Lame and bit rate

[jpc82]

I'm trying to deside if I should use Stereo or Mono for some files and I wanted to know of some one could explain something to me.

In VirtualDub when I select Lame MP3 encoding for audio it has the bitrate on the right hand side. Now if it says 15KB/s for Mono then all 15KB/s is for the one chanel. But what about 15KB/s stereo, is that two chanels of 15, so 30KB/s. Or are both chanels sharing that 15Kb, so its only 7.5KB/s per channel. This would be a big difference in size in one case or quality in the other.


Thanks

[Kingnog]

Usually i don't respond if I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm about 85% sure its 7.5 each channel

[jimmalenko]

Usually i don't respond if I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm about 85% sure its 7.5 each channel

I'm about 90% sure you're right

[jpc82]

So basically by using Mono I would get only one channel, but it will be twice the quality.

[midnightsun]

twice the bitrate per channel actually. If your source is stereo you should not downmix to mono though.

[jpc82]

What is wrong with converting stereo audio to mono?

For what I need stereo audio is not needed, and by using a lower bitrate with mono I get same quality, and more space for the video.

[Kingnog]

What do you need it for? Downmixing to mono will lose all the spacial information contained in stereo recordings

[jpc82]

Its just some small videos which I normally watch on the train to school with headphone. But most of the time I share the headphones with someone else so we are only getting one channel each anyway.

Is there an audio filters I should use when converting to Mono or do I just select a mono option with lame?