Variable Bit Rate encoding question

[biggiesmallz]

Are there any Variable Bit Rate encoders that has a max kbps greater than 256kbps?

Thanx in advance

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

LAME can, I believe.

But really, it has been "proven" that there is no discernable difference between CD and 256 CBR, 256 VBR is better than that, why would you even want to go higher?

 

[biggiesmallz]

LAME Is it free?

Also I thought the concept behind VBR is:

"Variable Bit Rate encoding is an encoding method that ensures consistently high audio quality throughout an encoded file by making intelligent bit-allocation decisions during the encoding process"


My understanding in english is it uses less bits for sections that don't really need it and the max for sections of the song that required a lot of information. Resulting in a smaller file size than using the same constant bit/s even when it is not needed such as a silent part or such.

I'm right, right?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
LAME Is it free?

Yep.

Also I thought the concept behind VBR is:

"Variable Bit Rate encoding is an encoding method that ensures consistently high audio quality throughout an encoded file by making intelligent bit-allocation decisions during the encoding process"


My understanding in english is it uses less bits for sections that don't really need it and the max for sections of the song that required a lot of information. Resulting in a smaller file size than using the same constant bit/s even when it is not needed such as a silent part or such.

I'm right, right?

Yep. I guess the idea is that with VBR, you tell it an average bitrate to use, and it uses higher than that for complex sections of music, and lower than that for simpler parts of music, if you tell it to do VBR 320, it can't go any higher, that's why I don't think most will let you do 320 VBR. Either way, I guarantee that you'd never be able to tell 256VBR LAME from a cd. (BTW, different codecs *do* sound different, LAME is the best).

 

[mk]

Originally posted by: biggiesmallz
LAME Is it free?

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