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Topic: Mono Windows Media above 48k? Please? (Read 2472 times) previous topic - next topic
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Mono Windows Media above 48k? Please?

Hey there.  Ran across your forum doing a Google search for an answer to my problem.  Obviously I didn't find an answer anywhere else :-).

Here's the problem: I'm trying to use Windows Media 9 Encoder to archive some old recordings for web streaming (I'm making Multiple-Bitrate files).  I have made my own encoding profiles for different sorts of recordings, but I have some recordings which are mono, yet have a frequency range that exceeds what I get with a 48k WMA file.  No matter where I go, no matter what I try, it seems that Windows Media Encoder will not encode a mono WMA file at a bitrate higher than 48k.  Every bitrate above 48k is stereo only.

That would be fine, except that the quality of a mono WMA file is about twice that of its stereo bitrate equivilent (obviously, it's encoding half the info).  So, basically, I can encode very nicely up to 48k in mono, and then when I create the 64k stereo version, we're basically going backwards in quality, as it's basically encoding two 32k copies, one per channel, even though they're the same.

I would hate to have to waste the bandwidth pushing a 128k stereo WMA file of a mono WAV when a 64k mono WMA would sound just fine at half the cost.  Am I doomed?  For multi-bitrate web streaming, WMA is flat-out the best option I have (trust me, I've lost sleep over this... never mind the three years I waited for Vorbis to do something on the streaming side with bitrate-peeling, then just said the hell with it.  Actually, Real isn't bad for this kind of thing, but my target audience largely refuses to install RealPlayer.  And I don't blame them).  I'd hate to think there isn't just an option somewhere I'm missing.

Thanks for the forum and thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this.

-Mark
 

Mono Windows Media above 48k? Please?

Reply #1 –
All good Codecs don't actually encode left and right channels seperately - theyu encode the average (mid channel) and the difference between them (side channel). If you give an encoder the left and right input channels are the same then the mono signal will be encoded in the mid channel and the side channel will be all 0s - which compresses extremely well so only uses a few extra bits.

Try a blind listening test of 48kbps mono encoding and 64kbps stereo encoding on one of your mono files - you should find 64kbps stereo sounds much better.