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aacAAC is an odd fish. It stands for 'Advanced Audio Coding' and was developed as part of the MPEG 2 standard. The odd thing about it is that it is not backwards compatible. That is to say that, although the standards have been agreed, AAC is not compatible with MP1 MP2 or MP3 (e.g. you cannot use MP3 playing software to play AAC, the ability to play AAC is separate from the ability to play MP3.) The reason for this lack of compatibility was because people decided that if we wanted a better way of compressing music files, the easy option was to start the development process from scratch. AAC is sometimes called MPEG2 NBC (Non Backwards Compatible). AAC was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute (creators of MP3) Sony Corporation; AT&T and Dolby Laboratories. In simple terms AAC claims to perform 30% better than MP3, so an MP3 file that was 3MB would be about 2MB if it was an AAC file. AAC's developers have not allowed other programmers the right to make their own CODEC that uses the AAC 'method' of compression. One of the reasons why MP3 is everywhere is because so many different companies made audio software products that incorporated the ability to make an MP3. Currently the number of software products that allow users to make their own AAC files is less than a hand full, and until the people who own the rights change their minds about allowing others to develop applications using their precious method, AAC will not develop the level of penetration that MP3 has. At the moment only some Jukeboxes can play AACs. These include:
Future firmware upgrades may allow other Jukeboxes the ability to make AACs. |
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Next Generation Portable Music
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