Audio Bitrates

[zworg2]

Please can someone point me too, provide a link to or tell me a little more info regarding audio bitrates.

I have read other posts, guides and tried to find more info but only found tidbits.

Basically what sort of audio bitrate do the different qualities of audio use?
stereo, mono, surround sound etc?

thanks in advance

[daamon]

Hi zworg2,

Your questions fall into the "how long is a piece of string?" category - except that, in this case, it's also "and what is the string made of?"

In short, there's loads of formats that can have either fixed or varying bitrates, and can be mono, stereo, 6 channel etc.

It might be easier if you say why you need to know and that might help to narrow down the options of an answer...

Note: I'm no audio expert, just know enough to know that your questions don't have simple answers.

Good luck...

[zworg2]

Fairy Nuff...

I am authoring DVD's from AVI 's

When i seperate this into audio and picture (in TMPGEnc) i have to set the audio bitrate.

I dont want to set it too high and waste time, but i dont want to set it too low and f*** up my soundtrack!

most of the stuff i will be working with will be simple stereo (two channel) only

What bitrate (approx) should i use to keep the quality but do it as quickly as poss.

i have been using 224..can i go lower?

thanks in advance

[andkiich]

If you are using AC3 compression on the audio, then I've seen acceptable audio quality as low as 192.

If it's MP2 audio, then I tend to go a little bit higher(224 or 384), although I would think that 192 there would be OK as well.

I'd do some tests and see what sounds good to you and through your stereo equipment.

[Gazorgan]

Avi to DVD can be broken down 2 ways.

1) MP3 Audio. Typically this will be Dolby surround downmix of a 5.1 stream if the source is DVD. Stereo if it's a capture or older DVD. Leave the bitrate the same (ie if the AVI as 192 kbps MP3, then convert it to a 192 kbps MP2 or AC3). It's usually 128 or 160 kbps, but can be as low as 96 or 64 kbps (nasty sounding).

2) AC3 Audio. Just leave it intact, no need to convert (unless your player hates it, then it's probably a BeSweet conversion).