aacPLUS - Tomorrow?

MacRumors · Oct 25, 2004

According to Apple-X.net , Apple is expected to release an advanced audio codec addition to the AAC standard. The new version of the codec is expected to support near-CD quality sound at a streamed 48 kbps, and according to the article is to be supported in QuickTime and the iPod. The inclusion in QuickTime could lead to an adopted new standard for use of the iTMS in cell phones.

mangoman · Oct 25, 2004

Rockin!

How cool would THAT be? Nokia, bring it to poppa!

Mord · Oct 25, 2004

if this is true i bet paul thurot will still claim WMA is "superior".

would this be based on H.264?

wordmunger · Oct 25, 2004

If they're announcing a new codec and a new iPod, I wonder what else they've got in store for us... sounds like this is going to be quite a significant event: I was worried that it was just going to be a cross-marketing opportunity with U2.

russed · Oct 25, 2004

will this be to do with the motorola deal?

combatcolin · Oct 25, 2004

Surprised no-one has moaned that they will have to re-encode all their music

the_mole1314 · Oct 25, 2004

If they implement the file size into iTunes Music Store, they could even drop the prices!

Anyway, could this be the hidden piece for a streaming subscription service for iTMS?

Loge · Oct 25, 2004

combatcolin said:
Surprised no-one has moaned that they will have to re-encode all their music

Probably cos they won't have to !

Though if it is possible to get close to CD quality at 48 kbps, then quite a few of us may want to.

daveL · Oct 25, 2004

So at 64 or 96 kbps, you must be really close to lossless encoding, right? At 96 kbps the would still be able to get 25% more music on your iPod (compared to iTMS @ 128 kbps) and get much higher quality content. One reason I have not used iTMS is that I don't like the idea of paying near-CD prices and not getting near-CD sound quality. The answer may be aacPLUS.

It sure would be sweet to see internet radio content go over to aacPLUS. We'd get near-CD stereo at the same bit rates as today's marginal MP3 feeds.

I think this could be a really big deal for iTMS/iPod.

wordmunger · Oct 25, 2004

The way I read this is that you'd get near CD-quality stereo separation at 48kbps, not near CD-quality sound. But I suppose I could be wrong. 48kbps sounds too good to be true.

Rod Rod · Oct 25, 2004

20+ hour iPod battery life?

if this is true, it will boost iPod battery life by a lot!

remember, Dell and Sony's music player battery life claims are based on super-low bitrate playback.

the only thing that would get in the way of increased battery life is if the decoder takes more power to process this aacPLUS.

the increased battery life would be a good reason for people to re-encode their whole collection... besides the fact that their iPod's song-capacity would at least triple.

marketing:

30,000 songs in your pocket. for 24 hours straight.

and of course 40,000 songs for the 60GB model.

munkle · Oct 25, 2004

Well let's see tomorrow if their predictions prove true, I'm not holding my breath but it would be great to reclaim some hard drive space and squeeze more songs onto my iPod!

daveL · Oct 25, 2004

This would also lend credibility to the rumors of a flash iPod. With aacPLUS, you could get a lot more, higher quality, music on a flash player. Apple could use aacPLUS to differentiate the flash iPod from the rest of the commodity mp3 flash players.

In time for the Holiday buying season?

liketom · Oct 25, 2004

so how many songs can i fit now then on iPod 20gb ? lol

wrldwzrd89 · Oct 25, 2004

wordmunger said:
The way I read this is that you'd get near CD-quality stereo separation at 48kbps, not near CD-quality sound. But I suppose I could be wrong. 48kbps sounds too good to be true.

Try this out to get a sense of just how GOOD aacPlus is. Even at 20 (!) kbps, aacPlus sounds decent, while regular MP3 sounds horrid.

TopCatz · Oct 25, 2004

But will AAC Plus work on 1G iPods, unlike Apple Lossless? If the music store uses it I suppose it must do otherwise relatively recent iPod buyers will be locked out of the store - so will all the music in the store be updated to AAC Plus? And am I therefore going to be really annoyed having bought loads of stuff in normal AAC? Or will they have 2 download options - but if AAC plus is smaller and better it seems pretty stupid to have plain AAC as well..
So many questions! So little time!

outerspaceapple · Oct 25, 2004

TopCatz said:
But will AAC Plus work on 1G iPods, unlike Apple Lossless? If the music store uses it I suppose it must do otherwise relatively recent iPod buyers will be locked out of the store - so will all the music in the store be updated to AAC Plus? And am I therefore going to be really annoyed having bought loads of stuff in normal AAC? Or will they have 2 download options - but if AAC plus is smaller and better it seems pretty stupid to have plain AAC as well..
So many questions! So little time!

