The Best Quality Minimum size codec is here. AAC (mp4).

MPEG4 standard is the forthcoming thing for Audio and Video. For audio it is variation of AAC(Advanced audio codec). Apple iTunes already sells .m4a which is nothing just another implementation of MPEG-4 AAC.

This codec helps saving space with small handheld devices/mobile phones. A normal 4 minute song might just take little over than 1MB with very-very good quality, and no much apparent lose in quality, unless you are an audiophile you will love it.

Below are the different versions of AAC.

• AAC -> Normal AAC, all iTunes store files in this format.
• SBR-AAC(Spectral band replication) or AAC+ or HE-AAC -> good sound quality even at 45kbps
• PS-SBR-AAC(Parametric Stereo w/ SBR) or eAAC+ or HE-AACv2 -> smallest size, good at as low as 28kbps.(effectively only 700kb for a 4 min song.)

I have been using this codec for all songs to be copied on phone for quite some time, finally penning it down here.
you will need two utilities.

Download and install this utility foobar.
http://filehippo.com/download_foobar2000/ - 2.53Mb

Download Nero Codec
http://www.nero.com/ena/downloads-nerodigital-nero-aac-codec.php - 1.7 Mb
That’s a mpeg-4 audio implementation by Nero, a deutsch company.
Unzip this to folder C:\Program Files\Foobar2000


1. (Optional) – performance thing only.
Go to foobar2000 program directory and delete neroAacEnc.exe and rename neroAacEnc_SSE.exe to neroAacEnc.exe. Normally all the PC have SSE instruction, unless you have some old 486 or 386 which nowadays nobody keeps :). this will enhance the speed of encoding a file


2. Open foobar, Drop the media file onto foobar, it will start playing immediately.
Stop the file if you don’t want to listen at the moment.
Select convert to same folder in context menu of file.

(click on image to view image full size)



3. Select mp4 in next window.



4. Click on ellipses button in after selecting mp4 from dropdown.
Below screen will come up.



Keep the target quality as “VBR” but change the quality to 33 kbps (this will encode file to e-AAC with Parametric Stereo).
Press “OK”.

5. Select ok in next window this message will pop up, say yes.




6. Foobar will ask to locate the neroAacEnc.exe so you can browse the place where you have unzipped it.



I have unzipped my codec to Nero_e-AAC and will select from there.

And you are done;) foobar will save your compressed media file in the same folder where original file resides.

You can try various other bitrate to suit your needs. But normally selecting a VBR 48kbps is good for listening on computer and Mobile.(the output mp4 will be in HE-AAC) But want more compression with very less loss to quality, choose VBR 28 or VBR 33 which will give use HE-AACv2(Parametric Stereo).


Just one thing more here if you want to play these files, they won’t work out of the box in windows media player. But Foobar itself, and Winamp, along with media player classic can easily play such files.

cheers/ Anurag

Intel Quad Core Processor, do we need it...?

Intel has started shipping its Quad Core processors for the Desktops, And Recently I came across an Advertisement from Intel saying Quad Core PC's start from Rs 25990/- Price Range. But My Idea is :

Do we really need it....?

For all the requirement for ppl at home, is just a decent Machine which can perform all the task of Word Processor, email, Browsing, and all those similar things.
See the spec for the Intel's newest Desktop Processor, here, And see that the Processor Consumes 95W power Which is much more than many of the existing processors.
I am not against Technology, But the idea to market the term Quad core CPU for Consumer Market like home is all crap. For Enterprises Intel can plan moves as they want it, But Its bad to even think of a quad core processor based Machine for home use.
Unnecessary wastage of electricity with effective additional output that's what are intel newer CPU's are.

Call Filter : Block unwanted calls

Pushed marketing has become such a huge business for various companies that they take it as for granted to disturb customer over his mobile every now and then. And Bangalore is one the cities where you can find to its utmost limit.
I had issues with vodafone (back in october) as they told me that DND will be active not before than 45 days time, so i decided to figure other way, and it is this.

All symbian Mobile phone users can install a free application 'Call Filter' and block numbers from which they don't want to receive calls. download here

here is some description from the site.

» CallFilter Description

Call Filter is a utility application realised under the concept "Simple Yet Efficient" for your Symbian devices. It allows you to hang-up any incoming calls from contacts selected as a filter rule in main application screen. Gives you a very convenient and quick access to block/unblock some phone number at runtime. The logs screen maintains a list of rejected calls and allows placing a quick call or an sms to the rejected phone number. So this is what we call "Simple Yet Efficient".

- Blocks unwanted calls
- Allows block/unblock calls on the go ..
- Maintains a log of rejected calls .. and allows to send an sms or make a call to the rejected caller immidiately !
- The best of all .... its Freeware

cheers,
Anurag