How do various audio codecs compare? AAC & AC3 specifically.

[taltamir]

I know about the various video codecs and how they compare, but some audio formats elude me.
I know all about mp3 and ogg and flac, their compression rates and quality levels and so on. But I am not familiar with other, potentially better formats.

How does AC3 compare to those? AAC? is there some other, even better audio format to look out for?
How are those (AC3, AAC, hypothetical better format) licensed? who owns them? how is compatibility with devices? etc

 

[mmntech]

AC3 is Dolby Digital. It's only used for movies. AAC is probably still the best common commercial codec. It's on par with Ogg Vorbis.

 

[taltamir]

AC3 is Dolby Digital. It's only used for movies. AAC is probably still the best common commercial codec. It's on par with Ogg Vorbis.

thanks for the clarification. So ogg and AAC are both better than AC3?
Is AAC only on par with ogg vorbis? not actually better?
If AAC isn't noticeably better than I would rather use ogg due to it being open.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I believe that AAC is better than Ogg Vorbis at the same bitrates (smaller filesize with same bitrate).

 

[taltamir]

I believe that AAC is better than Ogg Vorbis at the same bitrates (smaller filesize with same bitrate).

bitrate is by definition file size per length of audio (eg 320 bits per second, etc).
If AAC is better it will be better quality audio at the same bitrate, or identical quality at lower bitrate.

 

[s44]

AAC is best. The Nero codec for it is quite excellent.

 

[taltamir]

thank you s44. How big a difference is there between it an ogg vorbis?

 

[0roo0roo]

the ac3 encode is straight from the source, it is high bitrate, aac tends to be a reencode of ac3, so it is comparing apples to oranges.

 

[rdp6]

I used ogg vorbis (actually, Ogg Dropper for windows) for lossy encoding as it seemed to be much better than mp3 back in 2003. Too bad my iPod doesn't play them as many of my favorite cds have been ripped to ogg.

Nowadays I pretty much let iTunes handle the ripping with a higher than default bitrate. Should really switch to lossless in the age of TB hard drives.

 

[Jinny]

http://soundexpert.org/encoders see link

 

[videogames101]

Once you try FLAC you never go back.

I don't understand the appeal of lossy formats nowdays, when a 1TB HDD is $70.