Comparison of audio coding formats explained

The following tables compare general and technical information for a variety of audio coding formats.

For listening tests comparing the perceived audio quality of audio formats and codecs, see the article Codec listening test.

General information

Audio compression format	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Cost		Proprietary implementations (codecs)	Open-source implementations (codecs)	Uses	Music reproduction (consumer audio)	Telephony app	Lossless audio compression	Patented	DRM
Audio compression format	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Encoder	Player	Proprietary implementations (codecs)	Open-source implementations (codecs)	Uses	Music reproduction (consumer audio)	Telephony app	Lossless audio compression	Patented	DRM
AAC	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	1997	ISO/IEC 14496-3	Nero Digital Audio, Apple CoreAudio (via QuickTime, iTunes or afconvert^[1])		, Fraunhofer FDK AAC	Digital TV service, Digital Radio, Internet streaming
AC-3	Dolby Laboratories	1992	ATSC A52:2018	DVD players, digital television, Camcorder			Theatrical movie presentation, Digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.)
AC-4	Dolby Laboratories	2014	ATSC A342:2022-03	Digital television, Harmonic Inc., DS Broadcast, Ateme, Synamedia, Dolby Media Encoder & Dolby Encoding Engine			Digital TV service
ALAC	Apple Inc.	2004-04-28	QuickTime 7.6	QuickTime, iTunes, RealPlayer			Music archival					Possible, but never implemented
ALS	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	2005	ISO/IEC 14496-3	MPEG-4 ALS			-
AMBE	Digital Voice Systems						Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking
AMR	3GPP	1999-06-22	ETSI TS 126 071 V9.0.0 (2009)	QuickTime, RealPlayer			voice recording
AMR-WB (G.722.2)	3GPP	2001-04-10	ETSI TS 126 190 V8.0.0 (2009-01)	QuickTime, RealPlayer			voice recording
AMR-WB+	3GPP	2004-06-14	ETSI TS 126 290 V8.0.0 (2009-01)				voice recording
aptX	Qualcomm	1989	2007	Broadcast audio codecs: 2wcom systems, Systembase, APT, AVT, Harris Corporation, MAYAH, Prodys, Qbit; wireless headphones: iSkin, JayBird Gear, DTS discs for movies			Low latency Studio/transmitter link, Bluetooth A2DP stereo, digital wireless microphone
ATRAC	Sony Corp.	1991	ATRAC3plus	MiniDisc, Walkman, VAIO, Clie, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, SDDS, SonicStage, SoundForge, RealPlayer, ConnectPlayer			voice recording, theatrical movie presentation
BroadVoice (BV16, BV32)	Broadcom	2009-08-19	1.2				Speech, VoIP, Low latency, voice recording
CELT	Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin	2007-12-08	0.11.1 (merged into Opus)				Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio
Codec2	David Rowe	2010-08-25	1.2.0(2023-07-14)				Low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio, VoIP trunking
Encodec	Facebook	2022-10-25	v0.1.1(2022-10-26)				Speech, VoIP, voice recording
Enhanced AC-3 (E-AC-3)	Dolby Laboratories	2004	ATSC A52:2018	Digital television			Theatrical movie presentation, digital TV service & home-video (personal recorders, DVD, etc.)
EVS	Fraunhofer, JVC Kenwood, NTT, NTT Docomo, Panasonic, Ericsson	2014
FLAC	Xiph.Org Foundation, Josh Coalson	2001-07-20	1.4.3(2023-06-23)				Music archival^[2]
G.711	ITU-T	1972 (ITU-T standard from 1988)	G.711 Appendix II (02/00)	Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.722	ITU-T	1988-11		Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.722.1	ITU-T	1999-09	G.722.1 (05/05)	Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.722.2 (AMR-WB)	ITU-T (adopted directly from 3GPP)	2002-01	G.722.2 (07/03)	QuickTime, RealPlayer			voice recording, audio
G.723.1	ITU-T	1996-03	G.723.1 (05/06)	Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.726	ITU-T	1990-12		Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.728	ITU-T	1992-09		Various proprietary VoIP software			voice recording
G.729	ITU-T	1996-03	G.729 (06/12)	^[3]		Various proprietary VoIP software		voice recording
G.729.1	ITU-T	2006-05	G.729.1 Am.8 (03/13)			Various proprietary VoIP software		voice recording, DECT telephony
GSM-FR	ETSI Special Mobile Group	1990-1994 (ETS 300 580-2)	ETSI EN 300 961 V8.1.1 (2000–11)				voice recording
