Importing Problems. Bit Rate Variations

I've customised my CD importing bit rate to 192kbps. However, when importing songs they can be anything from 180-195kbps when stored. This started all of a sudden - I have 4000 songs at 192kbps. Any ideas?

I just noticed in that after updating to 7.6 that if you're attempting to import discs to AAC using VBR that it shows up as a constant bit rate now. It seems to be the flip problem that constant bit rate users had with 7.5. I'm kind of annoyed by this because I'd been importing my entire library (A thru S) using the VBR settings and now everything seems to be coming in flat when I start ripping. Or are they VBR and just showing as constant? Either way, I hope it gets fixed. I hate having 3/4 of my files showing VBR and the rest CBR.

Similar Messages

Imported .m2v bit rates in Encore 2.0

Hello,
I've noticed that whenever I import an .m2v into Encore, the bit rate reported in Encore is 2Mbps lower than that reported by other programs (e.g. AVICodec). For example, I'm trying to make a DVD from an .m2v created to have a bit rate of 7.7Mbps in Apple's Final Cut Pro/Compressor, but imported into Encore as an asset, its bit rate is listed as 5.7 Mbps. I need this DVD to be of the highest quality possible, so I figure that by creating an .m2v with an outside bit rate of 10Mbps, it will come into Encore with a bit rate of 8Mbps. Is this the right way to approach this problem?
In the past, I've run into the same issue with importing .m2v's into Encore and have opted to import .avi's instead and let Encore do its own transcoding. (Importing .m2v's into Encore sometimes creates weird blips in the video too.) The problem is that this time I want to create a DVD from an uncompressed HD Quicktime. (Since I'm a PC guy, a friend with an Apple computer is doing me a favor by converting the uncompressed HD Quicktime into .m2v for me.)
Any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
-R

>Even if things have been changed on my system why should Encore do all the transcoding, write the files to disk and then hang on this issue? Even after a fresh re-install with all registries cleared etc?
An uninstall/Reinstall will almost certainly *not* clear out the registry, or even all the common files installed. Otherwise, you would be able to install a trial version, then uninstall it, and re-install again for another 30 days. This obviously doesn't work - so uninstalling is not removing all the relevant files.
Another common problem is that badly written 3rd party apps often reset the merit order of DirectShow related codecs, and this can mean that even when you think you're using one codec, the system (not Encore, but the OS) will use another one altogether. This can mean that what you
i think
is one type of AVI file is actually a different one, with perhaps an older version of a codec used to create the AVI being used because a codec pack installed/overwrote the good one.
I have had this happen to me - and it is a pig of a problem.
I could be completely wrong though.

Fixed bit-rate varies from song to song

after importing a cd (bit-rate set to 256 kpbs (stereo), 48 000 kHz, NOT checked the Use Variable Bit Rate Encoding box) i see thet the songs have been imported with bit-rates that change from song to song (like first song 258 kbps, second - 257 kbps, third - 251, fourth - 237 and so on).
could anyone please explain why so?
thanks in advance!

thenewdawg wrote:
Thanks for the thread, though it's an iTunes for Windows thread. Any info. for Mac?
Meg is correct, the issue is not specific to Windows, it is specific to QuickTime 7.3, on both platforms.
After reading through the thread, and others that it points to, I get the impression that the changes are supposed to be improvements. And probably are for the majority of people.
On the other hand, there are a number of specific cases where the new behavior is actually a problem. If you're using Doug Adams's excellent Join Together script (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=jointogether), with varying bitrates between tracks, you can no longer use the Pass-Through option, which means that the script can take much, much longer to complete.
And I've gotten reports from some people that at low bit rates, e.g., 64kbps and lower, imports using QuickTime 7.3 have some kind of static noise, that is not there when the same disc is imported / transcoded with QuickTime 7.2. So I think there are some software defects to work out, too.

Can no longer change bit rate in AAC custom import settings

I've been re-ripping all my CDs at the new higher bit rate. My import settings were AAC Encoder -- custom, originally set to 256 kbps, VBR, and auto for the other two settings. However, some CDs I wanted at a lower setting, so I would go change the bit rate to either 192 or 224 (just so I'd have more room on my ipod) and there wouldn't be a problem. But now it's stuck -- the pop-up box no longer opens when I choose import settings, AAC Encoder, Custom, so I can't change the bit rate or anything else, and it's stuck on 224 kbps. I can still change bit rate and other settings in the custom menus for MP3, WAV, etc., just not AAC. A repair install of iTunes did not fix the problem.

