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Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

marco.org

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Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#11

Post by raverbashing »

Analemma_ wrote: post #4

If you want more context to this, there's a lot more in the most recent ATP podcast (with timestamp link included in the article). Which kind of highlights a problem that I think is only going to grow over time - the general greatness of podcasts has one big black spot in that they're tough to share. I've seen so many discussions recently where there was awesome additional context or info in a recent podcast, but it…

I like podcasts, but they're unnerving to me.

It's too much time wasted to get to the point. And as opposed to music, I can't program properly when listening to them

Not to mention a lot of podcasters act in a radio way (which make sense for radio), with repetitions, talking slowly, endless introductions, chit chat, etc

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#12

Post by DarkLinkXXXX »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #8
kalleboo wrote: post #2

That's MP3s. AAC/MP4 has better efficiency, and I can't imagine any devices in 2016 don't support it...?

If only OGG support was more common :(

Opus if the free software lossy codec of choice now, I think. It can be put in an ogg container though.

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#14

Post by hyperbovine »

caiob wrote: post #13

> VBR encoding is far more space-efficient and better-sounding than constant-bitrate (CBR) encoding While this may be true for podcasts, it's def false for music files.

How so? Any VBR encoder could choose to produce CBR at the targeted average bitrate. The fact that it doesn't means that there is some better setting in terms of either space or quality.

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#16

Post by archagon »

Analemma_ wrote: post #4

If you want more context to this, there's a lot more in the most recent ATP podcast (with timestamp link included in the article). Which kind of highlights a problem that I think is only going to grow over time - the general greatness of podcasts has one big black spot in that they're tough to share. I've seen so many discussions recently where there was awesome additional context or info in a recent podcast, but it…

I just don't understand why Marco has bitten so hard into this problem. It doesn't matter at all. Everybody skips the ATP theme song anyway, and VBR will only negligibly improve quality of the rest of the show (as Marco himself has pointed out). And it's not like the theme song sounds bad in its current state! I have never noticed any artifacts or flaws in the recording at all. This is almost literally only something the ATP crew would notice.

Assuming Apple fixes this VBR problem — unlikely — it would still be a far better idea to switch to something like AAC instead of using VBR and massively inconveniencing a) your entire audience on older iOS versions, and b) a large swath of your audience that uses players with equally poor VBR support. This whole brouhaha makes absolutely no sense.

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#17

Post by drzaiusapelord »

Apreche wrote: post #7

That's not the only reason. We have been podcasting for over 10 years, and early on we tried to use VBR MP3s because we are teach people who know about that sort of thing. As it turns out, not everyone is listening using a modern device. When we tried VBR a significant number of people could not listen because their MP3 playing hardware/software of choice did not support VBR files properly. They didn't realize this w…

VBR have been the red-headed step-child of MP3 since the beginning. I have no idea why, maybe it was difficult to write good encoders and decoders for it for back in the day. The few times I used them, I found trivial space savings compared to a CBR and to be honest I thought I could hear a difference (maybe its not humanly possible if the implementation of the encoder/decoder is good but what if the implementation is sub-par?). Storage and bandwidth are so cheap, why bother today?

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#18

Post by TD-Linux »

DarkLinkXXXX wrote: post #12
colejohnson66 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only OGG support was more common :(

Opus if the free software lossy codec of choice now, I think. It can be put in an ogg container though.

Yup, .opus files are the Ogg container. While Opus is newer, both Opus and Vorbis are much better than MP3.

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#19

Post by dublinben »

colejohnson66 wrote: post #8
kalleboo wrote: post #2

That's MP3s. AAC/MP4 has better efficiency, and I can't imagine any devices in 2016 don't support it...?

If only OGG support was more common :(

OGG Vorbis audio is supported by all Android devices, which is the vast majority of mobile devices in the world.

Re: Why don’t podcasts use VBR MP3s? Because iOS and macOS don’t accurately seek them

#20

Post by cjensen »

archagon wrote: post #16
Analemma_ wrote: post #4

If you want more context to this, there's a lot more in the most recent ATP podcast (with timestamp link included in the article). Which kind of highlights a problem that I think is only going to grow over time - the general greatness of podcasts has one big black spot in that they're tough to share. I've seen so many discussions recently where there was awesome additional context or info in a recent podcast, but it…

I just don't understand why Marco has bitten so hard into this problem. It doesn't matter at all . Everybody skips the ATP theme song anyway, and VBR will only negligibly improve quality of the rest of the show ( as Marco himself has pointed out ). And it's not like the theme song sounds bad in its current state! I have never noticed any artifacts or flaws in the recording at all. This is almost literally only someth…

The ATP theme song by Johnathan Mann is unexpectedly awesome, and I never ever skip it. And as Marco pointed out in the ATP episode, this also affects any musical interludes or short musical samples within any podcast.
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