
128 kbps

For cartoons:
720X480
.avi (Xvid)
15 fps
900 bit rate
22,050 hertz
128 kbps

Both need to be used with Mplayer, the stock Media Player can't handle them.

It's also wise to shut down all apps and go into flight mode.

Also, try this for a YouTube video:

Find one that has 360p (.mp4).

Go here:
http://www.clipconverter.cc

Select .avi (Xvid) and crank it up to 768 kbps.

Continue.

Save.

Download.

Play it on Mplayer with everything else closed down.

Not too bad looking on a 6 year old tablet. :)

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

it's not the fact that 128kbps is horrible.. (it actually is)... it's transcoding that will ruin everything beyond what you imagine.

I used to not care about the quality... until one day i decided to go FLAC and compare... It was a whole new song!

So, I only have FLACs on my phone (might be overkill, sure, but I can't bother converting them to mp3 320kbps) and MP3 320kbps when FLAC is not possible, nothing lower.

You'll obviously won't notice much difference / none at all with the stock earbuds that come from most devices.

The difference IS there and i'm partially deaf since I was born. So all of you who have good ears, stop making me sad and go get proper music.

The day someone figures out how to steal someone else's good ears and put them on another person, will be the day half of the internet gets deaf. Mwahahahah

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

I have a few .flac songs, and yeah, I'm pretty sure I can hear the difference.

Up to 50 megs on one file though is a bit too much as I've got about 45,000 songs.

Also, the time slider doesn't work in Xmms playing .flac files. :(

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

This thread should be moved to Offtopic

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

Unfortunately none of that is quite true.

Free
Yes, for the Thomson demo (which is ancient). There still remains, to the best of my knowledge, asubstantial lciencin fee on a per unit basis to manufacturers of codes and decoders, frees which are substantially (50-100%) higher than for mp3.

It encodes your mp3s at 64kb/s but retains the quality of a 128 recording
Nope. The quality is equivalent to somewhere between 96kb/s and 128kb/s. And then only if you encode form the highest possibl;WAV, preferable the original.

less than half the space of the original mp3.
Er, depends. It takes up more space than a normal 64Kb/s MP3 (since in essence it IS a 64Kb/s MP3 with an additional stream carrying the higher frequencies)

It'll play on anything that will or can play an mp3 file
Indeed. On the other hand it'll only playback the 64Kb/s part and totally ignore the PRO part if your player is not an MP3Pro player. Which almost nothing is these days*, and certainly not the players on the n800, n810 and n900 or, indeed, the n9. So if you've been hearing a difference ... well, it is, I'm afraid, all in your mind.

In other words all you are doing is turning your 128Kb/s mp3 into a 64Kb/s mp3. Only with a file size that will be slightly larger than a genuine 64kb/s mp3.

Obviously they were going the right direction in their r&d to entice or worry a corp like dolby to absorb them into a division of their company.
Entice, rather than worry, I'd argue. The spectral band replication (SBR) technique originally developed for mp3pro made its way in HE-AAC.

An irony might be that HE-AAC v2 is also commonly known as enhanced AAC Plus, or eAAC+, which is the M4A format that Nokia PC Suite used to like converting your music files to before downloading to your phone ...

*If you bother looking at the MP3Pro website that you yourself link, you'll notice that all the devices and software mentioned are at least 10 years old. They suggest that they'll update the site when they hear anything new. It was last updated in 2005 ...

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

OK. Let's say you have two options:

(a) encode using standard MP3 with, say, 128Kbit/s
(b) encode using MP3pro with, say, 224Kbit/s (or whatever produces the same file size as standard MP3), at the expense of losing compatbility with just about anything in this world.

(a) and (b) would take the same size, but according to the study you mention nobody would tell the difference.

If you choose a lower bitrate on (b), the size would be smaller, the quality (according to your study) would still play no role, but the compatibility problem would still be there. Easy solution: just lower the bitrate on (a).

Obviously, if bitrate actually makes a difference (and I suppose it does at some point, to *my* ears mp3 with 4kbps is sufficient :), then you want to maximize the information a -- standard -- player can use, and that's something you can only achieve with a standard format, i.e. not mp3pro.

Re: Encoding MP3 for devices - an absolute must have
 

See my commment just before yours. There is not a compatibility issue

96Kbs is a fast as mp3pro gets (giving you an equivalent mp3 rate of somewhere between about 120 to 192kbs)