A Question About Audio/video Encoding Programs

[ImmaculateChimp]

In the interest of saving SD card space are there any good(and if possible free) A/V encoding programs that can do H.264 video with FLAC audio? Is this a stupid question? I'm looking for windows and Linux options.

 

[fischju2000]

H.264 I get, but why FLAC audio instead of the standard MP3, AAC or even OGG? And from what kind of source? The requirement for FLAC audio is severely limiting your options.

 

[Eniko]

Virtualdub?

 

[cbox]

I use SUPER for re-encoding video. Don't think they have a FLAC audio option (and I've never ever heard of anyone muxing video with FLAC), doubt anything out there supports that option. They have support for pretty much every format that is common though.

 

[second exodous]

I just use Handbrake for everything. It is easier to use with this last update also, just select 'high quality' and then change the video to what you want and the audio to what you want, done. I know it does what you want, H.264 and FLAC, but why use FLAC if you're trying to save space? Handbrake also works on Linux, OSX, and Windows so you'll never have to switch when you switch OSes.

I just rip to a video_ts folder and encode from there. As of late I use DVDFab to get it to video_ts because it's free and runs great under Linux and OSX under wine.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

I'd use this mostly for VIDEO_TS folders from dvd's I'd rip, and I'd prefer not to downgrade the audio on the discs any further than it already is.. so I'm looking for H.264video & lossless audio of some variety(and since FLAC would provide lossless audio, I thought "why not?").

to: fischju2000 I mentioned FLAC because I'd like lossless audio, and MP3&AAC=lossy(and on the matter of AAC to: second exodous I installed(the windows version) and looked through handbrake0.9.4 and the only 2 options for audio were passthrough & AAC, so if FLAC is in there as well, I sure couldn't find it.), also if I'm going to have to go with a container format is ogg a better choice than mkv?

 

[fischju2000]

Handbrake is what I use as well, if you don't want to lose anything on the audio you could use passthrough. Since DVDs usually use an AC-3 (Dolby Digital) or a DTS stream, both which are lossy, you could see how your rips fare (size-wise) with passthrough.

 

[Mofokubik]

Virtualdub is the best, imo. But "any video converter" is pretty good too, and you don't need codecs installed for that one.. It is free nagware, but it just tells you there's a pro version for x$, I can deal with it. Just throwing that out there..

edit- oh and Anyvideoconverter is a windows-only program..

 

[second exodous]

Huh, Handbrake doesn't have Flac. I doubt you'll notice audio quality drop if you choose a high bit rate anyway. When you select 'High Profile' it does a AC3 384 bitrate, which I'm sure is higher quality than what DVDs have anyway.

As far as mkv or just leaving it as .ogv or .m4v I'd go with .mkv. MKV is just a wrapper, it keeps all the files in one nice little package so if you have subtitles or whatever it is kept within the .mkv file. It also depends on what you're playing it on, the Pandora will play everything when the HW decoder is implemented obviously but ipods and what ever Microsoft makes now-a-days don't like .mkv. I use .mkv but I only have my PCs to play video and boxes like the ASUS O!Play Air and the WD TV Live handle it just fine. I think .mkv might become standard because everything else kinda sucks, Apple and MS will have to face up to it and allow it for all the H.264 video.

 

[neko]

If you want H.264 + FLAC, you're pretty much limited to MKV. FFmpeg and its various front-ends can do that, but FLAC doesn't make a lot of sense if you're trying to save SD card space. Flac is typically around 700kbps, whereas you a can do high-quality Vorbis encode at 150kbps.

How well does H.264 play on Pandora? You might want to consider xvid or theora if CPU usage is an issue.

 

[marshal]

I'd use this mostly for VIDEO_TS folders from dvd's I'd rip, and I'd prefer not to downgrade the audio on the discs any further than it already is.. so I'm looking for H.264video & lossless audio of some variety(and since FLAC would provide lossless audio, I thought "why not?").

If you DVD uses AC3 or MP2 you could probably just keep the audio track as it is. This would be more efficient.
Now if it's LPCM I could understand wanting to use FLAC (especially for concert...)

Then there is maybe the question with DTS track... I am not even sure if VLC or mplayer support them well enough. But maybe you could keep a DTS track too.

