Converting Bitrates

[Romelskie]

Hoi,

Just wanna know how mp3 (e.g. bitrate 192) converting to a lower bitrate is working generally.
Is that the same like decoding an mp3 to wav and then back to mp3 with a lower Bitrate?

Thx for help,

Regards Romelskie

[Spoon]

Yes, even if you converted it to 320kbps the new copy would be of less quality.

[MasterOfPuppets]

whoa, how does that work?

im used to the idea that converting to a higher bitrate than the original file will result in the same, but larger, file.

[daren]

It's not always that simple. Cascading plays a role in audio
compression, especially when converting between different
formats (e.g. wma -> mp3, etc...). The first conversion throws
information away and subsequent conversions (even to higher
bitrates) throw different bits away.

This is a big problem in broadcast situations where a journalist
records on minidisc (for example), sends the audio via ISDN
(mp2 64kbps), this gets recorded in mp2 256kbps, edited and
bounced (another conversion) and transmitted via 192kbps
MPEG transmission lines. Luckily journalists are moving over
to compact flash recorders and contribution via FTP servers...

Daren.

[MasterOfPuppets]

kewl, thanx