Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?


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Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?

audio formats

7. VQF format

audio formats

The compression ratio of VQF format can reach 1:18, so under the same circumstances, the volume of compressed VQF file is 30-50% smaller than MP3, which is more convenient for Online streaming and sound quality is excellent with close to CD sound quality (16-bit 44.1kHz stereo). However, VQF has not disclosed technical standards and has not yet become popular.
Supplement: rare

8. Format
FLAC FLAC is lossless audio compression encoding. FLAC is a set of well-known free audio compression codes, which is characterized by lossless compression. Unlike other lossy compression codes, such as MP3 and AAC, it won’t destroy any original audio information, so you can restore the sound quality of music CDs. It is now compatible with many software and hardware audio products. In short, FLAC is similar to MP3, but it is lossless compression, which means that the audio will not lose any information when compressed in FLAC mode. This compression is similar to Zip, but FLAC will give you a higher compression ratio, because FLAC is a compression method specially designed for audio characteristics, and you can use the player to play FLAC compressed files, just like you normally do with your MP3. the files are the same.
Supplement: Lossless format, compared to ape , is larger in size, but has good compatibility, fast encoding speed, and broader player support

9. Format
APE APE is one of the most popular digital music file formats. Unlike lossy compression methods such as MP3, APE is a lossless audio compression technology, which means that after compressing audio data files read from an APE-format audio CD, it can also compress audio data files. APE Restore format files and the restored audio. the files are exactly the same as before the compression without any loss. The file size of APE is about half of that of a CD, but with the popularization of broadband, many music lovers love the APE format, especially for friends who want to stream audio CDs over the network. APE can help them save a lot of resources.
Supplement – lossless compression format, compared to FLAC, the volume is smaller. Encoding is slow.

10. Format
MID MID is the abbreviation of midi, which is its extension, “interface of digital musical instruments”, that is, its real meaning is the name of an interface for different devices to transmit signals. All of our current MIDI music production depends on this interface, and the information transmitted between this interface is also called MIDI information. MIDI was first applied to electronic synthesizers (electronic musical instruments played on keyboards. Due to the inconsistent technical specifications of early electronic synthesizers, it was difficult to link different synthesizers. In August 1983, YAMAHA, ROLAND, KAWAI, and others Well-known electronic musical instruments Instrument manufacturers jointly specified a unified digital musical instrument interface specification, which is the MIDI 1.0 Technical Specification.Since then, a number of electronic synthesizers and electronic musical instruments, such as electronic pianos, have adopted this unified specification. , so that various electronic musical instruments can be linked together to transmit MIDI information and form a true synthetic music performance system.


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Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?

Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?

audio formats
audio formats

3.WAV format

audio formats
audio formats

The WAV format is the oldest digital audio format and is widely supported by the Windows platform and its applications. WAV supports many compression algorithms, supports a variety of audio bits, sampling rates and channels, adopts 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 16 quantization bits, so the sound quality of WAV is almost the same than CD, but WAV format requires too much storage space Not easy to communicate and broadcast.
Supplement: Lossless volume is large

4. Format
ASF ASF is a multimedia playback format formulated by Microsoft, suitable for playback on the Internet.
Supplement: rare format

5. Format
AAC AAC is actually short for Advanced Audio Coding. AAC is part of the MPEG-2 specification. The algorithm used by AAC is different from that of MP3. AAC improves encoding efficiency by combining other features. AAC’s audio algorithm far exceeds some older compression algorithms (like MP3, etc.) in terms of compressibility. It also supports up to 48 audio tracks, 15 low-frequency audio tracks, higher sample rates and bit rates, multi-language support, and higher decoding efficiency. In short, AAC can provide better sound quality on the assumption that MP3 files are 30% smaller.
Added: One of the best lossy formats out there. There are many encodings, faac and nero are common, and the bit rate is up to 448kbps. In terms of hardware support, advanced mp3 and mobile phones are generally supported.

6. Format
Mp3Pro Mp3Pro is an improved version of the Mp3 encoding format. MP3Pro is developed by the Swedish Coding Technology Company, which can also compress the volume of sound files to half the size of the original MP3 format while maintaining the same sound quality. Also, the sound quality of the original MP3 music can be improved basically without changing the file size. You can compress audio files to a lower bit rate and keep the sound quality before compression to the greatest extent possible. MP3pro can achieve full compatibility. The extension of the files compressed by mp3Pro remains .mp3. It can be played on old mp3 players. Old mp3 files can be played on the new mp3pro players.

Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?

Why are there so many video and audio formats, and is there a difference?

Audio File Formats
Audio File Formats

I found that there are many video and audio formats, what is the difference between them? Is there a player that supports most audio and video playback formats?

Audio File Formats
Audio File Formats

The difference lies in the encoding method. Original video and audio require a lot of storage space. In the era when the storage device was still in MB as a large drive, various lossy compression encoding formats began to appear. The difference between various encoding formats is the compression ratio. The pros and cons of height and reduction ratio.

