diff --git a/doc/FAQ.html b/doc/FAQ.html index 8ef8cd05..c4a6a733 100644 --- a/doc/FAQ.html +++ b/doc/FAQ.html @@ -26,8 +26,8 @@ a:visited { color: #0000EE; }
  • Who created LameXP?
  • What license is LameXP released under?
  • Do I have to pay for LameXP? / How can I donate to the authors of LameXP? -
  • Why is the thing called "LameXP" when it does so much more? -
  • MP3, AAC or Vorbis - What is the best compressed audio format? +
  • Why is the thing called "LameXP" although it does so much more? +
  • MP3, AAC/MP4, Vorbis, FLAC or Opus - What is the best audio format?
  • What is the difference between the CBR, VBR and ABR rate control modes?
  • How do I enable AAC/MP4/M4A output (encoding) in LameXP?
  • Is there a way to output ".m4a" or ".aac" files with LameXP? @@ -234,11 +234,50 @@ So to make a long story short: The name has historical reasons and probably isn'

    -MP3, AAC or Vorbis - What is the best compressed audio format?
    +MP3, AAC/MP4, Vorbis, FLAC or Opus - What is the best audio format?

    This question can NOT be answered in general. The best audio format is the format that works best for you!

    -Having said that, there are a few things to consider. First of all: All output formats supported by LameXP,
    +Having said that, let's have a look at the output formats supported by LameXP: MPEG-1 Audio Layer III, better
    +known as "MP3", was released in 1993 and probably still is the most widely used and most widely supported
    +compressed audio format. So if compatibility is your concern, MP3 is a good choice. Also MP3 can retain very
    +good quality - at higher bitrates. However MP3 does not support multi-channel audio and it does not perform
    +well at lower bitrates. MP3 also is pretty restrictive with the sampling rates and bitrates that it supports.
    +
    +Advanced Audio Coding, often abbreviated as "AAC", was introduced as part of the MPEG-2 standard (1997) and
    +has been adopted by the MPEG-4 standard later (1999). AAC is often considered to be the "successor" of MP3.
    +Compared to MP3, AAC adds support for multi-channel audio, it support more sampling rates as well as more
    +flexible bitrates. Two variants of AAC are commonly used: Low-Complexity (LC) and High-Efficiency (HE). While
    +LC-AAC is intended for medium to high bitrates, LC-AAC works best at low bitrates. At low bitrates, HE-AAC
    +clearly outperforms MP3 - at higher bitrates the differences aren't that clear. AAC streams are usually, but
    +not necessarily, encapsulated in an MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) container. That's why AAC audio files almost always
    +have an ".mp4" file extension. Still the audio format is AAC - MP4 is only the container! Be aware that some
    +applications create audio-only MP4 files with a non-standard (wrong) ".m4a" file extension. AAC is widely
    +supported too nowadays (especially in "mobile" devices), though not all players fully support the HE variant.
    +
    +Vorbis, often called "Ogg Vorbis", is a free audio format, developed by the Xiph foundation and released in
    +2000. In contrast to MP3/AAC, Vorbis is 100% patent-free. Vorbis streams are usually, but not necessarily,
    +encapsulated in an Ogg container (developed by Xiph too) and thus Vorbis files almost always have an ".ogg"
    +file extension. Vorbis is known to outperform MP3 at the same bitrate, although the differences are less
    +apparent at high bitrates. Furthermore HE-AAC has been known to outperform Vorbis at lower bitrates, though
    +there now is a tuned Vorbis encoder ("aoTuV") which further improves the quality of Vorbis - especially at
    +the lower bitrates. Hardware support for Ogg Vorbis is worse than for MP3/AAC, but it's constantly improving.
    +
    +Free Lossless Audio Codec, better known as "FLAC", is a lossless audio format. This means that in contrast to
    +MP3, AAC and Vorbis, with the FLAC compression there is absolutely no loss in quality. This made FLAC famous
    +among "audiophile" people. However the lossless nature of FLAC comes at a big disadvantage: The compression
    +ratio of FLAC files isn't anywhere near the "lossy" audio formats. Or in other words: FLAC files are huge!
    +They are not as big as uncompressed Wave files, but usually the size cannot be reduced to less than 75%. Just
    +like Ogg Vorbis, hardware support for FLAC files is worse than for MP3/AAC, but it's constantly improving.
    +
    +Opus is a new audio format which, at this time (Aug 2012), is still under active development. It is being
    +developed by engineers from Xiph, Mozilla and Skype/Microsoft. Opus has been accepted as an upcoming Internet
    +standard by the IETF recently. The Opus format is designed to work for low-latency speech encoding (VoIP) as
    +well as for high-quality music encoding. Opus is sometimes referred to as the "successor" of both, Vorbis and
    +Speex (the latter is Xiph's current speech codec). Currently, Opus reaches the quality of 128 kbps MP3 at an
    +bitrate of 80 kbps. As the development is still in progress, significant improvements are to be expected.
    + +

    Another resource you might find interesting are Sebastian's Public Listening Tests: