iTunes AAC bad quality encodes
Reply #27 – 2006-07-05 17:05:00
Just redid the test with latest iTunes (6.0.5.20). As expexted (at least by me) still exactly the same. I wouldn't hold my breath for a fix. Apple still didn't fix the MP3 VBR skipping on iPod Mini/Mini 2ndGen/4G. It seems Apple sucks even more than Microsoft when it comes to fixing bugs (which is quite an achievement!). OT: Since Februrary I rockboxed my two iPods (Mini 2nd Gen and 30gig Video) and am using Ogg Vorbis -q5 now. I did some tests with latest Nero encoder and found that for the limited material I tested with Ogg Vorbis (lancer based on AoTuV 4.51) reached transparency at -q5 (bout 150kbps) for me while Nero AAC needed ~170kbps. Also the new Nero encoder (free standalone version) did have some stereo positioning problems below ~150kbps. Not anywhere near as extreme as iTunes and in contrast to iTunes completely going away at ~150kbps, but the old Nero encoder didn't have that problem. Bottom line: I don't care about AAC anymore. Ogg Vorbis reaches transparency at lower bitrates (at least for me, with the limited material I tested with). It didn't have any stereo problems whatsoever (even down to -q1), and even -q1 (~80kbps) produced very few artefacts. So few indeed, that I think I won't notice them under normal listening conditions.
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