Hi, Ed. I am running iTunes 9.0.3.15. When I click custom, the settings description in the details box display what they were before this thing happened = 112 kbps (mono)/224 kbps (stereo), VBR, optimized for MMX/SSE2. The pop-up dialogue box that used to appear (where you could choose the specific bit rate from the drop down menu) does not appear at all.
However, when I choose anything other than AAC Encoder, and then pick custom, the pop-up box appears and I can choose the bit rate and adjust the other settings as usual. It's just not happening for AAC Encoder anymore. Since the total un-install (following Apple's specified order) and reinstall didn't work, I'm baffled how to fix this .... (If it makes a difference, I changed the bit rate in the custom box while a CD was being burned...Apparently that was stupid, but I had done it previously without incident.) Thanks.

Irregular Bit Rates for Converted/Imported AAC files (iTunes 7.5)?

I have noticed that my recent additions to my iTunes library have irregular bit rates inconsistent with the usual 128 kbps. They range from 121-131 kbps and appear to be randomly generated. This has happened with MP3s and WMAs that I have converted into AACs and CD tracks that I have imported as AACs. My first additions with these problems were on the 19th of November. Before this time I updated my library to iTunes 7.5. None of my previous 2000+ music files (all AAC) which I have been adding successfully for the last 3 years have had this problem and they are almost all (except for a couple at 64 kbps) at 128 kbps. My suspicion is that the new iTunes 7.5 may be the cause of this irregularity.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry, I found a past thread related to this issue. No Need to reply

Problem with bit rate ?

Hi there,
Using FCP7.
After compressing a FCP project with Compressor and burning DVDSP with DVDSP, I realized that scenes containing objects or people in rapid movement where showing jerked images.
The slow motion scenes are fine.
I checked the following
settings for DVDSP burning: VBR two pass;
averageBit rate 4,0,
max rate 7,0
1) the self-contained QT that I started with is not showing this problem.
2) the m2v file obtained from compressor (I use preset setting for high quality compression) does not show this problem when I view it with MPEG streamclip
3) I tried to burn directly the QT file with Toast 10 …get same problem if not worse !.
settings for Toast
automatic re-encoding
average rate 4,0 Mbps
max bit rate 8,0 Mbps
MPEG-2
I guess my problem comes from the bit rate I used ?
I am now confused and I am not sure I understood the impact of the bit rate setting on the quality of the resulting DVD, and I believe that using a high bit rate in DVDSP might result in problems for some clients to play the DVD on their player ?
Could it be something else ?
could someone please give me advice ?
Many thanks in advance
Ivan

I can only think of two possibilities based on the info available:
1. Old DVD player (choking on the bitrate spike)
2. You need to set some compression markers around the scenes while in FCP. This would flag Compressor to pay extra attention to that area. After you output the new clip, I suggest you use the standard High Quality preset (in Compressor) for your program duration e.g., "Highest Quality 90 minute". Don't get creative with the encoding set-up. And ALWAYS used AC-3 audio.

