Slashdot Mirror


AAC Chosen For DVD-ROM Section Of DVD Audio Discs

sootman writes "According to a news post at HighFidelityReview.com: 'The DVD Forum has chosen AAC for the DVD-ROM zone of DVD-Audio discs - the inclusion of a low-resolution (lossy) track suitable for solid-state and portable devices has long been championed by DVD-Audio figureheads such as Dolby's John Kellogg as a way of enhancing the value of the format to all listeners, not just those interested in its high-resolution potential. The selection of AAC came after a number of competing formats were proposed; they included MP3, ATRAC and Microsoft's WMA. Additional formats, such as [Ogg Vorbis] for example, were not put forward for consideration.'"

24 of 432 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by Morgahastu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lock in? AAC is an open standard and was NOT created by Apple. Of all the next generation audio formats (that aren't open source) it's the most open.

    We should be happy.

  2. Re:No Ogg? Uh-oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, you'll probably hear more whining from the four people who know what Ogg is.

    Ogg is not an acronym, so don't uppercase it all.

    Ogg is not an audio codec, so don't compare it to AAC.

    You are probably thinking of the Vorbis audio codec.

  3. Re:The main reasons: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    But Apple doesn't own AAC and you don't license it from them. It's licensed from these guys:
    http://www.vialicensing.com/products/mpeg4a ac/stan dard.html

  4. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by One+Louder · · Score: 3, Informative
    Why is this a lockin for Apple? AAC is not owned or developed by Apple, and codecs are available from a number of sources. Microsoft could support AAC any time they want to - but they'd rather promote their totally proprietary formats.

    That Apple utilizes the DRM features of AAC doesn't mean that everyone else is required to use it. Using iTunes, I can rip CD tracks to AAC that *don't* have DRM - which can even be played on a number of Linux-based media players.

  5. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    RTFA. There's no DRM with AAC either, that's something bolted on by Apple.

  6. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by word+munger · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's no DRM with AAC either. Apple added its own layer of DRM, "Fairplay" onto the AAC format. Of course that doesn't mean that the DVD-Audio people won't do the same thing.

  7. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by Daniel_Staal · · Score: 4, Informative

    AAC supports DRM. It does not require it. The DVD forum may or may not put it in. (I would suspect they would, but it is not required.) That may have been a requirement for consideration, or it may not have.

    There are other reasons to use AAC besides DRM. It has smaller file sizes for the same quality level as MP3 for instance. (Ogg may be better, but it's open to debate.)

    --
    'Sensible' is a curse word.
  8. Foaming Ogg Vorbis freaks! by Stonent1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    FLAC is where it is at! I have very discerning ears and even at the highest bit rates, I can still hear audio artifacts with pretty much any codec. However, I do use Ogg Vorbis on my portable audio device because it is the only free(dom) codec that it supports.

  9. Re:Great... more lock in to Apple by One+Louder · · Score: 4, Informative
    DRM is optional with AAC. Apple has chosen to use it in order to be able to license content from the content holders, who would never agree to license without it.

    You can quite easily rip to AAC without DRM.

    Also, the MP3 patent holders are trying to add optional DRM to MP3, so they'll be even more alike in the future.

  10. Re:What the? by wankledot · · Score: 4, Informative
    crack AAC?

    AAC itself does not have DRM, so unless additional DRM has been added, there is no need to "crack" it.

    Apple's implementation does not use any "AAC DRM", they have their own scheme.

    Hopefully in this case, you can simply copy the AAC on to your machine, because any transcoding will affect the quality.

    --
    My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
  11. Re:anything about CSS by marcello_dl · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Finally DVD-Audio offers CPPM, which is much stronger than CSS for DVD-Video."

    IIRC, region codes against the newer EU directives, so I don't think they will make it into Dvd-Audio specs.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  12. Re:There is DRM with AAC by romanval · · Score: 5, Informative

    On my mac my unprotected AAC's outnumber my purchased iTunes songs by 100:1.

    How? By ripping my existing CD collection.. duh.

  13. Re:Copying the iPod by Sparks23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    AAC ('Advanced Audio Coding') is the MPEG-4 audio standard, a.k.a. ISO 14496-3 -- it's hardly obscure or non-standard.

    Several of the digital and satellite radio systems use AAC, and a number of software music players support it; Apple's use of AAC to hold higher-quality-than-MP3 digital audio on the iTunes Music Store and for playback on the iPod is just the most-visible example of it.

