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Topic: EncSpot accuracy and alternatives? (Read 16215 times) previous topic - next topic
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EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

From what info I scrounged up, Encspot is supposedly abandoned and somewhat inaccurate nowadays. I've also heard that there have been modified versions, but I didn't find much on names or info about them.

So my question is this: are there any newer, more accurate programs out there in the same vein as Encspot? Or am I misinformed and EncSpot is still a valid program for its purposes?


Thank you for your time, and I apologize if I put this under the wrong category.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #1
What is the purpose of EncSpot, anyway? Guessing at what encoder was used to encode an MP3 was never very meaningful, given all the transcodes out there. Great, this MP3 has a LAME tag, so what... What are you hoping it will tell you?

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #2
Try MediaInfo.
lame -V 0

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #3
Does anybody know another program which can show the bit graph of a given MP3?
EncSpot 2.1 has that feature, but the legend of the bit graph is non-existent, and there's no graphical distinction between the frames.
Thus interpreting the graph is more guesstimation than information.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #4
EncSpot was based on Naoki Shibata's mp3guessenc. EncSpot stopped being maintained ages ago, but mp3guessenc has been updated many times, and since 2011 has been under the curatorship of Elio Blanca at http://mp3guessenc.sourceforge.net/

It is a command-line tool but does give you the info from which a graph could be created (see the screenshots on that Sourceforge page).

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #5
It shows the histogram, but generating a graph of each frame's bitrate ain't possible, as far as I can see.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #6
I`m not sure that I understood your question but if you want to see the bitrate of every second,you can use VLC player.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #7
It shows the histogram, but generating a graph of each frame's bitrate ain't possible, as far as I can see.

Doesn't it give you enough info to make your own graphical histogram, though?

Or are you asking for something that shows the frames on the X axis and bitrate on the Y? EncSpot doesn't even do that.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #8
If no tool exists that will dump the raw data from a file, it'd be easy to edit the scan_layerIII function in mp3guessenc to write the individual frame information to a file, then you could do whatever you wanted with it.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #9
It shows the histogram, but generating a graph of each frame's bitrate ain't possible, as far as I can see.

Doesn't it give you enough info to make your own graphical histogram, though?

Or are you asking for something that shows the frames on the X axis and bitrate on the Y? EncSpot doesn't even do that.


EncSpot Pro does.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #10
No it doesn't. It shows a histogram where the X axis is bitrate and Y axis is percentage of frames (rounded):


If you use "copy info" it will give you, among other things, the same info in text, with X and Y swapped:
Code: [Select]
Bitrates:
----------------------------------------------------
 32                                                    0.0%
128                                                    0.6%
160    |||||                                          7.7%
192    ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||      55.3%
224    |||||||||||||||                                22.1%
256    ||                                              3.3%
320    |||||||                                        10.9%
----------------------------------------------------

mp3guessenc gives you the exact same info, just without the bars (see frame histogram section):
Code: [Select]
Reading `Rotary Connection - Silent Night.mp3'...
Xing tag detected into the first frame (417 bytes long).
  Tag offset      : 0 (0x00000000)
  File size        : 9469753 bytes
  Number of frames : 13671
  Quality          : 78 (-q 2 -V 2)
  TOC              : 100 bytes (100 entries, 1 byte each)
  Lame tag        : yes
Lame tag details...
  Lame short string    : LAME3.90.
  Tag revision          : 0
  Bitrate strategy      : VBR method old/rh, min unknown
  Lowpass value        : 19000
  nspsytune            : yes
  nssafejoint          : yes
  nogap continued      : no
  nogap continuation    : no
  ATH type              : 4
  Encoder delay (start) : 576 samples
  Encoder padding (end) : 1776 samples
  Encoding mode        : joint stereo
  Unwise settings      : not used
  Source frequency      : 44.1 kHz
  Preset                : No preset.
  Originally encoded    : 9469753 bytes

First frame found at 417 (0x000001A1).

Detected MPEG stream version 1 layer III, details follow.
  File size                : 9469753 bytes
  Audio stream size        : 9469336 bytes (including tag: 9469753)
  Length                  : 0:05:57.120 (357.120 seconds)
  Data rate                : 212.1 kbps
  Number of frames        : 13671
  Blocks per frame        : 4 (granules per frame 2, channels per granule 2)
  Audio samples per frame  : 1152
  Audio frequency          : 44100 Hz
  Length of original audio : 15746640 samples
  Encoding mode            : joint stereo
  Min global gain          : l=134  r=133
  Max global gain          : l=208  r=208
Flags
  Error protection : no
  Copyrighted      : no
  Original        : yes
  Emphasis        : none

Mode extension: stereo mode frame count
  Simple stereo                : 12197 (89.2%)
  Mid-side stereo              :  1474 (10.8%)
  -----------------------------
  sum                          : 13671

Block usage
  Long block granules  :  48266 (88.3%)
  Switch block granules :  3482 ( 6.4%)
  Short block granules  :  2936 ( 5.4%)
  ---------------------
  sum                  :  54684

Ancillary data
  Total amount  : 9948 bytes (0.1%)
  Bitrate        : 0.2 kbps
  Min packet    : 57 bytes
  Max packet    : 579 bytes
Max reservoir                      : 511 bytes
Scalefactor scaling used            : yes
Scalefactor select information used : yes
Padding used                        : no

Frame histogram
  32 kbps :    1 ( 0.0%), size distr: [    1 x 104 B]
 128 kbps :    86 ( 0.6%), size distr: [  86 x 417 B]
 160 kbps :  1047 ( 7.7%), size distr: [ 1047 x 522 B]
 192 kbps :  7560 (55.3%), size distr: [ 7560 x 626 B]
 224 kbps :  3023 (22.1%), size distr: [ 3023 x 731 B]
 256 kbps :  457 ( 3.3%), size distr: [  457 x 835 B]
 320 kbps :  1497 (11.0%), size distr: [ 1497 x1044 B]

 0 header errors.

Encoder string : LAME3.90.3

Maybe this file is encoded by Lame

EncSpot also shows the distribution of simple and mid-side stereo frames, and long vs. short blocks:


Again, this info is provided by mp3guessenc, and with more accuracy.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #11
No it doesn't. It shows a histogram where the X axis is bitrate and Y axis is percentage of frames (rounded):


What I mean is EncSpot PRO, which was for sale back then.


EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #13
I always use(d) 2.2 Pro.
It never occurred to me that 2.1 would have a unique feature!
I don't think I've seen a graph like that in any other MP3 software.

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #14
Hello,

If something like this can float your boat:


Two years ago, I borrowed ideas from this post to make my own dirty script.
It uses gnuplot, ffprobe from ffmpeg package, it is far from being user friendly and it (surely) can be full of bugs BUT it can graph any audio format ffmpeg can decode, for instance:


If you have some time to waste...

    AiZ

EncSpot accuracy and alternatives?

Reply #15
Thank you!