The Decline and Fall of the MP3 Format

[Christopher]

Steven Redding points out an interesting TechNewsWorld article about how competition from non-DRMed AAC (via iTunes) and MP3's patent costs have the potential to end MP3's reign.

[rayzray]

Steven Redding points out an interesting TechNewsWorld article about how competition from non-DRMed AAC (via iTunes) and MP3's patent costs have the potential to end MP3's reign.

i KNEW i would win!!

[boojum]

If the patent for use is sold at too high a price the format will die. The patent holder does not want the format use to die. I am going to watch this one play out. I understand that AAC is better, but user listening tests at hydrogenaudio did not show any great differences and in most music most of the time MP3 is very good. YMMV

[stshores24]

I'd be much happier if all the record companies embraced FLAC. Full quality, no DRM, and you can do whatever you want with it.

[tekdroid]

for PC games, mp3 is already dead, replaced with Ogg Vorbis on virtually every game sold for years now. Licensing costs for a sub-par codec have a lot to do with it. But I cringe when I hear so-called journalists over-dramatise things, as they do in this article's heading. MP3 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

http://www.mp3licensing.com

Edited May 8, 2007 by tekdroid

[Strungup]

MP3 isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

I would agree , I noticed the new Divx pro format , the audio is coded mp3 .

I checked the files on the computer , and also on the DVD player and they both read Mpeg4 with MP3 audio

with the amount of Divx capable DVDplayers increasing , as well as other Video formats using mp3 , I dont think its going anywhere either . The discussion just directs the issue at the Music industry , but the format is in a bunch of other situations as well.

[boojum]

This reminds me of Mark Twain's remarking that the reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated.

[skyther]

DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates there isn't much of a difference between MP3 and AAC, but for low bitrates ~64k-128k the difference is as clear as night and day, which is particularly useful if you're after decent quality stereo audio for rips to share on the Internet or for use on mobile devices, for eg.

At the moment MP3 is still by far more popular due to the fact that it already has an established presence among users and the devices that support the format can be found just about anywhere, but in the long run I dare say AAC will more than likely take over.

DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates

[Strungup]

DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates there isn't much of a difference between MP3 and AAC, but for low bitrates ~64k-128k the difference is as clear as night and day, which is particularly useful if you're after decent quality stereo audio for rips to share on the Internet or for use on mobile devices, for eg.

At the moment MP3 is still by far more popular due to the fact that it already has an established presence among users and the devices that support the format can be found just about anywhere, but in the long run I dare say AAC will more than likely take over.

DivX/XviD are more or less codecs used by end users to rip and encode existing material; from a commercial standpoint it's nowhere near as widely used as H.26x which does provide noticably better quality at equal bitrates, and most players will decode both AAC and MP3 tracks used in either container formats. At higher bitrates

Have you ben to Stage 6 lately? Divx has gotten a lot better than it used to be , And I dont know of any DVD player that are QuickTime certified . Only your computer , so you have to go thru several steps to get that QT file to your DVD at the expense of your proccessor, whereas I can download a divx file ,burn it to a CD and watch it in my DVD player .

Divx Capable players have only been around about three or four years , and at first they werent very good and were VERY expensive(still are but nowhere near as bad)

Point is the price is coming down , and the quality is outstanding now , I have divx vids that are DVD quaity. There are quite a few Movie trailers being put into Divx by the Movie company , not encoded by someone at home .

This is a format that is steadily getting stronger and stronger , and its growth has been gaining a steady fanbase , not fluctuating all over the place , that means it is a major contender . Pioneer , Panasonic, Techniques, and quite a few others are on the Divx Bandwagon and A lot of the Nicer portable DVD players are Divx equiped . As well as a Good portion of the Home theater systems are now Divx able, I have yet to find a QT Dvd player .

I will give you time to recant

[theblueraja]

Gee... no mention in that article of the advanced format of ATRAC?! I guess I'm in the minority, as I prefer the ATRAC signature over any other compression.

[Dark06]

TBR, what you (& I too, to a certain extent) like, is the sound signature of the hardware that plays the ATRAC codec. Not just ATRAC superiority in lower bitrates.

Mp3 will never die its the easiest and most universal format available