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Originally posted by Stephonovich
Nope, I've never tested AAC. I might do so tonight if I'm so inclined. I have nothing better to do. But also, AAC is pretty much a propietary format, isn't it? |
It's owned pretty much by the same companies that own MP3 with the addition of Dolby. It's also being pushed much harder for wider acceptance by a few, such as Apple's iTunes. There are publically available encoders out there, provided by Nero and Quicktime, for example. There's also some more rogue-ish projects out there.
Ogg Vorbis, it's open source, and it's spreading.
MPC has it's decoder open sourced as well. It's encoder and decoder will both be opened upon the completion of StreamVersion 8, a revision of its container. However, it's also worth noting that while Xiph is willing to claim its patent free, the actual answer with Vorbis, according to both some current and former developers is 'We don't know, but we're pretty sure'. MPC had a similar issue a while ago, but suspects all relevant patents on sideband related encoding has either already expired or will by next year. All attempts to contact anyone who'd own such patents have met with no bites.
I suspect Vorbis would mysteriously crop up with patents its stepping on if larger companies suddenly decided it was a threat and started digging harder than Xiph could afford to. However, it's just as likely that if and when that occurs, stuff would have been long since expired. I suppose the point of mentioning this all, which has been beaten to death elsewhere.. is to leave it at 'Don't hold your breath'.
But as I said, I didn't hear all too much difference between them.
Listen up along the higher end. You can hear it injecting noise where there shouldn't be. It tends to slightly flatten the whole sound, much more clausterphobic. I've been able to spot Vorbis in ABX situations at pretty much any bitrate due to how it leaves a signature like that. Overall, it seems like MP3 is more likely to leave out small little nuances that Vorbis will pick up on but also add masking noise where it shouldn't. Vorbis has it's place for use with games and such, but I'd NEVER trust my music to it. It's simply not good enough and I'm not willing to compromise because it's supposedly 'open'.
NOTE: While some can claim that this is entirely my opinion, ABX blind testing is proving I am actually hearing somethingl. A few others I run with can hear similar. In all fairness I will also note that I've met ONE person who can ABX Musepack at almost any bitrate, but they're quite unique.
And Ogg is much smaller. I might run some tests on a nice symphonic piece I have. That would put a bit more strain on 'em.
You can control the bitrate of MPC by using different presets than --standard (aka --q5). You can even use fractions like --q4.4 or whatever. What I suggest you do if you decide to test is to actually clip 5-10 seconds out of a couple varied tracks, encode 'em all consistantly across formats so far as bitrate and then go for it. You'll be able to focus a lot harder on shorter clips.
Ah yes, and as for WMA... I abso-freaking-lutely hate M$, so I'll never use WMA, even if their files are smaller My real fear is closed source, actually. If a company goes bye-bye (not much chance with M$, but just a hypothetical company), there goes support, and all development. With open source, there's other users that pick up where you left off.
And that's entirely your decision to do so. I just strongly caution anyone from letting 'open source' cloud judgement.
That's OK. I'm learning pretty much when you guys go on and on about different formats. Keep up the good work!
