Need a few Terms Explained

[whoster69]

I'm getting ready to buy a DVD player. I've been reading over the FAQs and have been using the DVD players Compatibility List to do research. There are a few things on the list that I haven't been able to find explanations for. I would appreciate some help.

Under SVCD there's something called tracks that's listed with some players. What are these tracks and why are they important? (why are they on the list)?

Under MP3, sometimes there will be VBR (which I think stands for variable bit rate). What does this mean and why is it important?

I'm trying to figure out if these things are of value to me or not. Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks.

Shannon

[snowmoon]

SVCD tracks = different audio tracks, SVCD technically supports 2 audio tracks, but many dvd player will only play the first one.

VBR = variable bitrate. Since these are popular it's good to know.

[whoster69]

SVCD tracks = different audio tracks, SVCD technically supports 2 audio tracks, but many dvd player will only play the first one.

VBR = variable bitrate. Since these are popular it's good to know.

So why do I need two audio tracks? Is one mono and one stereo? Or is one in one language and one in another?

Regarding VBR, I still don't understand how this works. Does this mean instead of a song being recorded at say, 128kbps, it might change it's bit rate on the fly so to speak? Why would this be good?

Thanks for responding. I appreciate the help tremendously!

Shannon

[snowmoon]

Generally one is one language and one in another, or possibly one main and one for director commentary....

VBR allows the encoder to flex based on the complexity of the song at that moment in time to allow for higher quality at the same size or smaller files at the same quality.

[whoster69]

Generally one is one language and one in another, or possibly one main and one for director commentary....

VBR allows the encoder to flex based on the complexity of the song at that moment in time to allow for higher quality at the same size or smaller files at the same quality.

OK. Now I get it!

Thanks for cleaning that up!

Shannon