Which audio formats has better compression not losing quality ?

[Aug]

Thanks for read my topic.
I wait to convert videos and audio using mkv container.
Shutter Enconder (converter) has available some audio codecs :

FLAC
MP3
AAC
AC3
Dolby Digital Plus eac3

I wish convert having priority to maximum compression possible not losing original quality or losing less quality.

What of codecs below are good choices ?

When converting from MP3 to lossy formats the converted audio will have the same MP3 quality ?
In each new video convertion in an container having an lossy audio codec will be removed quality ?
I see FLAC is very good, but the file is bigger. I only wait archiver some videos. Nothing of bluray or HD etc movies. Thus being has an codec with more high compression with quality more similar compared with FLAC ? eac3 ? ac3 ?

Thanks very much for your reply.
Have an nice week.

[davexnet]

There will always be a loss of quality when your aim is maximum compression.
Flac is lossless, the others are lossy

[ls_milkyway]

Thanks for read my topic.
I wait to convert videos and audio using mkv container.
Shutter Enconder (converter) has available some audio codecs :

FLAC
MP3
AAC
AC3
Dolby Digital Plus eac3

I wish convert having priority to maximum compression possible not losing original quality or losing less quality.

What of codecs below are good choices ?

When converting from MP3 to lossy formats the converted audio will have the same MP3 quality ?
In each new video convertion in an container having an lossy audio codec will be removed quality ?
I see FLAC is very good, but the file is bigger. I only wait archiver some videos. Nothing of bluray or HD etc movies. Thus being has an codec with more high compression with quality more similar compared with FLAC ? eac3 ? ac3 ?

Thanks very much for your reply.
Have an nice week.

I would choose FDK AAC to get best compression/quality....available as non-free FFMPEG license (that means you will have to compile FFMPEG).

[Aug]

Thanks for all replies.

Compression is more related with FLAC.
Others lossy formats the "compression" is exactly the bitrate ?

FDK AAC need to be added in FFMPEG source before compiling ?

[rrats]

FLAC with level 8 compression can compress audio quite well, however it still uses a lot of storage space.

Other formats you've mentioned are lossy and AAC is by far the best one

[El Heggunte]

There are some standalone builds of fdkaac.exe in this ↓↓↓ Doom9 forum thread,
there is no need to build or download a custom FFmpeg build:

https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=171561

Others lossy formats the "compression" is exactly the bitrate ?

MP3 can be strictly-constant-bitrate, AC-3 in theory can be variable-bitrate, but I have never seen /used /created a VBR AC3 stream.
AAC is never constant-bitrate, even when you tell the encoder to use CBR.
Also... if you want "perceptually-lossless" with lossy audio codecs, then I recommend:

256 or 320 kbps for MP3,
128 kbps per channel for AC3,
80 or 96 kbps kbps per channel for AAC.

[davexnet]

Also, Avidemux offers FDKAAC amongst it's audio offerings

[Aug]

Thanks for all replies.
I use Linux Lubuntu (Ubuntu using LXQT ... save much RAM .. OS use only 384 MB RAM) and has Avidemux Linux version.
Have an converter Shutter Enconder allowing use FLAC with compression to level 12.
FLAC compression level above 8 lose quality or is only more compression ?

FLAC really is very good, but if the original audio was recorded using MP3 or AAC converting from MP3 or AAC is only for archiving.
You need to be an superman to listen any changes in some FLAC, AAC or AC3 files ... also for sample rate above 48 khz ...
Who can listen any changes from 48 khz to 198 khz ?

AC3 is more free for both enconder and audio players.
AAC not is totally free.

AC3 using 96 kbps has much less quality than AAC 96 kbps ?

[Cornucopia]

Flac is lossless. It NEVER loses quality, regardless of compression setting. The compression setting just adjust the amount of compression possible. The more compressed, the longer it takes to encode (and possibly decode, but to a much less extent).
It greatly depends on the content, but in general, the best that a lossless compression can do is ~2.8:1. So if uncompressed is 500MB, the lossless version would be ~178.57MB. Lossy codecs can be anywhere from ~2:1 (in lossless mode) to ~50-100:1. You can specify the bitrate or quality of lossy codecs, but you cannot specify either using lossless codecs.

No matter what codec you use, you cannot get better quality than your source. So if your source is a low quality mp3, a converted wav file copy or a flac copy of that will still be that same low quality, and a lossy format (mp3, ac3, aac, ogg...) will be equal or lower quality, depending on the codec and settings.

I very much disagree with your assertion that you cannot tell the difference. That depends on the codec, bitrate, settings, environment, and person. But if you were to do an a/b checkerboard test I would bet that you would be surprised to find you recognized differences where you didn't think you would.


Scott

[rrats]

A really high quality AAC (ex. 540kbps) would probably be impossible to tell from a true losless, however it uses a lot of storage space

[ls_milkyway]

There is no need to build or download a custom FFmpeg build:

Nice to know that fdkaac is available on this forum.

I don't think FFMPEG builds with libfdk-aac are available for downloads....& if so, they are clearly violating FFMPEG's non-free license ....you should not share your FFMPEG built with libfdk-aac.

You can create some files and benchmark using peaqb-fast to conclude which one you wish to use.....

[Aug]

@ Cornucopia
I said "superman" because few peoples listen any changes in quality.

[Cornucopia]

Agree to disagree. I'm no superman, but I can tell. How few? only Millions?

Scott