AAC Faac versus Lav

[poutnik]

Which of Faac and Lav encoder is recommended for AAC audio ?
IIRC, Lav came later, so is it better ?

[zakk]

Personnally my standalone player reads Avidemux's flac but not it's lav. I would first check my players if I were you.

[poutnik]

 HW decoders in MXplayer  reads both AAC lav/faac in both mp4/mkv
on my Android 4.3 phone Sony Xperia M dual.

I have found this thread in Hydrogenaudio forum..    http://www.hydrogenaud.io/forums/index.php?showtopic=100909

In MeGUI/Windows I am used to great Nero AAC encoder, highly configurable.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

As a general rule: I never touch audio tracks.
If needed: I drag and drop the video on to Audacity, change/edit what is needed and export these in the same original format MP2 MPEG Audio (Version 1) (Layer 2) or AC-3 (48 Khz)

[poutnik]

I respect your approach, but it is not the answer to the question, rephrased as
"Which AAC encoder provides objectively or subjectively better results ?"

I understand reasons to keep untouched audio, but when once edited, why the same format ?

My target device is Android smartphone with limited storage ( external SD card is filled mostly by raster and vector maps for GPS applications).
I record/watch mostly documentaries with speech based audio, wit occasional background music often rather disturbing than appreciated.

MP2 track with high bitrate would consume large portion of filesize.  That is  not so true for 128 kb MP2, but valid for 192+ ones.
Speech at 192+ kb/s seems as luxury to me, as it does not share the same requirements with High fidelity audio.

I have not tested yet if my device plays mp2 format - probably will, but it will not matter.

[AQUAR]

I understand reasons to keep untouched audio, but when once edited, why the same format ?

Editing doesn't necessarily mean recoding and audio also deteriorates when recoded.

The OP wasn't explicit enough as to why you were asking the question.
And the rephrased version is indeterminate:
Objectively: You already know the answer!
Subjectively: Thats a personal attribute - You have to decide for Youself!

 

[zakk]

Editing doesn't necessarily mean recoding

What ??

[AQUAR]

Never chopped the credits of a movie?

[poutnik]

Never chopped the credits of a movie?

One need not Audacity for cut the credits, if he can cut them with video directly in ADM.

I understood mentioning Audacity as editing of content to be kept.

[poutnik]

I understand reasons to keep untouched audio, but when once edited, why the same format ?

Editing doesn't necessarily mean recoding and audio also deteriorates when recoded.

The OP wasn't explicit enough as to why you were asking the question.
And the rephrased version is indeterminate:
Objectively: You already know the answer!
Subjectively: Thats a personal attribute - You have to decide for Youself!

Aside of cutting, that need not mentioned Audacity, how to edit without reencoding ?

I am aware re-encoding alone deteriates quality - "I understand reasons to keep untouched audio,"
So does re-encoding MPEG2 to H264.  But there may be good reasons for both to do so.

Aside of size reason,  re-encoding with advanced Avisynth precessing, like with ssripts MCTemporalDenoise, or QTGMC,
can provide result of better subjective quality than original. similarly as advanced audioprocessing, but this is less common.

Hm, if I as OP asked about AAC encoder in ADM forum, I want probably encode audio in my ADM videoprocessing as AAC.
Similarly if I encode Myvideo.TS to MKV container, I probably want to save it as Myvideo.mkv.  :-)

I do not know objective answer, as I do not know if I can trust the mentioned HydrogenAudio thread and I do not have tools to compare it.
And even in the thread is unclear, what encoder they consider "better".

I am not really good in subjective comparison of audio and I am interested in subjective evaluations of others.
Well, you may say in such a case it doesnot matter what encoder. :-)
Evaluation of others I cannot do.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

Editing doesn't necessarily mean recoding

What ??

Cutting parts in between on key frames  with both video and audio set to Copy = re-muxing and not re-encoding.
As shown in this demo video (real time) : Avidemux 2.6.3 Edit Cut Trim

[poutnik]

Cutting parts in between on key frames  with both video and audio set to Copy = re-muxing and not re-encoding.

Sometimes I perform automatic unattended batch processing via OneClick MeGUI feature,
and then I manually cut commertials in resulting MP4/AVC/AAC at I frames by ADM.

Jumping on H264 I-frames by UP/DOWN arrow is in ADM really convenient.
And, I like MP4 not being indexed ( in opposite to MKV, that is like 2pass indexed)
As it is not for archiving, I-frame cut resolution is enough for me.

[Jan Gruuthuse]

One reason to use mp2 audio = constant bitrate, variable bit rate can take more processing power then you want.
29 minutes stereo takes in
256 Kbps 55.7 MB
192 Kbps 41.7 MB
128 Kbps 27.8 MB
you would get the same using mp3

PS: If you want to save space GPS wise: have a look at android app MapFactor Navigator Free for android and use OpenStreetMap only.
Big warning: you need the ability to adapt how you work with gps navigator there is a functional beta in their forum: google for Test of Android version 1.4.x

[AQUAR]

Is that really an issue these days with ample cheap storage?

[Jan Gruuthuse]

android yes and getting worse: I have 32 GB memory cards in my android phone & tablet (720p displays). Tendency is now to restrict access to SD cards or not even have those on the devices The moment you start keep some video footage and GPS maps.
A gps map of
Germany: 4 maps (East, North, South, West) takes 0.8 GB
France: 0.8 GB
Netherlands: 0.2 GB
Australia takes only 98 MB (not that many roads over there)
USA: 1.6 GB
It is a constant Juggling with files.
My music favourites is 46.1 GB and wont fit.