As
@IgorC's asked me, here's the graph depicting the results since he came up with the polls asking this community what (if any) their favourite lossy format is.
(https://i.imgur.com/SvWuZKM.png)
Some notes:
- Linear trendlines are now only displayed for the top three formats (in bold), in order to declutter the chart a bit. Also, new this year, is the "None" line - which includes those saying they don't use any lossy format at all.
- Bear in mind there was no poll in 2015.
- "None" had some 'interpolation' done to it, for the simple reason the question wasn't asked every year.
As usual, a small disclaimer of sorts:
Such polls, as common sense dictates, do not purport to depict the general public's lossy format usage, but HA members' own (those who cared to vote, that is).
Thank You, includemeout.
The graph shows that MP3 losses its popularity in HA in favor of AAC and Opus.
AAC userbase had a large jump.
No worries, mate.
I think it's also worth noting the increase in the last three years of the number of folks saying they don't use lossy as their main audio format. Do we have a trend here, perhaps?
AAC userbase had a large jump.
I don't see this, tbh. The AAC curve looks rather flat, and the fact that it gently wiggles as much upward as it does downward is apparent from the fact that the last datapoint is almost at the exact same height as the first one (at around 25-ish %). The only real "large jump" in these graphs I see is for Opus from 2014 to 2016.
I think it's also worth noting the increase in the last three years of the number of folks saying they don't use lossy as their main audio format. Do we have a trend here, perhaps?
If I had to guess I would say that it's an effect of continued increase of available storage space, but I honestly can't imagine this going very far. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much storage space you have available, a ten-fold (or even twelve-fold) reduction in the amount of storage taken up by your music library will always be a ten(twelve)-fold reduction in the amount of storage space taken up by your music library. Sure, having less storage space available creates an additional pressure to prefer lossy compression over lossless, but something taking up ten or more times more storage space for absolutely no perceptible benefit is equally wasteful regardless of that factor.
AAC is a part of Windows OS now.
AAC is a part of Windows OS now.
What exactly does being "a part of Windows OS" mean?
Seems indeed like Microsoft has their own AAC encoder:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/aac-encoder (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/medfound/aac-encoder)
Seems indeed like Microsoft has their own AAC encoder
BTW: https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=77162.0
If I had to guess I would say that it's an effect of continued increase of available storage space, but I honestly can't imagine this going very far. The fact of the matter is that no matter how much storage space you have available, a ten-fold (or even twelve-fold) reduction in the amount of storage taken up by your music library will always be a ten(twelve)-fold reduction in the amount of storage space taken up by your music library. Sure, having less storage space available creates an additional pressure to prefer lossy compression over lossless, but something taking up ten or more times more storage space for absolutely no perceptible benefit is equally wasteful regardless of that factor.
Fast-forward a few decades, and come what may in terms of digital audio encoding, I guess there will always be a place for lossy alongside lossless encoding.
As the old saying goes, when there is a will there's a way.