Non-MP3 Codecs?

Vanth Dreadstar asks: "While MP3 is okay, I have begun researching other codecs that would be suitable for my home music use. Lossy codecs such as Ogg Vorbis, AAC, and MPC all seem to have promise, not to mention the lossless codecs such as Shorten (otherwise known as .SHN), LPAC, and FLAC. I would like to know what non-MP3 codecs people are using out there, and why."

Comments

Ogg Vorbis

[Paladin128]

I'm using Ogg Vorbis for a number of reason. The reference encoder, while not perfect, is certainly not bad. The vast majority of the time, .ogg's sound noticeably better than MP3's of the same bitrate.

More importantly, Ogg Vorbis is free of any patents or any other restrictions. I could make a commercial hardware player if I wanted to, and not have to pay any royalties to anyone.

Finally, it integrates nicely with Konqueror's audioCD IO slave. You can simply type "audiocd:/ogg/" in Konq's location bar, and it shows you a list of .ogg files with the track names grabbed from FreeDB. To actually encode, one symply drags the .ogg file to another directory, and the IO slave works its magic.

MP3, WMA, and whatever else I need

[Dorf_of_Eleven]

I use MP3s because they're much like Interet currency.

I convert MP3s to WMAs when I want to squish music onto my PocketPC.

If I bought an OGG car player (if there is/was such a beast), I'd convert my MP3s.

The point: When in Rome, I do as the Romans. It's a simple life, really. :)

There's no integer decoder

[yerricde]

since then most of [MP3 encoding] happens on cirrus logic processors or TI DSPs.

However, the TI DSPs that handle floating-point arithmetic are much more expensive. Nobody (except Iomega, and even that's not officially released) has made a portable Ogg decoder because the Vorbis reference decoder from xiph.org uses extensive floating-point rather than fixed-point arithmetic.

If you write a Free integer decoder (or fund writing one), they will come.

Re:WMA 8 is the way

[dstone]

If you compare a good mp3 encoding ... to a WMA8 encoding of the same bit-rate and with the volume levels matched, mp3 will win out

I didn't realize WMA8 was compressing levels, but once levels have been compressed, it won't be possible to "match volume levels" and compare with original source or an MP3 as you suggest. (ie, either loud passages won't match or soft passages won't match)

Vorbis below 160kbps, MPC above 160kbps

[tangent3]

With the quality of the latest RC3 release, Vorbis now sits on the throne in the low to middle bitrates, easily beating out MP3Pro and WMA even in the very low bitrates of 64kbps. The best part about it is that Monty has mentioned that he's still not happy with the quality at 64kbps and will still be improving it further. At middle bitrates of 128kbps, it is at least as good as the best AAC implementation. At the high bitrates, it still hasn't matched MPC, but it is catching up really fast. Whether Vorbis (a transform coder) can ever overtake MPC (a subband coder) quality in the future in the high bitrate arena (usually ruled by subband coders where pre-echo artifacts are nearly non-existant) is very much unknown, and probably depends on Vorbis implementing a really good anti-pre-echo system better than all the current techniques being used.

So therefore, for the best quality now, use Ogg Vorbis at bitrates of 160kbps and below. Above 160kbps, use MPC.