Audio settings when ripping DVDs with Handbrake?

I’m trying to archive (and upload) some of my more obscure DVDs with Handbrake. I have a pretty good understanding of the video settings, but I’m at a loss as far as audio is concerned.
The default is AAC (avcodec) 160kbps. And the original audio on some of the DVDs is AC-3 Dolby Digital 2-ch 192 Kb. Would 160 AAC suffice, or should I up it to 192?
Thanks
Answer #1
The 160 should be more than enough.
I would only go higher if it was a very good quality sound, music DVD..(or a 5.1 chan sound maybe)
For general “talkies” I often drop it to 112kbps.
Answer #2
Set the audio to passthru. No sense trashing it just to save a few MBs. AC-3 is a lossy codec and by changing it to AAC or something else you are just losing more quality.
Answer #3
192Kbps is the bitrate for multichan 5.1 aac-lc audio in the nero encoder. for aac-he it is only 128Kbps so i think that 160Kbps is very excessive imo.
if very high audio quality is important than maybe but you would probably be better off using a lossless encoder in such cases. 192kbps ac3 is not good enough quality to warrant lossless encoding or high enough for 160Kbps aac. 128kbps is probably more than sufficient and 96Kbps aac-lc is the best quality preset available in megui/nero aac encoder. the benefit to aac is the file size/compression, it’s ideal for small file sizes but for quality, use something else.
there is compatibility which needs to be thought of and where the video might be played. pc’s and most newer media players should not have difficulty with any aac audio. older devices, handhelds and possibly some consoles might.
ac3 is larger but can be decoded by most audio receivers. it’s most compatible.
Answer #4
I would recommend to passthrough (as you will save time instead of mb), but even if you do switch it to 160kbps, you would probably not be able to distinguish any difference.
So it is totally up to you.