I would assume not, however u can always load up linux ur pod & use that to play aac + songs.

wrldwzrd89 · Oct 25, 2004

TopCatz said:
But will AAC Plus work on 1G iPods, unlike Apple Lossless? If the music store uses it I suppose it must do otherwise relatively recent iPod buyers will be locked out of the store - so will all the music in the store be updated to AAC Plus? And am I therefore going to be really annoyed having bought loads of stuff in normal AAC? Or will they have 2 download options - but if AAC plus is smaller and better it seems pretty stupid to have plain AAC as well..
So many questions! So little time!

What about 2G or 3G iPods? I'd like to know, since I have a 3G iPod and don't plan on replacing it anytime soon.

jbembe · Oct 25, 2004

AACplus

This sounds absolutely WAY too good to be true!

Great sound reproduction at 48kbps?!?!?! I just cannot believe it. If so, Apple will have to update iTunes, perhaps this is why they aren't going to continue to support outdated versions of iTunes??

And HOT dang it, I've recently been working on re-encoding all of my music into 192kbps AAC. I've done ~1000 songs, now I'll have to start all over. However, if it is really true, then I'll finally be able to put all of my music on the iPod without purchasing the 60giger!!!

I cannot wait to see tommorrow's spectacular event!!!!!

wrldwzrd89 · Oct 25, 2004

jbembe said:
This sounds absolutely WAY too good to be true!

Great sound reproduction at 48kbps?!?!?! I just cannot believe it. If so, Apple will have to update iTunes, perhaps this is why they aren't going to continue to support outdated versions of iTunes??

And HOT dang it, I've recently been working on re-encoding all of my music into 192kbps AAC. I've done ~1000 songs, now I'll have to start all over. However, if it is really true, then I'll finally be able to put all of my music on the iPod without purchasing the 60giger!!!

I cannot wait to see tommorrow's spectacular event!!!!!

I'm looking forward to the event too. If aacPlus is as good as it sounds, I could cut the bit rate I use by a factor of 4 (192 kbps -> 48 kbps) or even 8 (192 kbps -> 24 kpbs) and still get good quality. How about sixteen (192 kbps -> 12 kbps)? Will it even go that low?

EDIT: I just calculated that a 16x reduction in bit rate would reduce the size of my converted music from 1.64 GB to 104.96 MB! WOW!

liketom · Oct 25, 2004

just a thought but when is iTunes 4.7 released or will it go to v 5 as the news that iTunes stores will be here tuesday , and i remember that i had to upgrade to get the store to work in the UK maybe these AAC upgrades will also be released?

jbembe · Oct 25, 2004

wrldwzrd89 said:
Try this out to get a sense of just how GOOD aacPlus is. Even at 20 (!) kbps, aacPlus sounds decent, while regular MP3 sounds horrid.

Thanks for the excellent link!! From the article:

The latest perceptual coders, such as MPEG AAC (Advanced Audio Coding, also known as "MP4"), can achieve at 128 kbps (stereo) quality rated as "indistinguishable" using the ITU standard testing procedures. Moreover, "near CD" quality can be achieved at compression ratios as high as 16:1!

SPECTRAL BAND REPLICATION*

Spectral Band Replication, or "SBR", is the most recent tool available in the bit rate reduction arena. Developed by Coding Technologies (http://www.codingtechnologies.de), this technique works together with a perceptual coder to improve performance by 30%. Therefore, SBR technology will always be seen in the context of another coding scheme. For example, "mp3PRO" is MPEG Layer 3 with the SBR enhancement added. "aacPlus" is Coding Technologies' trademark for their implementation of MPEG AAC (MP4) with SBR added.

So, I deduce that this technology could reduce the file size of iTMS songs by 30% and achieve the same sound quality. Not as miraculous as otherwise suggested, but very significant. Proof's in the pudding, can't wait to see it happen!

Kirkland · Oct 25, 2004

So the flash based mini iPod seems more likely now, ability to keep the same high sound quality with aacPlus and a much lower storage requirement

mulletman13 · Oct 25, 2004

This codec has been around for just about 2 years now, I read an article from 2002 which said a lot of things about it, and "2003 could be the year of MPEG-4.

My response to this is.... why so late? If this technology has been around for over 2 years, why finally implement it now?

I was under the impression this was JUST developed, but it is not as I looked into it more. XM supposedly uses it, as well as Nokia and Vodafone in the UK...

But if this will become a reality I'll welcome it and love the new battery life + saved space :-D

silvergunuk · Oct 25, 2004

If this new codec runs at a lower data rate, would this theoretically increase the battery life by 3 times?

aacPLUS - Tomorrow?

macrumors bot

macrumors 6502a

macrumors G4

macrumors 603

macrumors 68000

macrumors 68020

macrumors 6502a

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68020

macrumors 603

macrumors 68020

macrumors 68030

macrumors 68020

macrumors 601

macrumors G5

macrumors member

macrumors regular

macrumors G5

macrumors 6502a

macrumors G5

macrumors 601

macrumors 6502a

macrumors newbie

macrumors 6502a

macrumors regular

Our Staff