How can I encode audio with Nero AAC Encoder using Mac OS X?

Question

The Nero AAC Encoder encoder is far superior sound-wise to libfaac that comes with ffmpeg, but the encoder is only available for Windows. How can I encode using this encoder on Mac OS X?

Other, even better alternatives are encouraged as well.

Answer 1

neroAacEnc is also available for Linux. If you find that is works for you in OS X then you can use ffmpeg to pipe to this encoder and then mux with ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i input -f wav - | neroAacEnc -ignorelength -if - -of audio.mp4
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.mp4 -c copy -map 0 output.mkv

However, FFmpeg now also supports the external encoding library from fdk-aac which is probably ≥ neroAacEnc (I'm guessing here). That being said some tests consider Apple's AAC encoder (via qaac) to be very good, so you have the option to encode with qaac and mux with ffmpeg.

Answer 2

On the mac you'd be bettor off using afconvert. Command line tool to quicktime aac encoding.

afconvert -f m4af -d aac -q 127 -s 3 <input file>

There's also a user quality setting -u vbrq <1 to 127> I tend to use 105 for around 250kbps and that example above is using true vbr.

Answer 3

If you are set on using Nero's encoder on a mac, you can always use Mac's Bootcamp to run a virtual version of Windows and do the encoding that way. This probably isn't what you want but was just going to give you the option.

There are also a few programs that don't require Bootcamp that will open PC programs. Here are a couple. I think some have a free trial too or are free (but in beta) so you wont have to buy anything right away if you wan't to go this route:

1. CrossOver
2. Wine Bottler
3. Vmware Fusion