HE-AAC	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	2003	ISO/IEC 14496-3
iLBC	Global IP Solutions	2002	RFC 3951	Cisco IP Communicator,^[4] old versions of Skype^[5]			voice recording				^[6]
iSAC	Global IP Solutions			Yahoo! Messenger			voice recording				^[7]
LA	Michael Bevin	2002-09-07	0.4b(2004-02-08)	Winamp with old plugin version, foobar2000 with old plugin version			Music archival
LC3	Bluetooth SIG	2022-04-11	1.03(2023-05-09)	?			Speech
LDAC	Sony Corp.	2015-04	?	Sony Walkman, Sony Products, mobile phones			Bluetooth audio
LHDC	Savitech	2017	5.0.6 (2022-08-03)	Mobile phones, Bluetooth headphones, Home receivers			Bluetooth audio
L2HC	Huawei	2020	3.0 (2023-09-19)	Huawei products, EMUI, HarmonyOS		Android 10, OpenHarmony, Oniro OS	Bluetooth audioNearLink audio
Lyra	Google	2021-04-06	1.32 / V3(2022-12-21)	Google Duo			Speech, VoIP, voice recording
Monkey's Audio	Matthew T. Ashland	2000	10.52(2024-02-28)				Music Archival
MP1	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	1991-12-06	ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3				-
MP2 (MPEG-1, 2 Audio Layer II)	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	1993	ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3	various DVD software, video software, audio software			DAB, DVB, DVD, VCD, SVCD				^[8]
MP3	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	1993	ISO/IEC 11172-3, ISO/IEC 13818-3	FhG, l3enc, MP3enc, (old implementations: Xing TOMPG, SCMPX)			-				^[9]	(optional, rarely used)
MPEG-H 3D Audio	ISO/IEC MPEG Audio Committee	2013-01	ISO/IEC 23008-3	FhG, MainConcept (encoding only)			Digital TV service, voice recording
Musepack	Frank Klemm/MDT	1997	1.30(2009-04-02)				-
Nellymoser Asao	Nellymoser Inc.	2002		Adobe Flash, Flash Player			voice recording
OptimFROG	Florin Ghido	2001-12-16	5.100 (2016-09-02)	OptimFROG and some media players (decoding only).			Music archival
Opus	Xiph.Org Foundation, Internet Engineering Task Force	2012-09-11	RFC 6716 (libopus 1.5.1)				Speech, VoIP, Low latency, Studio/transmitter link, wireless audio, voice recording, WebRTC				^[10]
OSQ	Steinberg	2002	?	WaveLab			Music archival
QOA	Dominic Szablewski	2023-02-02	1.0(2023-04-24)				-
Sac	Sebastian Lehmann	2006-09-01	v0.7.6 (2024-07-04)				Music archival
Satin	Microsoft	2020		Microsoft Teams, Skype			Speech, VoIP, voice recording
SBC	Bluetooth SIG	2003	A2DP 1.3 (2012-07-24)	A2DP			Bluetooth audio
Shorten	Tony Robinson	1993-03-30	3.6.1(2007-03-19, final release)	Shorten			-
SILK	Skype Limited	2009-01-07	Merged into Opus	Skype			voice recording
Siren 7	PictureTel Corp. (now Polycom Inc.)	1999		Microsoft Office Communicator			voice recording
SNAC	Hubert Siuzdak	2024-02-20	1.2 (2024-04-04)
Speex	Xiph.Org Foundation, Jean-Marc Valin	2003-03-24	1.2.0 (obsoleted by Opus)	Adobe Flash Player 10			voice recording
SVOPC	Skype Limited	2007-03-28	2008-09-23 (Skype 3.8) (replaced by SILK)	Skype			voice recording
Tom's lossless Audio Kompressor	Thomas Becker	2007-01-26	2.3.3(2022-06-30)	Winamp with TAK plugin, foobar2000 with plugin, XMPlay			Music archival
TSAC	Fabrice Bellard	2024-04-08	2024-04-08				Speech, VoIP, voice recording
True Audio (TTA)	TAU Software	1999	2.3(2015-02-24)				-
TwinVQ	Nippon Telegraph and Telephone	1996 (?)		Winamp with VQF plugin, NTT TwinVQ player/encoder, Yamaha SoundVQ player, Nero Media Player			speech
USAC	Fraunhofer IIS	2012	4.4.0(2023-06-21)			EZ CD Audio Converter, FFmpeg with Mainconcept plugin (encoder only), Sonnox, Apple (decoder only), QuickTime (Mac version & decoder only).		-
Vorbis (Ogg)	Xiph.Org Foundation	2000-05-11	1.3.7(2020-07-04)				-
WavPack	Conifer Software	1998	5.7.0(2024-02-29)				Music archival
Windows Media Audio	Microsoft	1999	11.0			Windows Media Player, Windows Media Encoder		internet streaming					^[11]
Audio compression format	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	Encoder	Player	Proprietary implementations (codecs)	Open-source implementations (codecs)	Uses	Music reproduction (consumer audio)	Telephony app	Lossless audio compression	Patented	DRM
Audio compression format	Creator	First public release date	Latest stable version	cost		Proprietary implementations (codecs)	Open-source implementations (codecs)	Uses	Music reproduction (consumer audio)	Telephony app	Lossless audio compression	Patented	DRM

