I learned about ffmpeg, x264/x265 and the best CRF's, but what about audio?

[Madcow]

Hi,

I ripped a bunch of my Blu-Rays after reading a lot about ffmpeg, x264, x265 and the specific settings, presets and CRF values. I think my rips look very nice and have a very small footprint for their quality (being around 12 GB a disc).

I also found that the answer to the question to life the universe and everything is x264 with a CRF between 16 and 21 with a tune/preset that fits the movie. Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but as someone who doesn't want to obtain a doctorate, that is truly everything I need to know.

I was hoping that for the audio files there is a very similar approach. Like 15 years ago where you would just decode everything into MP3 with a VBR of around 192 and never be wrong with that.

It would be great, if you could give a practical example for one of my Blu-Rays here. All languages are equally important, so I would not encode a foreign language in with a lower bitrate. But I would not keep two audio streams of the same language. In this case, one is apparently of better quality.

Thanks!

    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: dts (DTS-HD MA), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), s16p (default)
    Metadata:
      title           : Surround 5.1
      BPS-eng         : 2152919
      DURATION-eng    : 03:47:00.608000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 1276932
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 3665508800
      SOURCE_ID-eng   : 001100
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: MakeMKV v1.10.7 win(x64-release)
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2017-09-23 15:52:18
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID
    Stream #0:2(eng): Audio: dts (DTS), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 1536 kb/s
    Metadata:
      title           : Surround 5.1
      BPS-eng         : 1509000
      DURATION-eng    : 03:47:00.608000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 1276932
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 2569187184
      SOURCE_ID-eng   : 001100
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: MakeMKV v1.10.7 win(x64-release)
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2017-09-23 15:52:18
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID
    Stream #0:3(deu): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s
    Metadata:
      title           : Surround 5.1
      BPS-eng         : 640000
      DURATION-eng    : 03:47:00.608000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 425644
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 1089648640
      SOURCE_ID-eng   : 001101
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: MakeMKV v1.10.7 win(x64-release)
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2017-09-23 15:52:18
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID
    Stream #0:4(ita): Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 640 kb/s
    Metadata:
      title           : Surround 5.1
      BPS-eng         : 640000
      DURATION-eng    : 03:47:00.608000000
      NUMBER_OF_FRAMES-eng: 425644
      NUMBER_OF_BYTES-eng: 1089648640
      SOURCE_ID-eng   : 001102
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_APP-eng: MakeMKV v1.10.7 win(x64-release)
      _STATISTICS_WRITING_DATE_UTC-eng: 2017-09-23 15:52:18
      _STATISTICS_TAGS-eng: BPS DURATION NUMBER_OF_FRAMES NUMBER_OF_BYTES SOURCE_ID