Recommended kbits/sec Settings ??

[christopheramos]

Hello,

I'm frameserving tv episodes through Vdub and TMPGEnc plus. In the audio settings, I am setting the audio to 48000 Hz and joint stereo (my DVD authoring software seems to prefer those settings).

But in terms of kbits/sec, which is best for my settings?
1. 112,
2. 128,
3. 160,
4. 192,
5. 224,
6. 256,
7. 320 or
8. 384

I'm not sure the importance of the kbits/sec setting.

Thanks!!!
Chris

[ZippyP.]

The bitrate affects how much the audio is compressed, and it applies to video bitrate as well.
Higher bitrate = less compression = higher quality, up to a point where it won't make much difference.

I prefer 192 kb/s minimum for MP2 or MP3, some will say they can make do with less and some will say they like more.

[GMaq]

Hi,
I agree with the previous poster, 192 is quite adequate, bear in mind that if you ever want to convert these files to another format you don't want to be too stingy with bitrate, I would consider 160 to be the minimum IMHO.

[guns1inger]

If these are downloaded episodes, 192 is fine. If you captured them yourself, use g-spot to see what bitrate they currently use, and stay close to it if possible.

Generally, for stereo from a good quality source (CD, DVD etc) 256 is the sweet spot for 2.0, and 448 for 5.1. 384 for 5.1 is an acceptable minimum, with 192 being acceptable to most for 2 channels. I prefer 224 for 2.0 AC3 myself, unless the source is very high quality.