How is RealMedia (.rm) Audio quality measured?

[mr_jbloggs]

Hi I have a song in .rm format and when I look at the properties through RealMedia Player, it says 20Kbps how good/bad of quality is this. My understanding is that mp3 songs at 128 Kbps is CD quality, is there a similar number for .rm songs?

Thanks in advance

[mikiem]

It's all a bit subjective, but roughly speaking 128 Kbps should be roughly comparable between the 2. OTOH, It is possible to have other then plain vanila rma, & that *might* give it a quality boost, but not anywhere close from 20 -> 128.

[guns1inger]

MP3 @ 128kbps is way below CD quality. 192 would be closer, but still not there.

[celtic_druid]

Depends if it is CBR or VBR. A lame encoded VBR mp3 at ~128k can be transparent.

I'd put 20k ra well bellow CD quality.
ra can be cook, atrac3, AC3 or aac though.

[mr_jbloggs]

Thanks for the replies, very interesting.