I understand this is a forum for PLEX, but this was suggested by JuiceWSA a while back and I’ve decided to try it. Normalizing audio using Xmedia recode where it doesn’t re-encode the video (just copys it), but normalizes the audio of your video files to 89db. But I’m running into something I want to make sure I’m doing this correctly (if someone familiar with this could help).
I’m using the lastest version of Xmedia recode. I add a folder to xmedia recode (season 1 of a tv series), highlight all episodes in xmedia recode, then make sure the video is on COPY, then go to audio and choose volume normalization. But before ticking analyze which will analyze all files to get them to 89db, which audio codec do you choose? I have a lot of Xvids that are mp3 audio and there is no mp3 in the audio coecs dropdown. It defalts to Fraunhofer FDK AAC with a bitrate of only 64. Then you have AAC, AMR Narrow Band, and AMR Wide Band.
Please tell me the proper procedure because I have so many LOUD or LOW episodes I desperately want to normalize them all.
I don’t think you’ll be satisfied with the results.
MP3 is a lossy audio encoding format.
AAC is a lossy audio encoding format.
Transcoding one lossy format into another lossy format (particularly if the source has not a very high bitrate) will result in much audible compression artifacts.
The only way to counteract this is to use a target bitrate which is relatively high.
I’d say aim for 256 kbps AAC or higher and try how it sounds.
use 48000 Hz sample rate
Use the MKV container as your destination. It will behave better than the original AVI container.
Yep I understand they are both lossy, that’s why when I saw the default bitrate at 64 I was like wtf? Anyway, I will try this but do you mind telling me how if I’m not re-encoding the video, only the audio in xmedia recode, how do I put these into an MKV container? Is this done with another program. Looking around xmedia recode I don’t see where I can do this unless I re-encode the entire video file. Thanks
Oh holy crap. I see what you’re talking about. Changing the format to mkv brings up a bunch of audio codec options. I will try your recommendations. I’m assuming if I add an entire series, highlight them all, then choose MKV as container, video as copy, and audio settings/volume correction that it will batch covert them all. Thanks
Stay with AAC stereo as the target format for audio.
If you’re transcoding the audio anyway, you might as well use the most universally supported audio format in video files.
This is strange. The XviD’s I have that are AVI container with MP3 audio - when using audio normalization, choosing MKV as container, copying the video, using 48khz sample rate, 320 bitrate AAC, the audio sounds very compressed and awful. So I tried changing two things: Instead of MKV container, I chose the same AVI container, then instead of AAC, I chose MP3 as the audio, used 48khz sample rate and 320 bitrate, and the sound is so much better. Oh well. Another thing I noticed is when I used the MKV container, when I played the file back with VCL, the video was jerky, like a weird frame rate issue (the video was copied), but when using the AVI container and re-encoding the audio to MP3 with settings above, it played smoothly and sounded better. Does any of this make sense?
Which AAC encoder did you use?
The first in the list is crap. The ‘Fraunhofer’ is superior.
But it could be something else, too.
An experiment: throw the AVI version you created with Xmediarecode into MKVtoolnixGUI and simply remux it to MKV.
Does the resulting file exhibit the same issues than the MKV produced directly with Xmediarecode?
Yes I used the first AAC. I didn’t realize the Fraunhofer was superior. At any rate, Yes. If I create an MKV from an AVI in xmedia recode, using the AAC or Fraunhofer, while copying the video, using high bitrate’s and sample rates as mentioned, all i can describe the ultimate sound as being a really low bitrate recording (know what I mean)… Additionally, the frame rate looks off to me when played back in VLC, but when plex transcodes it, it looks perfectly fine, not jumpy at all. Just the sound is very low bitrate sounding. Just to check, after I created the MKV and the video was jerky, I ran it through handbrake and converted to MP4, and the frame rate weirdness was totally gone. I dunno. But if I use the AVI container, and re-encode the audio with MP3 at high bitrate, non of this happens. Everything looks and sounds fine. It’s worth mentioning I have experienced this SAME exact thing in the past when re-encoding some files using handbrake. I’m not sure what the original audio was that I encoded, but the sound was horribly low bitrate sounding. But when I changed the audio setting in handbrake to MP3 and encoded, that sound issue went away. At any rate, Since it’s an existing AVI with MP3 as audio, using AVI container, and re-encoding audio to mp3 and a high bitrate seems like it’s working best. I can’t tell the difference in the audio sound quality at all and the volume is leveled.