PROBLEM with 24/96 bit-rate USB DAC that worked fine until I plugged in two

I'm using a late 2008 15" Macbook Pro that I bought Jan 2009 right before the SD card models came out. Mac OSX 10.6.4 and iTunes 9.2 are installed. I have a Nuforce Icon HDP and a CEntrance DACport 24/96 bit-rate USB DAC (external sound cards) that still work great right now. Note - 16 bit/44 Khz is CD quality, and these 24/96 files are hi-resolution downloads that are closer to SACD or DVD audio.
I have been evaluating a new third 24/96 USB DAC plugged directly into the Macbook USB port (no hub) which has been working fine for over 2 weeks with 24/96 bit-rate lossless music files in iTunes. Audio Midi Setup is set for 24/96 to match the music file's resolution. After making suggestions to the manufacturer they made some improvements and sent me a new version to listen for the differences.
I listened to the new one for a day and it worked fine, but when I plugged in the original test sample into the second USB port at the same time as the new one in order to compare them, the sound became garbled and noisy. This never happened when either one was plugged in by itself. Note, if I make changes to the DAC's bit-rate in Audio Midi Setup I usually close iTunes first and then re-open it when I am done.
Upon hearing this new problem I unplugged both of the new USB DACs and plugged just one of them back in, but now it causes iTunes music playback to pause when one is plugged in and set for 24/96 in audio midi setup. Prior to plugging in both at the same time, either one worked just fine by itself. There is no reason when unplugging one or the other that they shouldn't start working again. But now I can't play any 24/96 music through either one anymore. In quicktime player the songs don't pause like with iTunes, but there is no sound coming through even with just one DAC plugged in at a time. Then I discovered that if I go into Audio Midi Setup application and lower the bit rate to 24/48 then iTunes will resume playing again and I can hear the music fine with iTunes or Quicktime player.
Basically, my Macbook Pro has now lost the ability to play 24/96 bit rate with either of these new USB DACs, when they both worked fine before I plugged them in at the same time. More confusing is that they use the same USB receiver chip as in one of the DACs that I mentioned above in the first paragraph, and both the HDP and DACport still work fine at 24/96 bit-rate. It's only these two new USB DAC that require me to lower the bit rate in Audio Midi Setup to 24/48 in order to listen through them, and this wasn't a problem as recently as yesterday!
The computer is acting like some setting needs to be wiped out - it's DEFINITELY NOT the USB DAC's that are faulty because they still both work fine at 24/96 on my wife's iMac (I'm afraid to try plugging in both at the same time to the iMac in case I screw that Mac up too).
I have reset the PRAM a few times, and this doesn't fix the problem. I thought maybe the com.apple.audiomidisetup.plist file could be corrupted and deleted it, but that didn't help. I don't know what to try next to get the Macbook to start fresh when trying to use these devices, short of having to re-install OSX.
Please, does anyone have a suggestion of how I can make the Macbook forget it ever saw these two USB DACs, and let me start fresh so they start working normally again? I do dozens of reviews for Head-fi.org and I can't afford to have my Macbook Pro compromised like this, which could prevent me from doing some reviews or evaluating new products.

UPDATE:
As noted in the first post, both of these newer USB DAC work fine at 24/96 on my wife's iMac, so it's clear that they didn't both become defective when I connected them to the Macbook Pro at the same time.
Resetting the Macbook Pro PRAM didn't help, so I removed the hard shell laptop case to get to the battery and remove it, then reset the SMC. After that I could use the original DAC at 24/96 again, but only IF it was plugged into the rear USB port. If I plugged it into the front USB port then the sound was garbled and filled with noise. This was a vast improvement over no sound at all.
Then I switched to the replacement/updated DAC, but I got no sound at all from either USB port at any bit-rate. And returning to the original DAC again now results in no sound again.
Sigh... I will reset the PRAM and SMC again, and see how far I can get with this. I'd still love some help. Thanks!

What is the highest mp3 bit rate that Ipod plays without disk problems

I have a 60gig iPod. i note that iTunes can encode to mp3 at a bit rate of 192. Can the 60gig iPod play these files without any disk problems. If it can are there any other considerations?

the current ipod (5th gen) specification says...
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV
http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html
btw the ipod disk isn't the limiting factor, sound files are played from buffer memory, the disk only runs when the buffer needs to be refilled

Bit rate problems

Re: Video bitrate too high
Posted: Sep 5, 2006 7:50 AM in response to: Rikk Desgres
Reply Email
Hi,
I have exported two 10 minute HDV movies as mpeg2 files, using Compressor, with the default bit rate setting of 6.2/7.7 mbps. When I try to burn a DVD, I get the "bit rate too high error message". I've used the same settings for these files before, and no problem. However, after I made minor changes to these files in FCP, and then tried to export - no luck. Should I try to export reducing the bit rate in Compressor?
Janis

A data rate of 160 or 192 is usually good, you should set Dialog Normalization to -31, preprocessing to none and dechecking Copyright Exists and Content is Original also helps prevent glitches (I had that drilled in my head awhile ago, like in DVD SP 1 time and sort of just follow it as a matter of course, pretty sure it still holds true through DVD SP 4 and Compressor 2, at least it has for me.)

Import songs at selected bit rate

i thought when i set the preferance for importing music say at 128 kbs as a mp3 that was how all the songs would be imported.so why do they still import at differant bit rates and how can i get them to 128 kbs?

