ok i had a 5mb mp3 song.
i used audiocity to make a 1.4mb mp3 version.
i also made a 1.4mb MP4 version using dBpowerAMP.
i made the 2 versions from the same 7mb mp3 song.
i played the 1.4mb mp3 version with media player
then played the 1.4mb mp4 version with quicktime.

how come the mp4 version is more distorted then the mp3 version hence how come the mp3 version is better quality then the mp4???

dont know - perhaps you are doing something wrong in the conversion process

Filesize itself doesnt say much - what settings did you use for converting the mp3 and for the mp4 - what bitrate ? stereo or mono ? which mp4 plugin do you use with dbpoweramp ?

i used da FLAC or something plug in... is there a good plug in u can recomend me?. and the 5mb mp3 song was playing at 192kbps. the 1.4mb mp3 song was 48kbps. the mp4 was a quality of 20 or something.

dBpowerAMP doesn't tell u what bit rate the mp4s are converted to, it just lets u choose what quality from a list (10, 20, 30, 40....250)

so yeah...

FLAC is a lossles codec with almost no compression and very big filesizes, its more likely you used the FAAC encoder. This lets you choose between qualitypresets rather than bitrates.

Dont use that one.

Number one choise is NERO mp4 plugin: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codecs/dBpowerAM...ec-Nero-mp4.exe

If this dont work then:

Use the Pystel plugin http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codecs/dBpowerAMP-codec-mp4.exe and then install the AACEnc on top of that http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codecs/dBpowerAM...acenc-alter.exe

If you then convert the 192kbps mp3 song into an 48kbps mp3 and a 48kbps mp4 - filesizes will be almost the same (because bitrate equals/determines filesize) but the mp4 will sound better.

When you are working with this low bitrates any further decrease can be heard clearly - dont go below 48. Personally I wouldent even go that low unless its for a ringtone. Especially when you are converting from a source mp3 that is allready compressed. I would go for 80kbps minimum when converting from another mp3 and 64 kbps minimum when ripping directly from CD to mp4. Converting the 5mb 192kbps mp3 to 80kbps mp4 would give half the filesize of the original mp3 and still sound good - dont expect to be able to convert it into ringtone sizes with good quality

here are 2 examples - both converted to 48kbps from the same highrate mp3 - one is mp3 and one is mp4 - almost same filesize but the mp4 sounds clearly better.


http://spawnweb.dk/48.mp3
http://spawnweb.dk/48.mp4

cool thanks spawn for spending soooooooooo much time in answering my question your da best!!! luv ya heaps!!

does anyone know how too see what quality a mp4 is. i have quick time and when i choose movie propaties it shows 44100 kh no matter what the quality of the song is. and it never says what bps da song is playing at.

also, using the pystel codec in a dBpowerAMP is there a way to go below 48kbps?

you can use the mpegable live player - this will show bitrate etc. under properties and is a very good player for 3gp/mp4 videos also.

http://www.mpegable.com/download/Player/mp...layer-Setup.exe

Or another option if you want to work more with mp4/aac audiofiles - then I-tunes from Apple is a very good player/ripper/converter for aac. Its their native format for Ipod and the I-tunes/Quicktime aac encoder is of very good quality. Under preferences in I-tunes you can set bitrate exactly as you like.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/