User manual

You do not need to highlight the selected file(s)
because all the files displayed will be encoded.
Click on the dropdown button in the 'Output file
format' and highlight 'mp3PRO (*.mp3)'. Click on the
'Browse' button in the 'Target file' area to indicate
the directory where you would like the file to be
saved.
The 'Source file info' field is for your information and
gives details about the quality of the file to be
encoded.
Click on the 'Settings' button to display the para-
meters for encoding.
Click on the 'Enable mp3PRO' button box if you
want to encode files in the mp3PRO format.
Encoding audio files as mp3PRO files is always
bound up with losses. When encoding, psycho-
acoustic models are used to remove "inaudible"
acoustic elements from the audio file. Most test
listeners can hardly (or not at all) distinguish
between the sound from mp3PRO files that have
been stored with a sufficiently high bitrate from the
original files. Nevertheless, a certain loss of acoustic
information is unavoidable. The size of the loss
depends very much on two factors. These are first,
the quality of the psychoacoustic model used for
data reduction and second, the bitrate of the
mp3PRO file.
Encoding quality: The quality of the psycho-
acoustic model with Nero is excellent. Naturally, a
compromise needs to be found between the
complexity of the model and the computing time
needed. Depending on the intended application of
the mp3PRO file, the quality of the encoding (i.e. of
the acoustic model) can be set at 'fast', 'medium'
and 'highest'. With the highest quality, encoding
takes place at approx. normal speed on a PII350,
i.e. three minutes of music will be encoded in three
minutes. At the 'fast' setting (and with the same
hardware), encoding can take place at up to eight
times the normal speed. The sound quality is
already very good with the 'fast' setting and
completely satisfactory for most applications.