[kalleboo]

How good is the ffmpeg AAC encoder these days? Ages ago when I started using HandBrake, it using Apple's CoreAudio codec on Macs for the AAC encoding was a big plus on the audio side.

[izacus]

It's actually fine for most use-cases. Beats FAAC and VO_AACENC easily and it's slightly worse than FDK-AAC from Fraunhofer.

In short - just fine to use and it's the default (without -strict) now.

[rockdoe]

Apple's AAC encoder is still the best out there for high bitrates.

[rangibaby]

libfdk_aac is fast and good

[rockdoe]

Which is not the default ffmpeg encoder, and due to licensing you can't distribute libfdk_aac and x264 in the same ffmpeg binary.

There's a built-in ffmpeg AAC encoder too, but despite the author's claims it is not as good as libfdk_aac.

And libfdk_aac itself isn't as good as Apple's AAC codec either. There's a Hydrogenaudio listening test demonstrating that.

[cyphar]

Unfortunately it's proprietary, because of unclear license terms about distribution of source code and modifications (saying that you cannot charge a "copyright license fee") and it clearly says that patentable ideas in the source code are not licensed.