<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Basic command line switch reference</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="Command line switch reference">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="lame">
<META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document">
<META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global">
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso_8859_1">
<LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="lame.css">
</HEAD>
<BODY TEXT=#000000
BGCOLOR=#F9FBFB LINK=#006666 VLINK=#4C4C4C
ALINK=#995500>
<H1>Basic command line switch reference</H1>
<br>
Only the most usual switches are described here. However those should be sufficient
for the vast majority of users.
<P>
<TABLE CELLPADDING=3 BORDER="1">
<TR VALIGN="TOP">
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" nowrap><b>switch</b></TD>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" nowrap><b>parameter</b></TD>
</TR>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#-abr">--abr</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>average bitrate encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#b">-b</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>bitrate (8...320)</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#-decode">--decode</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>decoding only</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#f">-f</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap> fast mode</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#h">-h</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>high quality</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#-help">--help</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap> help</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#m">-m m</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>mono mode</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="TOP">
<td align="LEFT" nowrap><kbd><a href="#V">-V</a></kbd></td>
<td align="LEFT" nowrap>VBR quality setting (0...9)</td>
</tr>
</TABLE>
<BR>
<dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>--abr n</kbd><a name="-abr"> average
bitrate encoding</a></strong>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Turns on encoding with a targeted average bitrate of n kbits, allowing to
use frames of different sizes. The allowed range of n is 8-320, you can use
any integer value within that range.
<dt><br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>-b n</kbd><a name="b"> bitrate</a></strong>
</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>For MPEG1 (sampling frequencies of 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz)<br>
n = 32,40,48,56,64,80,96,112,128,160,192,224,256,320<br>
<br>
For MPEG2 (sampling frequencies of 16, 22.05 and 24 kHz)<br>
n = 8,16,24,32,40,48,56,64,80,96,112,128,144,160<br>
<br>
Default is 128 kbs for MPEG1 and 80 kbs for MPEG2.
<dt><br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>--decode</kbd><a name="-decode"> decoding
only</a></strong> </dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>Uses LAME for decoding to a WAV file. The input file can be any input type
supported by encoding, including layer I,II,III (MP3).
<dt><br>
<br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
<dl> </dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>-f</kbd><a name="f"> fast mode</a></strong>
</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd> This switch forces the encoder to use a faster encoding mode, but with
a lower quality.
<dt><br>
<br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
<dl> </dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>-h</kbd><a name="h"> high quality</a></strong>
</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd> Use some quality improvements. Encoding will be slower, but the result
will be of higher quality.<br>
This switch is always enabled when using VBR.
<dt><br>
<br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
<dl> </dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>--help</kbd><a name="-help"> help</a></strong>
</dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd> Display a list of all available options.
<dt><br>
<br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
<dl> </dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>-m m</kbd><a name="m"> mono
mode</a></strong> </dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd>The input will be encoded as a mono signal.
<dt><br>
<br>
</dt>
<hr width="50%" noshade align="center">
<br>
<dl> </dl>
<dt><strong>* <kbd>-V 0...9</kbd><a name="V"> VBR quality
setting</a></strong></dt>
</dl>
<dl>
<dd> Enable VBR (Variable BitRate) and specifies the value of VBR quality.<br>
default=4<br>
0=highest quality.
</dl>
</BODY>
</HTML>
root