    You can check http://www.tnt.uni-hannover.de/project/mpeg/audio/ documents/w2670.html out for the ISO 14496-3 draft, if you're curious, or just search for ISO 14496-3 on Google. :)

    --
    --Rachel
  14. Re:What does this mean for existing equipment? by lowmagnet · · Score: 4, Informative

    It means that when you put it in your DVD-ROM on your computer, you can put the AAC copy on your portable device. You could have figured that out if you RTFB (Read The Fucking Blurb)

    --
    Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
  15. A quick AAC primer. by E-Lad · · Score: 3, Informative


    What is AAC?

    AAC is the audio codec used in the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standard. Yes, AAC is the same codec used for audio on those DVD movies you own.

    MPEG-4's AAC is essentially the same as the AAC defined in MPEG-2, but with some extra capabilities added to make it more useable in the mobile world (such as the 3GPP multimedia format for mobiles phones)

    AAC has been with us for a good while... it's nothing new... and it's good to see that it's going to be around for a good while more and has edged out WMA.

  16. Re:It's better then WMA by DavidLeblond · · Score: 3, Informative

    AAC doesn't include DRM.

  17. AC-3 is used on DVDs, *NOT* AAC by StandardCell · · Score: 5, Informative

    There are only three recognized formats for audio on DVDs. On PAL DVDs, the compressed format is MPEG-1 Layer 2. On both PAL and NTSC DVDs, PCM (uncompressed digital audio) is used. On NTSC DVDs, the compressed format is Dolby Digital AC-3. The "AAC" you refer to is not the AAC that is sometimes referred to in the MPEG-2 specification; however, MPEG-2 for DVDs is a restricted subset of that specification. In fact, I get paid to show folks how to do this every day, since it's my work.

    There's a great FAQ as to the formats for DVD audio.

    However, the AAC standard referred to in the article is part of the MPEG-4 standard, and the MPEG-4 AAC does incorporate the formal MPEG-2 specification's AAC as one part of its capabilities.

  18. Correction to your correction by bigdavex · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's true in a practical sense for North Americans, but MPEG audio is valid under the DVD specification.

    If the video is NTSC, a DVD must contain either AC-3 or LPCM. It may also contain MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DTS, or SDDS audio.

    See also the DVD FAQ.

    --
    -Dave
  19. Mod up +1 not a troll! Clueful. by Ayanami+Rei · · Score: 3, Informative

    The point is that this is the format chosen for the computer "session" of a DVD audio disc. Which means that the software will have to take care of it (and iTunes will probably be the first to have it working, I'm sure)

    --
    THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
  20. Re:Codec cracking by StarDrifter · · Score: 5, Informative
    what stops someone from writing a "fake" audio card driver that does nothing but dump audio into a wav file?

    Microsoft's solution to this is called Secure Audio Path. It requires that the sound card drivers be signed by Microsoft if you want to play protected content. And they would presumably refuse to sign any driver which did as you suggested.

  21. Re:No Ogg? Uh-oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a Simpsons reference. The joke is that it isn't a word at all, but it's used in the context of legitimizing another non-word.

    Jebediah: [on film] A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
    Edna: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield
    Ms.Hoover: I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

  22. WMV9 provably superior to DivX HD by benwaggoner · · Score: 3, Informative

    DVD Forum announced provisional support for three video codecs:

    Microsoft's VC-9
    MPEG-2
    MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264)

    Both VC-9 and AVC have substantial, provable enhancements in compression efficiency over the MPEG-4 Simple Profile used in DivX's HD profiles. What's your issue here?

    Also, QuickTime is a file format, not a codec. One could easily implement any of these three codecs inside a QuickTime file.

  23. Re:*crickets* by shotfeel · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not to mention the fact that AAC is part of the mpeg4 standard -its not an "Apple" codec as some seem to think.

  24. Re:Codec cracking by Walkiry · · Score: 3, Informative

    Buy a pair of cheap soundcards (the ADC and DAC quality don't matter in the least). Tap the digital input off card #1's DAC, and send it to the output of card #2's ADC

    You really thing the "trusted" driver will let the card play a digital output from the "trusted DVD"? Analog hole is all there is.

    Actually, any local band that plays live is where I'll be, I'll be reading instead of listening to music when idling at home.

    --
    ---- Take the Space Quiz!