The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio codecs. An audio codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. ...

General information

Basic general information about the codecs: creator/company, license/price etc.

Notes: FairPlay is a digital rights management (DRM) technology created by Apple Inc. ... Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. ... Apple Inc. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... QuickTime is a multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc. ... This article is about the iTunes application. ... RealPlayer is a media player, created by RealNetworks, that plays a number of multimedia formats including multiple generations of RealAudio and RealVideo codecs as well as MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, etc. ... Ripping is the process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or Compact Disc (CD), to a hard disk. ... Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. ... Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $68. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... See also IBMs VM operating system family, where minidisk refers to a logical unit of storage. ... Sony Walkman Official Logo (2000 — present) Various products of the Walkman line Walkman is a very popular Sony brand used to market its portable audio players, and is synonymously used to refer to the original Walkman portable personal stereo player and as a generic term for similar devices from other... VAIO, an acronym for Video Audio Integrated Operations, is a sub-brand for many of Sonys computer products. ... The Sony CLI is a line of personal digital assistants running the Palm OS that are distinguished from other PDAs by such features (not all available on all models) as a jog-wheel interface, Memory Stick slot, MP3 playback, and high-resolution displays. ... The Sony PlayStation 3 (colloquially known as the PS3) will be the new video game console in Sonys PlayStation series. ... The PlayStation Portable , officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and currently manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. ... SDDS stands for Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, which is a cinema sound system developed by Sony. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... RealPlayer, briefly known also as RealOne Player, is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo codecs. ... Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) is a popular file format for audio data compression. ... The Xiph. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... Ripping is the process of copying the audio or video data from one media form, such as Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) or Compact Disc (CD), to a hard disk. ... Monkey’s Audio is a lossless audio compression codec. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is an international standards organization dealing with electrical, electronic and related technologies. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... Look up lame in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... Nero Burning ROM is a popular optical disc authoring program for Microsoft Windows and Linux by Nero AG, formerly Ahead Software. ... Speex is a free software speech codec that claims to be unencumbered by patent restrictions. ... The Xiph. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 2003 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 83rd day of the year (84th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... Sound recorder redirects here. ... Vorbis is an open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph. ... The Xiph. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... WavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is brand name for several technically distinct proprietary compressed audio file formats developed by Microsoft. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. ... Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160-180 kbit/s. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ...

1. First public release date is first of either specification publishing or source releasing, or in the case of closed-specification, closed-source codecs, is the date of first binary releasing. Many developing codecs have pre-releases consisting of pre-1.0 versions and perhaps 1.0 release candidates (RCs), although 1.0 may not necessarily be the release version.
2. Latest stable version is that of specification or reference tools.
3. If there happens to be OSI licensed software available for a particular codec, this does not necessarily permit one to use said codec free of charge. Likewise, if there is only proprietary licensed software available for a particular codec, one might be able to use the codec free of charge.
4. MP3 licence and patent status: - The MP3 format is patented and therefore subject to license (expires latest: 2011). However with multiple contenders for the patent, it is far from certain in the market whom is the patent holder with the right to set pricing and royalties. A sample of prices for one patent-holder can be found here. In practice, there is a wide range of MP3 authoring software and MP3 encoding worldwide is often performed on a private basis and unpaid, with patent rights unenforced against end users. See MP3#Licensing and patent issues.

MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is an audio encoding format. ...

Operating System Support

An audio codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Mac OS X (official IPA pronunciation: ) is a line of proprietary, graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Linux (IPA pronunciation: ) is a Unix-like computer operating system. ... BSD redirects here; for other uses see BSD (disambiguation). ... Filiation of Unix and Unix-like systems Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX®) is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie and Douglas McIlroy. ... Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. ... Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. ... FLAC, an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec, is a popular file format for audio data compression. ... Monkey’s Audio is a lossless audio compression codec. ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format. ... Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160-180 kbit/s. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... Speex is a free software speech codec that claims to be unencumbered by patent restrictions. ... Vorbis is an open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph. ... WavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is brand name for several technically distinct proprietary compressed audio file formats developed by Microsoft. ...

