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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 20 for Windows => Topic started by: Magic_Randy on February 13, 2015, 12:50:38 pm

Title: Converting WAV to FLAC - Question on Bitrate
Post by: Magic_Randy on February 13, 2015, 12:50:38 pm

I converted a bunch of 96kHz/24-bit wav files to flac primarily to have a single format in my library.

After conversion the flac files are still 96kHz/24-bit but the Bitrate is dropping. As an example, in the wav file it is 4608 and in the flac file it is 3022. Note the wav files are always 4608 but the flac files have different values.

Did I do something wrong? Does this have any impact on the quality?

Thanks...

Randy

Title: Re: Converting WAV to FLAC - Question on Bitrate
Post by: Matt on February 13, 2015, 01:28:56 pm

Of course the bitrate dropped!  That's the point of lossless compression -- keep the same sound but use fewer bits.

Title: Re: Converting WAV to FLAC - Question on Bitrate
Post by: Magic_Randy on February 13, 2015, 02:57:41 pm

Thanks Matt...

Just wanted to make sure I was doing it right before I went too far.

Randy

Title: Re:
Post by: Al ex on February 13, 2015, 03:23:18 pm

Matt, technically, how does it work: lossless compression (flac)? I thought the idea of compression is to to eliminate “similar“ or “same“ bits, where the human ear cannot make a difference anyway. So, how can you compress without making it lossy? Or maybe you have a good explanation link...

Title: Re: Converting WAV to FLAC - Question on Bitrate
Post by: glynor on February 13, 2015, 04:10:33 pm

There are lots of examples of lossless compression, including the ubiquitous zip file.  ZIP compression must be lossless, or else it would break executables and DOC files that you zip up.

There are also lossless image compression systems, and a whole variety of audio compression systems.  In fact, the "normal" way to compress files is via lossless compression (otherwise they'd break).  It is only relatively recent development that gave us "perceptual" compression (that is lossy that throws away "non-relevant" data, like MP3 and H.264).

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lossless_compression

Title: Re: Converting WAV to FLAC - Question on Bitrate
Post by: kstuart on February 13, 2015, 05:52:05 pm

It's interesting to note that digital video throws out 99% of the bits ( ! ).

At one point, I calculated that it would require one satellite per channel to broadcast uncompressed HD video. (So, on those fancy five-slot DirecTV or Dish Network dishes, you would have a total of five channels, lol.)

Title: Re:
Post by: Matt on February 13, 2015, 05:54:56 pm

Quote from: Al ex on February 13, 2015, 03:23:18 pm

Matt, technically, how does it work: lossless compression (flac)? I thought the idea of compression is to to eliminate “similar“ or “same“ bits, where the human ear cannot make a difference anyway. So, how can you compress without making it lossy? Or maybe you have a good explanation link...

I wrote this years ago.  It might help.

http://monkeysaudio.com/theory.html