Bitrate of 384?

[Unregistered]

I recently ran across a mp3 that has a bitrate of 384. dBpowerAMP will not play this mp3. However, winamp lite and wmp will and show 384 as bitrate. I can convert to 320 mp3, ogg or ape and it plays. Can someone explain?
I find it revolting to use any player other than poweramp. So it is not a real problem, I am just curious.
Tag shows encoded by Lame, Level - MPEG 1 Layer 2. Sorry that I am not up on the levels of Lame.
Thanks Mike

[xoas]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

MPEG 1 Layer 2 is actually mp2 rather than mp3. While mp2 is reputed to to be of somewhat lower quality than mp3 it actually does support bitrates of up to 384 kbs whereas MPEG 1 layer 3 (mp3) only provides bitrates of up to 320 kbs.
It is said that the MPEG layers are backwards compatable so that an MPEG 1 Layer 3 decoder should be able to decode an mp2 file. This is why the file tag says it was encoded by Lame, which it certainly was not.
It is curious that dMC will convert it but that dAP can't play it. That seems illogical. But you should be able to encode these to mp3 at 320 with dMC if that is what you want.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[xoas]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

BTW-
The other thing you might find helpful with these files is to go to Codec Central and download and install either the mp2 codec or the TooLame codec (which is designed for mp2 files). That should allow you to listen to those mp2 files without having to transcribe them.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

[Craze]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

Just curious. Can't this be overcomed by checkmarking mp2 in dAP's Configuration?

[Unregistered]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

BTW-
The other thing you might find helpful with these files is to go to Codec Central and download and install either the mp2 codec or the TooLame codec (which is designed for mp2 files). That should allow you to listen to those mp2 files without having to transcribe them.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen

Thank you, that explains it for me. I did convert to 320 and that is good enough for me. I believe this is only the second such mp3 that I have found and was more curious than anything. Thanks again for your help.
Mike

[Unregistered]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

Files downloaded from AllofMP3.com are stored on their servers at 384 MP3 not MP2 and Their online encoding feature lets you encode to your chosen bitrate and file format. Personally I use MP4 or OGG because MP3 is an outdated and inferior format but they allow you to choose Lame 384 as an encoding option. I tried it once but winamp would not play the file and Db would not convert it. Possibly another encoder may not cause this limitation.

[xoas]

Re: Bitrate of 384?

I'm always willing to be enlightened. The information I gave was based on a web page written by, if I recall correctly, one of the people who was involved in the development of the mpeg standards. I'll track down that reference later.
I did visit Allofmp3. I note that they claim to have tracks encoded, apparently in mp3, at bitrates of higher than 320 kbs. as the last post suggests. They claim to do this through a process they refer to as "Free Format Technology". I haven't had much chance to look into the question of whether this is, strictly speaking, mp3 or not but for now I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
As for the problem of playing these files, I note that allofmp3.com has an FAQ on this here:http://stat.allofmp3.com/help/help.shtml?gs=947
I don't know whether the new Mad mp3 decoder in the dMC and dAP betas will handle these files any better or not.
Best wishes,
Bill Mikkelsen