[Vorbis] bitrate limits don't work with -q settings?

[Nic Watson]

Unfortunately, -q6 occasionally runs up against the Iriver's upper 
limit, 224kbps.

It looks like I have no way of guaranteeing that the file won't stay 
between 96kbps and 224kbps with VBR.  I could still try ABR.  That seems 
to work.

Can anyone tell me the difference in quality between ABR and a roughly 
similar size VBR-encoded file?  What determines how closely it has to 
stick to the nominal rate?  Said in another way, is there a way to 
"loosen" the ABR logic to give it more leeway, and more closely emulate 
the VBR quality?

Does anybody know whether another ogg encoder will have the same 
limitation?  It is interesting that the BeSweet GUI either allows 
setting the quality or the nominal/min/max rate, but not both.

Nic

Lorenzo Prince wrote:

> In the case of these particularly picky players, the best thing may be to stick
> with a simple -q6 encoding.  My 1.1 version of oggenc encoded the signwave file
> at an average bitrate of 114.6 wien using -q6 with no bitrate management options.
> 
> A side note: I have had trouble posting to the list for some reason, so I hope my
> message makes it, but you should get it nonetheless.
> 
> HTH
> PRINCE
>