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

[Frank Murphy]

On Monday 10 January 2005 6:07, Nic Watson wrote:
> I'm glad I'm not the only one running into this problem.  I'm pretty
> sure the -m setting is ignored when the -q option is used.  I just tried
> it:
>
> oggenc -q 3 -m 96000 sinewave.flac -> Average bitrate: 69.1 kb/s

> Empirically, I've noticed that the iRiver player will not play a song
> (it says OGG FORMAT NOT SUPPORTED or somesuch) if its abr < 96kbps.  It
> will also pop or end the song abruptly if the song at any time goes
> below 96kbps.

I've noticed this too. I get the "NOT SUPPORTED OGG FORMAT" message for a file 
that has an average bitrate < 96 kbps. (ogg -q 2 gets a most of the songs 
I've tested with, but not all.) It's interesting that the Nominal bitrate and 
Lower bitrate can both be above 96 kb/s, but the Average bitrate will be 
below 96 kbps. I see in the ogginfo output that there is kb/s for Nominal and 
Lower bitrates, but it's kbps for Average bitrate. Is this on purpose, or 
just an inconsisteiency? (I see that in the manpages use these 
interchangably, too.)

I also noticed that on songs that report an avg bitrate close to 96, that I 
get some pretty severe pops. I think you're right that these are the places 
in the file that dip below 96 kbps. It's weird because on their main site, 
they note the different possible file sizes you can get with each format at 
which bitrate:  http://www.iriveramerica.com/support/ultra/iFP_FAQ.aspx
Ahh. I see on the ifp 8xx spec sheet, that it supports OGG 44.1 KHz, 96.1 
Kbps-225kbps bitrates:  
http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/800/ifp_890.aspx
(I also see that it only supports various ID3 tags, not OGG tags.)

Also, it seems to put gaps between the tracks. I have firmware 1.24 on an 
iFP-890, but I don't know if that is changed on a future firmware. (It's been 
100% stable, with this.) I've also noticed that the volume for oggs is lower 
than for mp3s. I don't know if that's because of how they were encoded 
though.

Anyway, what I would like is to be able to convert (or peel, or whatever) my 
oggs so that I can be sure that they will play on my iFP. I see that iriver 
points on an "OGG File Bit Rate Converter" program, but I don't see it in 
their downloads. If anyone finds the magic command line arguments to assure 
that the Average bitrate is above 96.1 kbps, I'd appriciate it. (Otherwise, 
I'll start at -q 2 and increase it until the avg is above 96.)

Frank