[vorbis] When will quality increase be unnoticable?

[David K. Gasaway]

Øyvind Stegard wrote:

> 1. I agree that improving quality makes it possible to reduce data 
> amount even more, but I think only up to a certain point.

There's a lot of leeway in _lossy_ compression.  Still, the idea is that 
we have a quality to size ratio.  Increase the quality or decrease the 
size, and you get the same effect: a higher ratio.

It's all a matter of perspective, really.  If you want to see higher 
quality as Vorbis improves, then you might creep up your -q setting 
enough to keep bitrates equal.  If  you'd rather have smaller files, 
keep the -q setting the same.  (Of course, I'm guessing which way Vorbis 
will develop; it could go the other way, I suppose.)

> 4. I think in bitrate terms too much. How should I think ? Hmm... I 
> still can't see anything wrong with referring to a certain bitrate and 
> talking about how well it sounds.

Well, bitrate's a moving target, which makes it a poor measure of 
quality.  Bitrates also vary depending on sample rate, number of 
channels, etc.  It's mostly just a measure of size (time is constant). 
       "Anything less than 1 MB is doesn't have enough quality." 
Doesn't work for me, anyway.  ;)

<p>
-- 
-:-:- David K. Gasaway
-:-:- XNS  : =David K Gasaway
-:-:- Email: dave at gasaway.org
-:-:- Web  : dave.gasaway.org

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