Technical details

An audio codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. ... In mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related disciplines, an algorithm is a finite list of well-defined instructions for accomplishing some task that, given an initial state, will terminate in a defined end-state. ... The sampling frequency or sampling rate defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. ... In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (sometimes written bitrate) is the frequency at which bits are passing a given (physical or metaphorical) point. It is quantified using the bit per second (bit/s) unit. ... Constant bit rate (CBR) is a term used in telecommunications, relating to the quality of service. ... Variable bit rate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to sound or video quality. ... Label for 2. ... Monaural (often shortened to mono) sound reproduction is single-channel. ... Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ... Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... FLAC, an acronym for Free Lossless Audio Codec, is a popular file format for audio data compression. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... Monkey’s Audio is a lossless audio compression codec. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... MP3 is a popular digital audio encoding and lossy compression format. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ... Intensity stereo is a term that refers to a stereo sound image that is produced only by the difference in volume of something in the loudspeakers, as opposed to time arrival differences - see Haas Effect. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. ... Speex is a free software speech codec that claims to be unencumbered by patent restrictions. ... Speech coding is the compression of speech (into a code) for transmission with speech codecs that use audio signal processing and speech processing techniques. ... Narrowband (narrow bandwidth) refers to a signal which occupies only a small amount of space on the radio spectrum -- the opposite of broadband or wideband. ... Wideband is a relative term used to describe a wide range of frequencies in a spectrum. ... Intensity stereo is a term that refers to a stereo sound image that is produced only by the difference in volume of something in the loudspeakers, as opposed to time arrival differences - see Haas Effect. ... Vorbis is an open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ... Intensity stereo is a term that refers to a stereo sound image that is produced only by the difference in volume of something in the loudspeakers, as opposed to time arrival differences - see Haas Effect. ... WavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ... Windows Media Audio (WMA) is brand name for several technically distinct proprietary compressed audio file formats developed by Microsoft. ... Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. ... A lossy data compression method is one where compressing data and then decompressing it retrieves data that may well be different from the original, but is close enough to be useful in some way. ...

Notes & references

1. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
2. ^ An open-source decoder for ALAC has been reverse engineered.
3. ^ ^{a b} The ffmpeg project has reverse engineered some codecs of the RealAudio and Windows Media Audio (DivX Audio v1 and DivX Audio v2) formats. This enables their use on any POSIX compatible system.
4. ^ Microsoft has outsourced their WMA support on Mac OS X to Telestream, Inc. who created and maintain Windows Media Components for QuickTime, replacing Windows Media Player for Mac OS.
5. ^ Lossless compression is always VBR. [1]
6. ^ MPEG 2 AAC was limited to a 96khz sampling rate, however, with MPEG 4 AAC, a later version part of the MPEG 4 specification, the maximum sampling rate has been increased to 192khz.

Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ... FFmpeg is a collection of software libraries that can record, convert and stream digital audio and video in numerous formats. ... POSIX or Portable Operating System Interface[1] is the collective name of a family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define the application programming interface (API) for software compatible with variants of the Unix operating system. ... Windows Media Components for QuickTime, also known as Flip4Mac WMV Player by Telestream, Inc. ... Windows Media Player (WMP) is a digital media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices. ...

See also

• Comparison of media players
• List of video players (software)
• List of codecs
  • Open source codecs and containers
• Comparison of video codecs
• Comparison of container formats

Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of media player programs. ... The following is a list of video players. ... The following is a list of codecs. ... This is a listing of open source multimedia codecs and containers. ... Comparison of video codecs - is a process of codecs evaluation of similarities and differences. ... This table compares features of container formats. ...

External links

• Comparative test April, 2004
• Several comparative tests
• EBU subjective listening tests on low-bitrate audio codecs
• Interactive blind listening tests of audio codecs over the internet
• Hydrogenaudio comparison of lossless formats