Basically, there are more advanced encodings that can provide high-quality audio and video effects with higher compression ratio.

1. Format
MP3 MP3 uses MPEG Audio Layer 3 technology to compress music into a file with a smaller capacity at a compression ratio of 1:10 or even 1:12. Files are compressed to a smaller size. But also very good at keeping the original sound quality. It is precisely because of the small size and high sound quality of MP3 that the MP3 format has become almost synonymous with online music. The music per minute MP3 format is only 1 MB in size, so the size of each song is only 3-4 megabytes.

Supplement: the highest bit rate is 320K, and there is no high frequency part is its default. The sound quality is not high!

2. Format
WMA WMA achieves a higher compression ratio by reducing data traffic while maintaining sound quality. The compression rate can generally reach 1:18, and the generated file size is only half of the corresponding MP3 file. This is very important for models that only assemble 32M. It supports both WMA and RA formats, which means that the 32M space is virtually expanded by 2 times. In addition, WMA can also add copy prevention through the DRM scheme, or add restrictions on playback time and number of playbacks, or even restrictions on playback machines, which can effectively prevent piracy.
Supplement: 128 kbps is the optimal compression ratio of wma, 128 kbps wma = 192 kbps mp3

What is an audio file format?

What is an audio file format?

audio file format
audio file format

MP3

audio file format
audio file format

When it comes to downloading music, the MP3 audio file format used to reign supreme.

 

In fact, this format is so synonymous with mobile music solutions that “MP3 players” are now the common format for audio playback devices.

However, for various reasons, it is less prominent these days. However, it continues. Understanding MP3 files can also help us understand other formats more easily, so we’ll start there.

An MP3 file is a lossy audio file, which means that it discards data that our ears cannot hear. Almost everyone has a hearing range between 2oHz and 20kHz. The upper limit actually decreases with age, but generally speaking, it’s a lie within the range of every noise you hear. Since we know that other frequencies are redundant, MP3 discards all frequencies outside this range.

 

To save more space, MP3 files use some more tricks. Audio engineers use noise modeling algorithms based on the psychoacoustic effects of the human ear and brain to remove parts of music that we shouldn’t be hearing. For example, the brain cannot distinguish between two frequencies that are next to each other. Also, adult ears have difficulty recognizing the direction of high-frequency sounds. It also starts to lose sensitivity above 16kHz. Also, loud sounds can mask quieter sounds. All of these can be removed, with little noticeable difference in final audience.

Basically, MP3 files remove frequencies that we can’t hear and frequencies that we can hear individually, but not because of how they’re combined in a particular song.

MP3 divides the track into 576 sample frames and uses the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to obtain frequency data from these frames. The frequency data is then analyzed to see if there is any opportunity to apply compression rules based on human hearing as described above. If so, these parts are rounded down (quantized) to reduce the bitrate, which helps save space. Data on how to restore each frame to its full sonic representation is stored in a 32-bit header.

 

The bitrate determines the maximum file size allowed per frame. The more aggressive the compression, the more likely the algorithm will remove things that are audible. Also, this type of filtering and cutting is not perfect, and quantization can leave artifacts that some people may hear. This lossy psychoacoustic compression is followed by lossless Huffman encoding compression similar to .zip files to save even more space.

[Music] File format types Part 3

[Music] File format types Part 3

Audio Formats

Lossless compression format

Audio Files Formats

 

This format compresses the original data while preserving it.

FLAC
A THE C
During playback, it can be decompressed and returned to the original uncompressed format, so the sound quality is the same as the original data.

Although the file size can be reduced compared to the uncompressed format, it is still about half, so the file size is larger than the lossy compressed format and it takes longer to encode and decode.

Also, at present, it is often not handled by major music distribution sites, and the number of devices that can play it is less than that of uncompressed formats. The most common of these formats is “FLAC”, and Apple uses a unique format called “ALAC”.

FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)
A lossless audio codec developed as open source.

It is not subject to patent restrictions, is not owned by any company, and has no license fees for its use.

Also, the sampling frequency is 1Hz – 655.3kHz (655,350Hz), and the number of quantization bits is 4 to 32 bits, so the so-called high-resolution music (including the frequency elements beyond the range human audible) can also be encoded. . However, since it is lossless, the compression rate is low and the file size is only about half. First of all, iOS 11 now supports playback from the “File” app.

ALAC (Apple Lossless)
Apple Lossless is a lossless compression format developed by Apple for iPod.

It can maintain the same sound quality as a music CD, but the compression ratio is not as good as lossy compression formats like MP3. With lossy compression, the deterioration in sound quality is noticeable, so it may be better to use it for classical music only.

This format was released as open source on October 27, 2011. You can use it freely under the free Apache license.

Relationship between bit depth, sample rate, and bit rate
Music data has numbers like bit depth and sample rate that indicate the amount of music data per second.

And the product of the two is the “bit rate”.

Sampling rate
Also known as the sample rate. Shows how many tens of thousands of sounds are collected per second.

