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Topic: Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio). (Read 31915 times) previous topic - next topic
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Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #25
Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/

They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google


Code: [Select]
Windows Media Player 20k:
Windows Media Player 132k:

AAC+ 48k:
MP3 32k:
MP3 128k:
Quicktime 32k:
Ogg Vorbis 32k:
Ogg Vorbis ~160k:
Ogg FLAC ~1Mb:

Can someone rank these?  Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #26
Another good-sounding 64 kbps AAC radio stream: HARDRADIO.COM

Thanks pyscho. Another one that sounds fairly good at 64 kbps (if metal 24-7 is your thing. ;p).


Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/

They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google


Code: [Select]
Windows Media Player 20k:
Windows Media Player 132k:

AAC+ 48k:
MP3 32k:
MP3 128k:
Quicktime 32k:
Ogg Vorbis 32k:
Ogg Vorbis ~160k:
Ogg FLAC ~1Mb:

Can someone rank these?  Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

I wouldn't assume they're already in order. From the limited amount of listening I've done so far it seems that aac-he 64 kbps is similar, but not quite as good as, 128 kbps CBR mp3. Probably somewhere between 96 and 128 kbps CBR with (a relatively good encoder).

Ogg 64 kbps sounds pretty similar to the aac-he at 64 kbps to me.  I don't think I could separate them in a blind test.

The only other format I've been listening to is aac-he at 48 kbps which is also surprisingly good (considering it's very low bit rate). I'd probably rate it as similar to CBR mp3 at around 80 kbps, possibly even close to 96 kbps.

Sorry for all the subjective judgements, definitely take them with a grain of salt. It's very hard to accurately compare them just by listening to online radio where the different "stations" have different formats but also different content. The above is just a subjective ranking after listening to various of these stations for the last few weeks.

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #27
I felt bad about so many subjective opinions in the previous post, so I just made a few blind comparisons. Sorry it's very brief but I only had limited time. I wanted to compare aac(sbr) 64kbps (nero @q-0.25 as that's the only encoder I've got) with various bit rates mp3s, upping the bit rate until my blind "which I prefer" picks became random. In the end though I only tested Lame(3.99r) at V9 (69 kbps) and -V7 (99 kbps) against the aac (sbr at 65 kbps).

With lame -V9 (about 69kbps)  it was 100% (essentially no randomness) that I preferred the aac.

With lame -V7 (which was about 100kbps) it became pretty random as to which I chose as "best" each trial. Admittedly it was a very limited test, but it did tend to back up the notion that aac-sbr at 64kbps is roughly similar quality to mp3 at around 100 kbps. At least to my ears.


Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #29
Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-devices.html

Direct links:

Absolute 80s HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-a8-64.as34763.net

Absolute 80s MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-a8-192.as34763.net

Absolute 80s Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/a8160.ogg

Absolute Classic Rock HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-ac-64.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-ac-192.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/vc160.ogg

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #30

      
Many available formats and bitrates at Absolute Radio stations, I've selected two of them which offer a wide variety of styles from funk to metal:
         http://absolute80s.com/listen/other/
      http://absoluteclassicrock.co.uk/listen/other/
      They are also using MP3@192 kbps and HE-AAC@64 kbps if you register to the site... or use Google

Can someone rank these? Or should I assume that on the whole they are already in increasing order of quality, apart from the first one, not sure where that one fits.

I wouldn't assume they're already in order.

I felt bad about so many subjective opinions in the previous post, so I just made a few blind comparisons.

Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-devices.html

Direct links:

Thanks for the help, I just assumed that they [the encoders] were designed for differing purposes and so the quality's would have some hard and fast placing.

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #31
http://www.977music.com/channels2/oldies/wmplayeroldies.php

(seems quite noiseless to me,  128Kbps/ mp3).  Another question:  Are there other factors that affect audio quality of internet radio, in same hardware,  besides data rate and compression format ?


Yep I'm pretty familiar with bit rates like that, 128 kbps can certainly sound fine if done (encoded) well. Here I'm really interested in lower bitrates for casual listening though. Like I said in the OP, I've got download limits. I don't want to use online streaming, at least not for casual listening, if it's going to mean that I'm constantly having to look out for exceeding my limits. This is exactly what has kept me away from using this type of service in the past.

Lets look at some numbers. If I start to regularly use online streaming for casual listening then I could use up to about 150 hours per month (most likely would be less, but I'll take this as a likely upper limit of 5hr/s per day, averaged over a month). The 128kbps (134 kpbs) site you linked was taking about 19 kB/sec (68 MB/hr) here, that would equate to over 10 GB for 150 hours over a month. This would blow my download limit for certain.


hi
about 128Kbps LC-AAC stream from Radio Paradise , do you know which encoder does they use ?
and may i know which lc_aac for 128 encoder do you use?

thanks

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #32
Also where is the info on MP3192, and AAC64, for absoluteradio?

http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/on-other-devices.html

Direct links:

Absolute 80s HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-a8-64.as34763.net

Absolute 80s MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-a8-192.as34763.net

Absolute 80s Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/a8160.ogg

Absolute Classic Rock HE-AAC 64kbps:
http://aacplus-ac-64.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock MP3 192kbps:
http://mp3-ac-192.as34763.net

Absolute Classic Rock Vorbis 160kbps:
http://ogg2.as34763.net/vc160.ogg

Thanks a lot

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #33
The station I do a show for (Future Music FM) requires 128 CBR MP3. Sounds pretty good for streaming.

Best bitrate for online streaming (aka internet radio).

Reply #34
Radio Paradise also streams Ogg Vorbis at various bitrates.  I don't know exactly what software they use, but it is described as customised open source.  They run on Linux so that should give you a pretty good idea what libraries their encoders are based on.