couple of questions.

once I've ripped a file & then forgotten what audio bit rate was used, is there any way to find out. e. some handly little utility program ?

With other formats e.g. ac3, mp3, I can use file details in windows folder layouts & select the bit rate column, but that does not display a rate for Ipod format. T he codecs column confirms MP4V & AAC but no bit rate is shown.

I tried playing a file in powerdvd with information enabled but the audio bit rate varies as the file plays , so I guess powerdvd is struggling to give me the info.

2nd question - the default audio setting in ipod rip is 64kbs which seems low to me - or is the ipod format more efficient than MP3 ? Should I set this to 128 in order to get audio quality as good as 128mp3 ?

what audio rate do itunes use when then sell qudio tracks, can anyone tell me please ( I don't have an ipod myself so I can't check, I'm just preparing some video clips to send to my son to use )

Try GSpot for finding the bitrate.

doesn't seem to work - gspot tells me the sample rate -48k , the type:
mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC , & tells me lots & lots about the video , but not what bit rate I ripped the audio at

Yamb (free) and VLC Media Player (free) both give detailed stream info on these type files and are excellent MPEG4 toolbox items (along with GSpot that cholla mentioned, AVICodec, MediaInfo and many others). Here is a capture of Yamb's info for the audio track made using the iPodh264 5.5G profile (AAC audio): this is the older version of Yamb, the newer UI looks a little different.

ok - tried vlc player on one of my output files
- but vlc says the audio is mp4a at bit rate of 1536k !- this can't be right as I ripped it at either 64k or 128k - don't remember which .

like with gspot, it seems spot on for all the video info but not for the audio

I think I'll resort to putting the audio bit rate into the files name when I rip.

I did look up aac va mp3 quality and I read that aac at 160 is reckoned to be as good as mp3 at 192, but that it is an apple owned, not an open source codec.

Yeah, I just tried VLC with the same result. Looks like Yamb is the one. Here's a link--get the one with the installer: http://yamb.unite-video.com/download.html

You might have your bitrate values confused. 1536K is the vid bit rate which is not uncommon. I usually set it for 900. The 64k or 128k values are the audio bitrates.

VLC listed the 1536 in the audio stream section. ??

i stand corrected then....

I got the same thing when I checked a .mp4 I made the other day but thought I would see if any program I had would show the information.
Winamp will it show the bitrate in the upper left of the winamp console but you can also use the File pulldown & select View file info.
Anyway it showed to bitrate on my file maybe it will on yours.

google mediainfo

Gives all the relevent info.

thanks guys for all the advice & the extra testing. I donloaded the mediainfo utility & that works well. Good product.