MP3 Pro any future?

[jwedge]

It seems no one talks about it even though Thompson has been pushing it. I encoded a few files, and like the sound and the smaller files.

Any comments?

[MOVIEGEEK]

mp3PRO has gone the way of Xing and Blade encoders,Lame is the only MP3 codec still being developed and it's open source!Even Fraunhofer gave up on MP3(but not the royalties ),they're working on AAC.

Here's the mp3PRO website(note:it hasn't been updated in 2 years):
www.mp3prozone.com/products.htm

[energy80s]

Yeah, MP3 Pro doesn't seem to be supported by anyone outside of Thompson.

I always use the LAME codec as it is the highest quality one out there these days. However the next generation of audio will be compressed in AAC format MP4 files. Apple's iTunes is already doing this, expect others to follow suit - no matter what rubbish Bill Gates's WMA comes up with!!

[DereX888]

all of them highly compressed audio formats made sense when we were limited to 650MB capacity of CD-Rs and in a same time very few of us had better than 33.3 telephone connections. I know some of you may disagree, but IMO future belongs only to less compressed and possibly more than 2 channel like AC3, DTS etc audio formats on a large capacity medias, i.e. on a blue-laser technology DVD-Rs.


Who cares about mp3 'regular' or 'pro' LOL the faster they disappear the better for our ears

[Cobra]

www.vorbis.com

It's free, and open-source. It sounds great at bitrates that MP3 sounds dodgy at, and sounds OK at bitrates MP3 can't even touch. Only thing is that there isn't quite as much support for it - try sending a .ogg to your friend and they'll most likely not be able to use it.

Never mind. That'll change, I'm sure.

CobraDMX

[energy80s]

Santa Claus just brought me a Pocket PC for Christmas and I am planning on using Ogg Vorbis audio with it. Would have liked AAC but couldn't find a suitable player for a PPC.

As for uncompressed verses compressed audio. I think you've pretty much seen the end of raw uncompressed audio as everything is compressed these days - even in recording studios. The real era for uncompressed audio was the late 60s to early 80s. Since digital sound took over in the late 80s, analogue audio has died a death. No one's recording in it, no one's broadcasting it and no one wants to work with it!

[energy80s]

www.vorbis.com

Try sending a .ogg to your friend and they'll most likely not be able to use it.

Never mind. That'll change, I'm sure.

CobraDMX

It'll play fine if the are using Winamp as their "player-of-choice".

[DivXExpert]

In my opinion nothing can compare with analog. The only reason people don't want to work with it, is because of the expense. Analog video looks better, analog audio sounds better.

LAME is the best MP3 encoder. Vorbis is very good but gets no respect. AAC is going to be the next mp3.

Its gonna suck when they start using compressed audio on optical formats (CD, DVD) I guess no one cares about quality anymore. I mean look at HDTV broadcasts, there are many visible compression artifacts, more so than DVD, whats up with that? Isn't HDTV supposed to superior to DVD? In terms of resolution it is, but in terms of how compressed it is, HDTV looses. I mean who cares how sharp it is if you have all these macroblocks and mosquito noise artifacts? Digital Cable and Sattellite are even worse about horrible compression artifacts. Next thing you know your going to see these compression artifacts in theaters. And hear them on the radio.

[DereX888]

I guess no one cares about quality anymore. I mean look at HDTV broadcasts, there are many visible compression artifacts, more so than DVD, whats up with that? Isn't HDTV supposed to superior to DVD? In terms of resolution it is, but in terms of how compressed it is, HDTV looses.

I partially agree with you.
HDTV (if properly implemented - which means encoded and send to receivers) is obviously the best digital format there is. Problem is with broadcasters and cable companies.

And analog will does not mean analog anymore.
In past year or so I start to notice usual MPEG artifacts on my *analog* cable tv... Freaking cable companies are just retransmitting bad digital picture to analog subscribers, its ridiculus.
Anyone else noticed that?
Best example (in my area) is canadian TeleToon cable-only channel. On my analog cable (no cable decoders etc - just plain analog concentric cable sticked in the tv's ass) you can see how picture get blockiness sometimes as badly as viewing high motion scene of off a *VCD* - specially it is visible whenever they change from their own station jingles to new show, end of jingle and begining of the show are so pixelated! (Im talking about less than a second moment though).
And it used to be one of the crispiest picture analog channels I used to have...

[Cobra]

I the UK, you must have bought a terrestrial digital set top box within the next couple of years. This is because analogue broadcasting of TV will be switched off shortly.

Since we are discussing this on a site about using digital video, we are obviously trained to be looking for these artifacts. To the average user, however, these digital pictures are far in advance of analogue TV. It's abuot percieved quality. If you showed them all the artifacts, I bet they'd start saying it wasn't so good after all!

The best thing about digital terrestrial, though, is the good quality of signal. I get a rubbish signal, but with digital I get a clear image, with no snow. So for me it's a Good Thing.

CobraDMX

[Jester700]

In my opinion nothing can compare with analog. The only reason people don't want to work with it, is because of the expense. Analog video looks better, analog audio sounds better.

Its gonna suck when they start using compressed audio on optical formats (CD, DVD) I guess no one cares about quality anymore. I mean look at HDTV broadcasts, there are many visible compression artifacts, more so than DVD, whats up with that? Isn't HDTV supposed to superior to DVD? In terms of resolution it is, but in terms of how compressed it is, HDTV looses. I mean who cares how sharp it is if you have all these macroblocks and mosquito noise artifacts? Digital Cable and Sattellite are even worse about horrible compression artifacts. Next thing you know your going to see these compression artifacts in theaters. And hear them on the radio.

It's all about bandwidth. At high bitrates, many compressed formats look and sound fine. But generally the choice is made for faster DLs, more channels, etc. rather than better quality. 256k MP2, ATRAC, and MusePack all sound good. Even Lame's standard preset VBR MP3 isn't bad. But they always go too low, and develop newer algorithms to cram more into it.

btw, SEZ YOU that analog sounds better. Cassettes sound better than 24 bit 96k digital? I think not. It's all about the quality level. 1/2" open reel with Dolby SR sounds great, but so does 24/96 digital. Which is better? Well, either one is likely better than the mics & speakers in the chain anyway, so...

And most DVDs already HAVE compressed audio.

[teegee420]

I use only use MP3pro for my audio files and I usually encode at 80kbs. I have over 3000 files in the My Music folder that only take up half the space they once did when I was using Lame and I can hear no difference in sound quality. Until AAC is more widely accepted I'm sticking with MP3pro.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Speaking of Lame,there is a new stable release 3.95.1.I tried it in CDex and it encodes in half the time(compared to 3.92) using CBR alt-preset.Just for fun I tried 64kbps CBR alt-preset and the sound was surprisingly good...but not 192kbps ABR good.
If anybody wants to try it or any release go here: http://rarewares.hydrogenaudio.org/mp3.html

[DivXExpert]

Its a well known fact that DVDs have compressed audio, bot AC3 and DTS are compressed. But how good does it sound?

Just because I say analog sounds better doesn't mean that I am talking about cassetts. Vinyl often sounds better than digital, and a nice fat tape on a reel to reel is very nice. Digital often sounds a little more dry. And cassetts suck.

[Cobra]

For the masses though, digital audio and digital formats offer more benefits than older analogue types. My ears probably aren't anywhere near as sensitive as yours are, since you are obviously into audio stuff (I don't know what else to call it!).

However, I like to be able to compress a whole load of music into 160kbps VBR Vorbis and take all my CDs to uni on my hard drive. The insurance company loved me for that - no CDs to insure = less cash for them! Still, if I do get someone looking in, they won't see a huge stack of 100+ CDs to attract them.

Same with my DVDs. I compress them all to DivX (high quality, naturally) and burn them to DVD-R. That way, I tuck away seven DVD-Rs into my drawer, instead of twenty or so DVDs out to tempt a thief.

It's all more convenient for me anyway - if the copies get destroyed I can make new ones. No problem. Plus, with digital formats, the originals are quite tough to destroy - try putting a tape near a magnet and see how far that gets you!

As I say, the loss of quality is more than offset by the gain in other things which matter more to me. All personal preference.

CobraDMX

(Edited once due to spelling error)

[Hardcoreruss]

AAC is the best no questions asked, in affect it doubles the size of your ipod