Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[brak_brak]

What does "high bitrates" mean in the phrase "Convert unsupported formats and high bitrates"?   Where do I go to tell MC what _I_ think a high bitrate is so that I can have control of what goes onto my portable player? 

All I want is for anything with a bitrate over 128kbps to be converted to 128, and for everything else to be left alone.  I'm not exactly sure what MC is doing under the various options, but none of the results have been optimal.  I even tried telling it to always convert everything to 128, but MC seems to have ignored that setting completely, leaving my Zen with plenty of 320kbps files.  This is ultra frustrating, but not quite so much as when Media Monkey kept losing my playlists, hence the switch back to MC, and the patience to try to deal with it. 

I'm running MC 13.0.132, in case that matters. 

[benn600]

The unsupported types portion means that if you don't have the file type listed in the supported file types setting, then they will be forced into conversion.  I think MC will then compare the bitrate and convert any files that are greater than your desired bitrate, as you want.

[Jonas]

And when you use an external executable as an encoder, what is considered "high" then?

(I use the Nero AAC encoder to encode to around 80 kbps for a cell phone, for example.)

[benn600]

It depends on the encoder.  If it is LAME MP3, then there are resources online that detail the approximate bitrate used by each of the easy names.  High is probably around 160 - 192 Kb/sec...or even 256.

[Alex B]

And when you use an external executable as an encoder, what is considered "high" then?

MC cannot know what kind of files an external encoder is set to create.

I think the "convert high bitrates" can work only inside the same format and when an internal encoder is used (I haven't used or tested it recently).

Here's an older similar thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=39687.0

In that thread I suggested this:

,,, a feature request:

Make possible to add the maximum allowed bitrate for each format in the "Supported Types" handheld option. This bitrate value would be taken into account when the "Convert Unsupported Formats and High Bitrates " option is selected.

For example, a list like

mp3(160);wma(191);m4a

would
- convert mp3 only if the bitrate is more than 160 kbps
- convert wma only if the bitrate is at least 192 kbps (this would be very useful it the user has lossy and lossless WMA files)
- not convert m4a

[brak_brak]

It depends on the encoder.  If it is LAME MP3, then there are resources online that detail the approximate bitrate used by each of the easy names.  High is probably around 160 - 192 Kb/sec...or even 256.

"Probably" isn't the answer I was looking for.  Neither is anything over 128.  I need to be able to define this to my own specifications.  How do I do this? 

[benn600]

I'm saying it varies with every encoder.  Lame would vary from another.  Just encode a song at a setting, such as high, and then encode some at 160 and other bitrates and keep trying bitrates until you end up with nearly the same file size.

Even though each setting tries to maintain a bitrate, say 160, it can vary if you are encoding very loud or very quiet music.