[MEncoder-users] Encoding to Vorbis

[RC]

On Mon, 6 Oct 2008 14:16:59 +0200
Nicolas George <nicolas.george at normalesup.org> wrote:

> MP3 is definitely not an option, since it can not handle more than two
> channels. 

Perhaps common encoders can't handle multichannel in/out, but there's
nothing stopping MP3.   "MP3 Surround", "MPEG Multichannel", etc.  

And last I checked, nobody has worked on the multichannel support
of Vorbis, so interchannel redundancy isn't exploited, and 5.1
Vorbis files are necessarily huge for just acceptible quality.

> As for AAC, I have understood that it has lower quality than Vorbis,

It's seriously doubt that Vorbis is competitive with AAC-LC at moderate
(to high) bitrates, though I admit not having done any direct
comparisons.  Vorbis absolutely falls apart in at least one passage on
every movie I've tried (though it's been about a year now).  

At very low bitrates, there's really nothing that can compete with
HE-AAC right now, though the "alternative" I would recomend is simply
NOT using such low audio bitrates.  The missing audio bothers me, even
if it doesn't stand out as much as obvious quantization artifacts.

> and in the Free software community (Linux distros, prebuilt
> binaries, etc.), it is rather less available than Vorbis (this will
> change once Kostya's work is fully mature and merded).

H.264 isn't, either, so you're certainly installing additional
(encumbered) software for playback.  If you were also using Theora for
video, that would be understandable (if not advised).

Since you're installing an H.264 decoder anyways, I wouldn't think
installing FAAD is that much of an added difficulty.  Or just MPlayer,
which includes it.  

I also find it strange that Theora/Vorbis are supported out of the box
by many Linux distros, but the old (patent-expired) H.261 and MPEG-1
video and audio codecs are not...  Surely there's infinitely more MPEG-1
videos out there than Theora.

I find it similarly strange that Vorbis is an overhyped media darling,
but the (far better) open source and patent free Musepack is completely
ignored.  I guess Xiph.org have good PR guys, if nothing else.

 -- 
Don't trust me! I'm wrong!