Offering music encoding with quality beyond CDs as well as iPod compatibility, the HD-AAC codec provides a new way to store and distribute music. Based on the MPEG-4 SLS standard, Fraunhofer’s HD-AAC provides future-proof, lossless compression of 24-bit music content.
Today’s audio CDs store uncompressed music in 16-bit, 44.1kHz quality, while most music is now produced in the 24-bit, 96kHz format. HD-AAC is making this new standard efficiently available to the consumer electronics industry.
The HD-AAC encoding process preserves all of the information contained in the uncompressed original music track while offering state-of-the-art lossless compression rates. Because of its AAC-LC core layer, an HD-AAC file can be directly played on existing music players and millions of mobile phones.
In the connected home, songs stored on media servers in the HD-AAC format can be streamed to multiple devices at varying bit rates. This maximizes the sound quality under difficult network conditions by matching the bit rate to the available bandwidth.
Fraunhofer IIS is offering HD-AAC software for both PC and embedded devices, including microprocessors or DSPs. Licensees can certify their products in the HD-AAC conformance program and, if completed successfully, feature the HD-AAC logo on their products.
For more information, visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/EN.
