Final cut pro and FFmpeg.
ive been using Final Cut Pro for a year now and I used ffmpeg sometimes so my question is which have vastly superior sound quality the -c:a copy from ffmpeg or linear pcm ProRes 422 from Final Cut Pro? I just need a clear answer because google ai says that ProRes 422 linear PCM sounds superior to ffmpeg -c:a copy and then it says -c:a copy sounds more superior than linear pcm?
you once told me final cut pro has transcoding engine better than FFMPEG before? So should final cut pro sound better than ffmpeg? some say ffmpeg sound great and it can sound better than final cut pro?
Thank You Ben
'ffmpeg -c:a copy' just losslessly copies whatever audio happens to be in the input.
PCM audio is lossless uncompressed audio whereas aac audio is lossy compressed audio.
'ffmpeg -c:a aac_at' (built-in to macOS/iOS but can be used in other OSs) should be slightly better quality than 'ffmpeg -c:a aac' (ffmpeg default) or 'ffmpeg -c:a libfdk_aac' (Fraunhofer FDK AAC).
'ffmpeg -c:a pcm_s16le' encodes signed 16-bit little-endian PCM.
My first question is, when and why are you transcoding audio in the first place? What is your goal?
From what has been discussed so far, in a nutshell, you won't hear any quality difference in the audio no matter which way you go (except mp3 which is sort of obsolete now, or should be). ProRes audio is only superior on paper. The old saying, garbage in, garbage out, applies. Also "Lossy" and "Lossless" are very misleading terms. Lossy only means compressed, not bad, not inferior. ACC compression is amazing and keeps sound quality really well. I've taken original WAV audio files, converted to each, and can never hear a difference (and I have worked as an audio engineer in the past). I'd save time, not worry about Ffmpeg. It will not give you "vastly superior sound quality". Your sound will be what it was when originally recorded, nothing will improve it during a transcode. You can only improve original audio with post-processing filters, or avoiding MP3. WAV, PCM, ACC are all great audio codecs and you'll loose nothing using any of them.
Final Cut Pro and Ffmpeg comparison
