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Topic: MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions (Read 1250 times) previous topic - next topic
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MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions

Hello everyone. I recently learned about this format and I have a few questions. Here is the general information and what I understand.

The format is based on the MPEG-D (USAC) standard and is designed to encode multi-channel audio based on channels and objects. It competes with Dolby AC4.

Available software:
- Decoders by Fraunhofer IIS and Ittiam Systems
- Encoders by MainConcept and Ittiam Systems
- Mixing in Steinberg Nuendo.

I checked the encoder manuals and the properties of some downloaded files in MediaInfo. I noticed the profile and codec ID.
Currently there are two profiles: Low Complexity and Baseline. Baseline is more recent and recommended for use. LC is backward compatible with BL.
The codec ID is a little more complicated. I saw two options in the examples: mhw1 and mha1. The mhas is also available and is used by default in the Ittiam encoder. The MainConcept encoder has no choice and uses mhw1. I have seen the mha1 option in the 360 Reality Audio file from Tidal.

I haven't found any options for playback on a computer expect a custom build of ffmpeg.
From containers you can only use mp4 at the moment. Matroska does not support that format.

I would like to know which profile and format (codec ID) is better to use and what are the differences?
Maybe there are other decoders/encoders/containers that I haven't mentioned here?

Re: MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions

Reply #1
Just what we need...  Another CODEC...  That we can't play.   ::)


Re: MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions

Reply #3
https://xkcd.com/927/
How many of you folks guessed it correctly before clicking? (I did.) Or even more, didn't even have to guess knew because you remember "927" and likely also (*googles up*) "37" and back in the day also "619"?

Re: MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions

Reply #4
Yeah, which other could it be? :)
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Re: MPEG-H 3D Audio - General questions

Reply #5
Just what we need...  Another CODEC...  That we can't play.   ::)
It's a format we can't play *yet*.

The complaining in this post about too many CODECs seems misguided.  Does this mean you only want to stick with the existing, proprietary CODECs?  I assume we are here because we want foorbar2000, an open source project, to be able to play object audio.  DTS:X, Atmos and AuraMax are all proprietary specifications for 3D audio. It's unlikely foobar2000 will ever be able to decode and play these formats, because those licenses cost real money, and that's money for each installation. MPEG-H is the only CODEC that will allow for open source encoders and decoders, and so it's the only one that might be integrated into foobar2000.

Commercial specifications often come first, because companies want to corner the market. They are willing to dump gobs of money into development, so they can make bigger gobs of money on licensing.  Open standards take more time to develop, via a diverse group of experts.  They have a bigger vision, to work out enduring and open specifications for the good of all.  I'm happy to wait for the open source CODEC, and then support it over the commercial ones.