Determing the bit-depth or audio sample size

[Oklenard]

I have been trying to understand the difference between 16-bit and 8-bit audio when encoding video. I believe that the DVD I start with has 16-bit audio but my resulting low-band video should have 8-bit audio.

I have been doing my own experiments and tests and have one big problem... I want to verify my results but I can't seem to identify what the bit-depth is.

I have downloaded every suggested codec/video analyzer and verifier that I could find and still only get the codec, bitrate, KHz and stereo/mono info.

Is there a way to determine the bit-depth or amplitude of the audio in my resulting encoded files? I am specfically working with Flash, WMV, h.264 and it would be great to be able to see this info straight off the vob as well.

Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

[edDV]

I have been trying to understand the difference between 16-bit and 8-bit audio when encoding video. I believe that the DVD I start with has 16-bit audio but my resulting low-band video should have 8-bit audio.

I have been doing my own experiments and tests and have one big problem... I want to verify my results but I can't seem to identify what the bit-depth is.

I have downloaded every suggested codec/video analyzer and verifier that I could find and still only get the codec, bitrate, KHz and stereo/mono info.

Is there a way to determine the bit-depth or amplitude of the audio in my resulting encoded files? I am specfically working with Flash, WMV, h.264 and it would be great to be able to see this info straight off the vob as well.

Any info is appreciated. Thanks.

You should be using 16bit audio for most projects. 8 bits will sound like AM radio with digital artifacts. Compression software may steal unneeded bit depth as part of the compression process.