Audio bitrates? Are there huge noticable differences?

[eze]

Okay, I am just wondering if there is a HUGE difference between audio at 128kbps to say, audio at 224kbps. I mean, can you really tell that there is a huge difference between the two bitrates?

Thanks.

[bilbogod]

Unfortunately this is a kind of subjective question, that warrants a subjective answer. In my opinion you certainly can tell the difference, BUT and this is a big BUT, this is most prominent when comparing it to say the original audio cd or dvd audio. Compression effectively knocks off inaudible frequencies to a lesser or greater degree, although its often at the expense of those sounds that you'd actually wish to here as well.
Remember when you used to use the Dolby noise reduction on your Walkman and it killed the hiss. It did a pretty good job but annoyingly removed much of the treble as well. Often you can just be left with plenty of midrange and not much else.
Its perhaps interesting to note that classical music will often compress losslessly by 1:4 as compared to rock and roll at 1:2. Its all down to the variables in there dynamic range.
As a rule of thumb, if average Joe likes it then don't lose sleep over it

[eze]

So basically, if am converting from DVD to SVCD, then it would probably be better to use a higher bitrate, then to use a lower one, right? I've tried it and it seems to only save me a few MB (128 rather than 224). So I think im going to stick with 224 from now on.

Also, thanks for your quick reply.

[eze]

Oh yeah, one more quick thing... If I am capturing from TV or something else that is not a DVD or audio CD, would there still be a difference between audio bitrates?

Sorry, I always forget what I want to say when I write first post

[TheeeGod 3]

eze you must also remember that when you increase the audio you are ultimately going to have to decrease the video. i think the max svcd bitrate is around 2728 or something close to it. in my personal opinion, i would rather have a better qaulity picture with an inaudible difference in sound than an mediocre picture with a higher yet almost inaudible difference in sound. i would rather be the audio bitrate 128 than let the video bitrate drop below 2600, which is the max for video.

[revjake]

If you're using Tmpgenc, you can set it up to use an outside audio converter. I'd suggest TOOLame---its conversions at 224kbs sound *great* on my system, while sometimes Tmpgenc's built-in ones are a bit iffy.

In general, I don't go below 224 for stereo sources, and use 128 for mono stuff (like cartoons, when I want to fit five Simpsons episodes or so on one disc).

It's like the difference between MP3s at 128kbs and 256kbs---on your standard computer speakers, you might not hear a difference, but on a decent stereo system, you most definitely *will*.

Of course, I'm a bit sound-biased---got a degree in music and all.