How lossy is a lossy audio codec?

[spoRv]

Thanks for your thoughts!

I'd go with 640kbps for AC-3 - using a non-commercial software - and 1509kbps for DTS - as below that AFAIK the high frequencies are cut (not that I personally notice, though, but some young fan may do!)

[dwalkerdon]

About loudness war: agree, humans tend to prefer louder track even by a difference of mere 0.2dB!

AC-3: it's a great codec; at limited bitrates quality is still good - and of course I agree that it's better a great lossy mix instead of worse lossless one... but many continues to state that 192kbps for stereo track (hence 96kbps per channel) is enough... well, decide for yourself:

So, IMHO, the minimum so-called "transparency" could be reached using 192kbps bitrate per channel; that would bring a 5.1 track (excluding the .1) to be encoded at 960kbps, but it can't be possible, as the max bitrate is 640kbps... by the way, encoded 5.1 track at 640kbps has frequencies cut at 20kHz (not "transparent", but good enough), while 320kbps, as used in theaters, cut them around 16kHz! Still, 384kbps laserdisc tracks (that I'm pretty sure were, mostly at least, just direct port of cinema tracks with padded zeros) sound great!!! Sadly, "once seen it can't be unseen"; lucky me that I often, if not always, encoded stereo tracks using 384kbps, while - guilty me - often encoded 5.1 tracks at less than 640kbps...

About DTS: a lot must be talked about, but I'm lazy, and I'll leave this to someone else - pipefan, for example? but I would like only to add this: Cinema DTS using APT-X 100 at 882kbps sounds great, much better than AC3 at 320kbps (obvious?) and "probably" even better than home DTS using Coherent Acoustic codec at 1411kbps.

Most 192 Kbps AC-3 mixes tend to cut off at 20khz, unless it comes from a Streaming service that encoded it from a lossy source or if frequencies were cut off during mastering: here are a few examples:

[junh1024]

Also, the free audio encoders we mere mortals use can possibly not be up to the task with professional encoders, in particular AC3 and DTS; that's why many laserdiscs with the low bitrate of 384kbps sound great: professional encoded, theatrical mixes (all?most?), no stereo downmix.

Professional encoders are cheaper than you think.

Surcode for Premiere is $320 https://www.minnetonkaaudioshop.com/epag...-00090-000

There's prolly others around