Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

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Tony_T
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:21 am

Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Tony_T »

Description of problem or question:

Metadata not always showing AAC bitrates (occurred on many of my rips)

For example, I selected 3 audio tracks:: 0: English AC3, 2 Chan (192) -> AAC 192 , 0: English AC3, 2 Chan (192) -> AC3 Passthrough and 1: English (commentary track) AC3 (192) -> AAC 192

The Metadata shows no bitrate in the PLEX info, and in the VLC info.
This occurs in many, but not all of my rips.

Here's what PLEX shows that's in the Metadata (note, bitrate of 192 shown in Codec AC3, but nothing in either of the 2 Codec AAC

Codec AAC
Channels 2
Language English
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Display Title English (AAC Stereo)

Codec AC3
Channels 2
Bitrate 192 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 3
Display Title English (AC3 Stereo)

Codec AAC
Channels 2
Language English
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 4
Display Title English (AAC Stereo)


Steps to reproduce the problem (If Applicable):

Select AAC (CoreAudio) Stereo Mixdown, Auto sample rate, 192 bitrate


HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):

1.3.0


Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):

macOS 10.11.6 (El Capitain)


HandBrake Activity Log ***required*** (see How-to get an activity log)

https://pastebin.com/XXRJ9U9U
Deleted User 13735

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Deleted User 13735 »

Does MediaInfo show the bitrate?
Missing tags are very common, and don't affect playback. They are merely information for humans.
mduell
Veteran User
Posts: 8187
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:54 pm

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by mduell »

That's not a bug.

Feature requests go on github. Even better a pull request for a patch.
Tony_T
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:21 am

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Tony_T »

musicvid wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 2:12 pm Does MediaInfo show the bitrate?
Missing tags are very common, and don't affect playback. They are merely information for humans.
Just checked with ffprobe (had this installed with ffmpeg) and it does show the bitrate:
Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 197 kb/s
Deleted User 13735

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Deleted User 13735 »

My guess is that is a calculated, rather than a tagged number.
Once again, what does MediaInfo say?
Please be reminded that Handbrake does not write its own codecs, so they have no control over what gets written to metadata tags.
Last edited by Deleted User 13735 on Fri Nov 29, 2019 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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BradleyS
Moderator
Posts: 1860
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:16 pm

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by BradleyS »

Indeed, we had another report of this recently. I believe the bit rate is not stored in the container, so some softwares will attempt to glean the information from the stream itself. Inconvenient but not a bug in HandBrake; more of a shortcoming of MediaInfo.
Deleted User 13735

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Deleted User 13735 »

Bitrate Viewer is a fun toy, that has been around forever.
Tony_T
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:21 am

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Tony_T »

musicvid wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:34 pm My guess is that is a calculated, rather than a tagged number.
Once again, what does MediaInfo say?
Please be reminded that Handbrake does not write its own codecs, so they have no control over what gets written to metadata tags.
ffprobe (posted above) gives the same (if not more) info as MediaInfo.
Bitrate encoded as 197 (I selected 192 in HB)
Looks like a bug when HB creates the metadata
Deleted User 11865

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

HandBrake simply does not write any track statistics tag (metadata about e.g. bitrate etc.), it's not a bug.
Tony_T
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2019 4:21 am

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Tony_T »

Rodeo wrote: Fri Nov 29, 2019 11:59 pm HandBrake simply does not write any track statistics tag (metadata about e.g. bitrate etc.), it's not a bug.
I understand now. The bitrate is encoded as I selected, so all is good.
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BradleyS
Moderator
Posts: 1860
Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:16 pm

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by BradleyS »

ffprobe actually samples some of the audio stream to determine the bit rate. HandBrake's AAC encoders are not constant bit rate, they're variable/average, so it will fluctuate above and below 192 throughout the stream depending on the complexity of the source audio.
Deleted User 13735

Re: Metadata not always showing AAC bitrate

Post by Deleted User 13735 »

I only wanted to compare the outputs to MediaInfo, which uses different fallback methods to calculate a number of parameters. Glad you found a solution.
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