Comparison of audio codecs
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The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio codecs.
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Contents |
[edit] General information
Basic general information about the codecs: creator/company, license/price etc.
| Codec | Creator | First public release date | Latest stable version | Cost (USD) | Common implementations | Application | Patented | DRM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encoding | Playback | ||||||||
| AAC | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 1997 | ISO/IEC 14496-3 | varies | varies | Proprietary: iTunes, Nero Digital Audio | Yes | FairPlay | |
| AC3 | Dolby Laboratories | 1992 | ? | ? | ? | FFMpeg, DVD Audio tracks | ? | Yes | ? |
| ALAC | Apple Computer | 2004-04-28 | QuickTime 7.3 | Free | Free | Proprietary: QuickTime, iTunes, Real Player | Lossless Ripping | ? | ? |
| ATRAC | Sony Corp. | 1991 | ATRAC3plus | ? | ? | MiniDisc, Walkman, VAIO, Clie, PlayStation3, PlayStation Portable, SDDS, Proprietary: SonicStage, SoundForge, RealPlayer, ConnectPlayer | voice recording, professional studio class recording, Lossless ripping | Yes | Yes |
| FLAC | Xiph.Org Foundation | 2001-07-20 | 1.2.1 | Free | Free | OSI: reference | Lossless Ripping | No | No |
| Monkey's Audio | Matthew T. Ashland | 2000+ | 4.01b2 | Free | Free | Proprietary | Lossless | ? | No |
| MP3 | ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee | 1993 | ISO/IEC 11172-3 | (See note) | ? | OSI: LAME; Proprietary: FhG | Yes (but see note) |
No | |
| Speex | Xiph.Org Foundation | 2003-03-24 | 1.1.12 | Free | Free | OSI: reference | voice recording | No | ? |
| Vorbis (Ogg) | Xiph.Org Foundation | 2002-07-20 | 1.2 | Free | Free | OSI: reference, aoTuV | No | No | |
| WavPack | Conifer Software | 1998 | 4.31 | Free | Free | OSI: reference | No | ? | |
| Windows Media Audio | Microsoft Corp. | 1999 | 11.0 | Free [1] | Free for licensees of the Windows operating system [3] | Windows Media Player | Yes | Optional | |
| Musepack | Frank Klemm/MDT | 1997 | 1.16 | Free | Free | OSI: reference | Maybe [4] | ? | |
Notes:
- 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.
- Latest stable version is that of specification or reference tools.
- 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.
- 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 who 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.
[edit] Operating System Support
| Codec | Windows | Mac OS X | Linux | BSD | Unix | Palm OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ALAC[2] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| FLAC | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Monkey's Audio | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MP3 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Musepack | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RealAudio[3] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Speex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vorbis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WavPack | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| WMA[3] | Yes | Yes[4] | Partial | Partial | Partial | Yes |
[edit] Technical details
| Codec | Algorithm | Sample Rate | Bit rate[5] | Bits per sample | CBR | VBR | Stereo | Mono | Multichannel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AAC | Lossy, Hybrid | 8 kHz to 192 kHz[6] | 8 to 529 kbit/s (stereo) | Any (typically uses fp internally) | Yes | Yes | Yes: Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity, Parametric | Yes | Yes: Up to 48 channels |
| AC3 | Lossy | 32, 44.1, 48 kHz | 32 to 640 kbit/s | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes: Up to 5.1 channels |
| ALAC | Lossless | 44.1, 48 kHz | variable | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FLAC | Lossless | 1 Hz to 1048.57 kHz | variable | 4, 8, 16, 24 (, 32) | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes: Up to 8 channels |
| Monkey's Audio | Lossless | 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz | variable | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| MP3 | Lossy | 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz | 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320 kbit/s | Any (typically uses fp internally) | Yes | Yes | Yes: Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity | Yes | No |
| Musepack | Lossy | 32, 37.8, 44.1, 48 kHz | 3 to 1300 kbit/s | 8 to 32 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No[7] |
| RealAudio | Lossless, Lossy | Varies (see article) | Varies (see article) | Varies (see article) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes: Up to 6 channels |
| Speex | Speech | 8, 16, 32 (, 48) kHz | NB: 2.15 to 24.6 kbit/s WB: 4 to 44.2 kbit/s | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes: Intensity | Yes | ? |
| Vorbis (Ogg) | Lossy | 1 Hz to 200 kHz | variable | Any (typically uses fp internally) | Yes/ABR | Yes | Yes: Dual, Lossless, Phase, Point (Intensity) | Yes | Yes: Up to 255 channels |
| WavPack | Lossless, Lossy, Hybrid | 1 Hz to 16777.216 kHz | variable in lossless mode; 196 kbit/s and up in lossy mode (for CD audio) | varies in lossless mode; 2.2 minimum in lossy mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes: Up to 16 channels |
| Windows Media Audio | Lossless, Lossy | 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz | 4 to 768kbit/s, variable in lossless encoding | 16, 24 for lossless mode, any in lossy mode (typically uses fp internally) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes: Up to 8 channels (WMA Professional), Up to 6 channels (WMA Lossless) |
[edit] Notes & references
- ^ Windows Media Encoder
- ^ An open-source decoder for ALAC has been reverse engineered.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Lossless compression is always VBR. [1]
- ^ MPEG 2 AAC was limited to a 96 kHz sampling rate, however, with MPEG 4 AAC, a later version part of the MPEG 4 specification, the maximum sampling rate has been increased to 192 kHz.
- ^ Musepack SV8 beta with multichannel support [2]
[edit] See also
- Comparison of media players
- List of video players (software)
- List of codecs
- Comparison of video codecs
- Comparison of container formats