For very specific question on encoding and so on maybe you should check a specialized forum Avsforum.org

BTW I believe this is a bit of overkill if you're mainly ripping for the Pandora. I mean voribis at an high enough bitrate is fine... you'll probably have a hard time at ABX'ing it. I'll give you that going from a lossy codec (AC3 for example) to anotehr lossy codec is not an ideal solution though.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

to second exodous: I have no intention of using them on anything that is apple or microsoft-branded.
to marshal: I intend to use them on my computers as well as my (future)Pandora, so I'd like to have one big library of ripped movies in a nice high-quality format that will make more efficient use of space, but not have crappy low-quality audio.

 

[WizardStan]

If you want FLAC and H264, your best bet is to demux the streams, encode each separately, then remux them.

 

[second exodous]

Crap audio is a thing of the past, ogg, AC3, and ACC sound great. Even with a high-end surround sound something ripped on Handbrake with whatever audio format you choose will sound great. I'd even go as far as to say a blu-ray ripped with one of those audio formats you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. My ears are 30 years old though so I'm sure if I was a teenager again I might be able to tell the difference. I swear I used to be able to tell the difference between a 128 mp3 and a 384 mp3 but not anymore.

 

[Aninhumer]

to marshal: I intend to use them on my computers as well as my (future)Pandora, so I'd like to have one big library of ripped movies in a nice high-quality format that will make more efficient use of space, but not have crappy low-quality audio.

Unless the audio on the DVD is uncompressed, passthrough will be a perfect copy of the original, and will most likely take up significantly less space than FLAC.
Converting a lossy compressed AC3 or MP2 stream to FLAC does not magically make it higher quality.

That said, high bitrate lossy compressed audio in modern formats is pretty much transparent.
I'd try it out and see if you can actually tell the difference before complaining about "crappy low-quality audio".

 

[neko]

I swear I used to be able to tell the difference between a 128 mp3 and a 384 mp3 but not anymore.

That's because mp3 encoders have gotten better.

 

[second exodous]

I swear I used to be able to tell the difference between a 128 mp3 and a 384 mp3 but not anymore.

That's because mp3 encoders have gotten better.

Well, I'm sure they have, but I notice when I sit in a completely silent area I can hear a slight sea-shell affect. I'm told that it is normal for those that listened to loud music or worked/lived in high volume areas in teenage years. I'm not deaf by any means, my hearing is just not as sharp as it used to be.

Word of caution to teenagers: Yes, loud music does damage your hearing but you won't notice for 10 or 15 years. Also wear earplugs when working around anything loud like a saw or any-other loud thing. Also, in ear ear-phones I'm told are bad by a doctor, and that is what I used the most with my portable CD player.

 

[mafia-man]

In the interest of saving SD card space are there any good(and if possible free) A/V encoding programs that can do H.264 video with FLAC audio? Is this a stupid question? I'm looking for windows and Linux options.

I'm not sure how you plan to save SD card space using FLAC audio. The average FLAC is roughly 6MB per min of audio so for an average movie with a running time of 90 mins your looking at around 500-600MB for the audio alone. An average film would be over 1GB in size with medium quality video.

Your better off using a VBR MP3 with a range of 128-320KBs or a high quality OGG audio stream.

 

[ImmaculateChimp]

Unless the audio on the DVD is uncompressed, passthrough will be a perfect copy of the original, and will most likely take up significantly less space than FLAC.
Converting a lossy compressed AC3 or MP2 stream to FLAC does not magically make it higher quality.

That said, high bitrate lossy compressed audio in modern formats is pretty much transparent.
I'd try it out and see if you can actually tell the difference before complaining about "crappy low-quality audio".

I wasn't aware that FLAC would likely take up more space than the dvd's standard audio, I've actually never ripped any of my movies before..also please don't insult me. I'm FULLY AWARE that "FLAC does not magically make it higher quality", I never said or implied anything of the sort, so don't treat me like an ignorant child who can't tell the difference between an 128kbit/s and an 160kbit/s mp3 because I CAN tell the difference..(so you're aware, I was really tired when I wrote "crappy low-quality audio" my intent was to convey my desire to make a library of movies that took up less space, but didn't have a degraded level of audio quality, I was just too tired to think of how to say it appropriately).

 

[Prometheus]

For whatever it's worth, I'm having great success with HandBrake, ripping to ffmpeg-encoded MPEG4 video with faac-encoded AAC audio, here (the highest it allows for this is 160kbps, which is, if memory serves, roughly equivalent to 192kbps-ish MP3). These rips run quite well on the Pandora (after installing the Community Codec Pack), and look and sound just fine. You can set the target size or bitrate, and tweak things so you can get the balance you're after.