[vorbis] joint stereo - advantages / when?

[Hugo van der Merwe]

Hello,

I've been postponing some of my encoding for when joint stereo gets
implemented. The reason I've been doing this, is that I am under the
impression this is the largest step in the quality/bitrate ratio that's
left. Now I'm wondering if I am correct in thinking this. lame's
documentation seems to imply it doesn't make much of a difference at
higher than 128kbps (I quote: "To disable joint stereo encoding
(slightly faster, but less quality at bitrates <= 128 kbps)"), but this
could just be because one anyway doesn't hear much of a difference
between 128 and 160 kbps?

Secondly, this feature doesn't _appear_ to be too high on the priority
list. (Or is it just technically a lot more difficult than the other
features?) I know this is supposed to be in Vorbis 1.0, which should be
released before the end of the year. Is it likely that we will have to
wait until nearly 1.0 for jstereo, or are there plans to implement it
within, say, the next two beta's? (And are there any dates attached to
this? I suppose not.)

Thanks,
Hugo van der Merwe

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