MP2 Audio Quality vs MP3s

[urdivine]

I have many MP3s that I have converted to WAV files of which I am cleaning up.

I intend to convert the WAVs to MP2s to put on DVDs.

If I encode the WAVs to MP2s at 192kbps, will the quality of the music be as good as MP3s at 192kbps?

I'm asking because I'm wondering if I need to preserve the quality of my work for future DVDs, ALSO as MP3s.

I hope my question is clear

Thank you

[Cornucopia]

No, as MP2 is not as complex as MP3, it's also not as "efficient".

For "192kbpsMP3-quality", I'd expect to have to make the MP2 bitrate = 224 or 256kbps.
Note: It's not totally linear, so at the top bitrate end both codecs are more similar, at the bottom end MP3 has a much bigger advantage.

Scott

[yoda313]

I'd strongly recommend re-encoding your original audio sources to a dvd compliant audio format - preferably lpcm or ac3. Going from mp3-wav-mp2 will not help quality. Now if you mean static only then yeah it will probably help a little.

But audio is just like video in that going from one format to another tends to reduce quality with each generation you move away from the original source. So you'd be best to start from scratch. Just my two cents here.

[urdivine]

Thank you guys

My originals are MP3s and I do have to edit out a lot of noise, so I will have to do 2 conversions

It looks like you guys are saying that would be better to convert the WAVs to AC3s instead of MP2s.

And.....that I sould ALSO preserve my WAV work as highly encoded MP3s
?

[olyteddy]

Another reason MP2 needs a higher data rate is that MP2 uses 48 KHz sampling rate vs 44.1 KHz for MP3.

[Cornucopia]

44.1Hz --> 48kHz is only an ~8.5% markup, which would require a bump in bitrate from 192kbps to 207kbps, so not quite the comparison I was thinking of.

Although, BTW, both MP2 and MP3 can operate at either 44.1 or 48k. You're probably right in assuming, though, that a conversion from CD/WAV would normally be 44.1 and DVD use would require 48k.


MP3 @ 44.1kHz --> PCM @ 44.1kHz --> PCM @ 48kHz --> MP2 @ 48kHz
isn't very different from
MP3 @ 44.1kHz --> PCM @ 44.1kHz --> PCM @ 48kHz --> AC3 @ 48kHz
except the AC3 is a little bit better quality at same compression, and is more universally compatible for DVD players.

Scott