Ripping Audio CD - Changing VBR does not affect file size

[kikl]

Binary package hint: rhythmbox

I navigated to edit - preferences - music player preferences. Then I chose the preferred format: CD Quality MP3.

Then, I chose to edit the preferred format.

This was the default command line:

audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lame name=enc mode=0 vbr-quality=6 ! id3v2mux

I ripped a CD using this setting. Then I changed the setting to:

audio/x-raw-int,rate=44100,channels=2 ! lame name=enc mode=0 vbr-quality=2 ! id3v2mux

So, the variable bit rate quality was changed from 6 to 2. I expected the size of the files to change accordingly. However, the ripped files have exactly the same size. The bitrate of the mp3-files is in both cases 128 kbps for each and every file.

My conclusion: The lame settings cannot be changed. The audio-files are ripped with a constant bit rate, not a variable bit rate.

I think this is a bug, because if you let the user edit the quality settings, then the changes should have an effect. Furthermore, the default settings for lame in CD-quality should be reasonable, i.e. the recommended settings, namely a virtual bit rate (not a constant bit rate) and the quality setting should be transparent, i.e. VBR-quality=2 or 3!

Here's my reference:
http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=LAME

Well, otherwise I am very pleased with rhythmbox! The GUI is beautiful and straight-forward. I appreciate your work a lot and hope that this bug report may help you improve rhythmbox even more. Editing the gstreamer command lines (right expression?) is pretty geeky, but I guess this is brand new and your still working on it!

Regards,

kikl

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 6a2e5947a2547266fcb426f702f7b105
CheckboxSystem: daed2f3d6643b4a84b4520a2427f8c2b
Date: Sat Feb 20 18:38:51 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/rhythmbox
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: rhythmbox 0.12.5-0ubuntu5.2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-generic
SourcePackage: rhythmbox
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-generic x86_64

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

This bug is an upstream one and it would be quite helpful if somebody experiencing it could send the bug the to the people writing the software. You can learn more about how to do this for various upstreams at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/GNOME . Thanks in advance!

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. A new version of Rhythmbox is available on Maverick and we are wondering if this bug is still an issue for you with that version? Could you please test and comment back? Thanks in advance.

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for rhythmbox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]