CBr VBR whats the difference?

[fastcobra]

ok got my whole mp3 collection here, trying to burn some cd's to play in my new "san Jose" I got for my Xterra
What is the difference in the cbr/vbr thing?
I am ripping my albums at 160 (prety good quality) and they sound great. Just wanted to know the big deal.
thx

 

[Passions]

CBR= Constant Bit Rate
VBR= Variable Bit Rate

Ever see Mp3's that jump around 128/160/256, while playing?

 

[silverpig]

192 Kbps CBR = the song is recorded at 192 Kbps constantly throughout the entire song.

~192 Kbps VBR = the song has an average bitrate of 192 Kbps, but it can be lower (say 128 Kbps) for uncomplicated parts of the song, but it can get bumped up to a higher bitrate (say 320 Kbps) for complicated parts of the song.

 

[KevinMU1]

You can also have CBR and VBR video files, it's not limited to just audio, the difference becomes ever more apparent in video files too.

However, a 160kbps mp3 VBR will "average" 160kbps over the duration of the song.

 

[Howard]

Actually, a true VBR-encoded MP3 doesn't really have a specified bitrate, just a minimum bitrate and a maximum bitrate. For example, a high quality VBR-encoded song might have a minimum bitrate of 160kbps and a max of 320kbps. (The min/max are set before encoding)