[MEncoder-users] Why use TOOLS/calcbpp.pl and scale ?

[Martin Collins]

On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 08:54:54 -0800
RC <rcooley at spamcop.net> wrote:

> I'd like to use vorbis, which sounds better than MP3 at similar
> bitrates 99% of the time, but unfortunately that 1% of the time, it
> has incredibly disgusting sounding artifacts.

Can't say I've noticed this with my usual material.

> ...
> or the metallic sounds of the hull being
> compressed and the engine noise in Das Boot.  They sound like
> they're being played back through a tin can... underwater.  

Entirely appropriate, surely :-)
This is the kind of material I would just copy the ac3 for.

> The slight distortion with lame thoughout the entire video is far
> better than being perfect 99% of the time, and absolutely horrible
> 1% of the time with Vorbis (using the latest aoTuv).

I've not done much encoding lately so I doubt I've used aoTuv. That's
not to say aoTuv is to blame for your distortions but newer software
is not always better. I recently upgraded to alsa and it produces
horrible distortion, even when playing CDs, which the old OSS driver
didn't do.

Martin