I see missing burn settings, too, & I'm getting a message about it each time iTunes is started. I have one (actually more than 1) unburned purchases from Apple Store, which downloaded as protected media (unplayable outside iTunes, even in my registered & paid for version of QuickTime - & that's a first). So, the repair needs to be done, at least temporarily, to burn out the purchases.
But, after the update the optical devices were no longer in the UI, so, I removed some things, manually, one of which is shown in the iTunes credits section as related to their burning software, at which time the optical drives again seem to be available to me, the owner, if not to iTunes when I authorize it for my usage. Clearly, this is an issue with Windows, DRM or some, other malicious software, otherwise, iTunes' use of MS approved software for burning would be no issue.
However, the import settings remain. They could be useful if one used iTunes to sync to iPod, I suppose, although other software is also capable of syncing to iPod. Other features of iTunes should also be unaffected, like the radio or podcasts or books or other feeds.
Browsing the Apple store is almost pointless under these conditions unless one turns on the option to see only DRM free media --- & there is precious little of that. I was actually beginning to use iTunes & the Apple store almost exclusively for that (& considering a Mac laptop) because of that reliability; apparently, my choice to never give up my freedom of choice to one provider is not without wisdom, since we just never really know what to expect.
Anyway, this looks more & more like some server side mal-usage of DRM.

Variable bit rate audio assets cannot be imported

Extracted some ac3 files from personal content DVDs I authored and burned myself (using DVDSP) to make a compilation. When I try to import these 5.1 ac3 assets, DVDSP is refusing stating: "Variable bit rate audio assets cannot be imported." These ac3 files play fine in QuickTime and other programs that handle ac3 files.
Can anyone help?

Hi:
Please give us some info about the original movie/audio formats and what encoding presets you used in Compressor.
Alberto

Won't import at 320 bit rate?

HI
I'm running the latest ITunes software on windows xp home and want to import audio cd's at 320 bit rate. I select this option in the custom settings and it appears to stick, but when I check the song's after importing has finished they have imported at 128 bit rate.
I've tried deleting the 2 itunes.pref files as stated else where but no luck..
Can somme one pleeease help me?

Hi Guys
Thanks for the info, I gave it a go and changed the screen resolution and the weird thing is that I could already see the apply buttton on the original screen resolution BUT when I changed the resolution it worked!!
I don't see the logic in how window's screen resolution effects the importing bit rate of Itunes?
I suppose that's what you get when yoou throw apples at windows, Broken glass!
Thanks for the help

TS1717 when trying to import cd the following message appears "the current encoder settings for bit rate and sample rate are not valid for this file"?

Trying to import cd when this message appears "the current encoder settings for bit rate and sample rate are not valid for this file". Any suggestions?

Thanks so very much. I chose MP3 and Download and it is working beautifully. Have a wonderful day and it is so nice of you to get right back to me. I'm trying to cut a DVD for my grandson's grad party and I got most of the photos and didn't have any music since I lost everything in a clean install. Could hug you!

Random import bit rates?????????

My import settings are set to: 192kbps 48Khz AAC with NO variable bit rate. For some random reason itunes stated importing my music at random bit rates usually 3 to 7 kbps below my set rate. I decided to "factory refresh" my computer as it was time hoping it would fix the issue but nothing had seemed to fix it unless I install itunes 6.X and even then its a pain. 192 MP3 works great but the AAC encoder is having issues. Any suggestions? itunes says: "encoded with itunes v7.5.0.20, quicktime 7.3.1." is there a new codec or anything.

As I believe first came to light in this thread - courtesy of a heads-up from Flynn and verification and a workaround (if it really bothers you) by b noir - there was a so-far undocumented change in the new version of QuickTime (QuickTime actually being responsible for encoding song files in iTunes) which came bundled with iTunes 7.5.
QuickTime no longer supports Constant Bit Rate Encoding. In its place is Average Bit Rate Encoding.
Although this change is not reflected in the iTunes User Interface, it accounts for the new state of affairs that you noted.

Why duel bit rates after importation?

I imported my shared music folder. It shows duel titles & bit rates for SOME songs. (128 & 160)
Should I keep both, or, rid myself of one or the other?

If you have duplicates, I would keep those at the
higher bit rate. There won't be much in it between
128 kbps and 160 kbps but the 160s will be of a
slightly higher quality. It's really up to yourself
but there is no reason to keep both as you are just
using up disc space with duplicates
Thank you!
My thoughts exactly. Needed an expert opinion. Thanks again

Importing Problems. Bit Rate Variations

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