The higher the value, the greater the number of divisions, which results in a smoother sound and improved sound quality.

By the way, the CD is 44100Hz.

Bit depth
Also known as quantization bit count, bid reduction, sample bit count.

This shows how much capacity is given to the split data.

The louder the sound, the better the sound and the sound quality will be improved.

The CD is 16 bit.

Bit rate
It is displayed as bps and shows the amount of data per second.

It is the product of the “sample rate” and the “bit depth” mentioned above.

In the case of a stereo file, there are two sounds, so if you formulate it …

Sampling rate (Hz) x bit depth (bits) x 2 = bit rate (bps)

A high bit rate means that the “sample rate” and “bit depth” are large and the sound quality is good.

By the way, in the case of CD

44100 (Hz) x 16 (bits) x 2 = 1411200 (bps)

Will be.

Why is there so much format
Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and you can make better use of your data by using it correctly.

For example, if you want to save this album with the best sound quality because you don’t care about the amount of data, import it with “WAV” or “AIFF” and save it with the highest possible bit rate. If you have a compatible device, “FLAC” and “ALAC” are also storage saving options.

“Sound quality is secondary! I want to import a lot of songs to my smartphone!” For those who want to import with “MP3”, they can import at as low a bit rate as possible (although 128 kbps or less is not often used as a music file). It may be convenient to use music as data according to the style.

By the way, the Apple Music I use is 256kbps of “AAC”, so it can be said that it is a format that emphasizes the balance between sound quality and data savings.

[Music] File format types Part 2

[Music] File format types Part 2

audio file format

Lossy compression format

audio file format

This compression format is probably the one you use the most.

MP3
CAA
WMA
Vorbis
This is the file format.

“The human audible range is 20Hz ~ 20000Hz”
This file format has the advantage that the file size can be suppressed while maintaining a certain level of sound quality by compressing and truncating the high-frequency part that humans cannot hear.

However, the downside is that the sound quality is lower than the original data.

Among them, “MP3” is the most popular file format, and as a successor, “AAC” is often used, which was created to achieve higher sound quality. Furthermore, “WMA” and “Vorbis” are also in this format.

MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3)
It is one of the audio formats used in the “MPEG-1” video compression standard.

It is a popular format and many popular digital audio players support it. If you compress it into this format, you can play it on many players other than iPod.

It is generally said that if you specify a bit rate of 192 kbps or higher for MP3, it will be almost indistinguishable from the original music.

Recently, the capacity of the player has increased, so I think it is good to capture at 320 kbps, which is the highest sound quality of MP3.

There is also a method called VBR (variable bit rate), which efficiently obtains optimal data while changing the bit rate in a song, as opposed to CBR (constant bit rate).

However, when using VBR, the bit rate may be partially higher than necessary depending on the song, and some players may experience problems such as interrupted sound due to insufficient performance.

AAC (advanced audio coding)
It is one of the audio formats used in the “MPEG-2” and “MPEG-4” video compression standards.

ITunes has selected this AAC format as the standard compression format as a highly efficient and superior alternative to MP3.

However, there have been times when compatibility between products was poor in the past, and in rare cases, AAC files created by third-party software may not be playable on iPod. When using the AAC format, the bit rate should be 128 kbps or higher, especially 256 kbps or higher if you want high sound quality. The songs that are managed in the iTunes store are also in AAC format and have the extension “.m4a”.

WMA (Windows Media Audio)
A music compression format developed by Microsoft for the Windows operating system.

It is used in many Windows music distribution software and digital audio players. It is said that the file size can be reduced to half that of MP3 if the sound quality is the same. WMA format files are converted to AAC / MP3 format when imported into iTunes.

However, it is not possible to convert downloaded and purchased songs with copyright protection (DRM) to AAC format / MP3 format.

[Music] File format types

[Music] File format types

Music File Formats

Does everyone like music?

digital-formats

I think many people enjoy music downloading or streaming instead of CD these days, but what kind of format is music stored as data?

I researched the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of each format.

Types of audio compression

For music file format

Uncompressed
Lossy compression
Lossless compression
There are three types:
File-based compression can reduce file size and reduce download time and storage capacity.
Uncompressed format
As the name implies, it is an uncompressed file. The point is the original data.

The most used formats are:

Wav
AIFF
The advantage is the accuracy of the data. However, it also has the disadvantage of a large file size and uses approximately 10MB for a 1 minute audio file.

It is common to use “WAV” for Windows and “AIFF” for Macintosh.

WAV (WAVE)
A standard Windows audio file format established by Microsoft and IBM, also known as the WAVE format.

It is generally uncompressed and has good sound quality, but it is a very large file.

WAV format files are converted to AAC / MP3 format when imported into iTunes. You can specify compression for WAV, but there seem to be not many usage examples.

AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format)
This is a standard Macintosh audio file format established by Apple Inc. Like WAV, it is not compressed and has good sound quality, but it is a very large file. There is also AIFC, an extended format with lossy compression.