Notes

The 'Music' category is merely a guideline on commercialized uses of a particular format, not a technical assessment of its capabilities. For example, MP3 and AAC dominate the personal audio market in terms of market share, though many other formats are comparably well suited to fill this role from a purely technical standpoint.
First public release date is first of either specification publishing or source releasing, or in the case of closed-specification, closed-source codecs, is the date of first binary releasing. Many developing codecs have pre-releases consisting of pre-1.0 versions and perhaps 1.0 release candidates (RCs), although 1.0 may not necessarily be the release version.
Latest stable version is that of specification or reference tools.
If there happens to be OSI licensed software available for a particular format, this does not necessarily permit one to use said codec free of charge. Likewise, if there is only proprietary licensed software available for a particular format, one might be able to use the codec free of charge.

Multimedia frameworks support

Audio compression format	ACM	DirectShow	QuickTime	GStreamer	FFmpeg	Media Foundation
8SVX	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
AAC		(ffdshow, Monogram)		(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
AC3		(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
AC4				(GStreamer external plugins with Dolby proprietary libraries)
ALS
AMR			^[19] ^[20]	(GStreamer Ugly Plug-ins)
ALAC		(ffdshow)		(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
aptX
ATRAC3	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
ATRAC3plus						(ffdshow)
CELT
Cook Codec	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
DCA aka DTS	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
DTS-HD	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
E-AC-3		(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
FLAC		(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer Base Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
L2HC
HE-AAC
Monkey's Audio	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
WavPack	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Shorten	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Sonic Audio	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
MP3				(GStreamer Ugly, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
RealAudio	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in, GStreamer DLL loader plugin + Binary Codec Packages)		(ffdshow)
Speex	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStramer Good Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Vorbis	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer Base Plug-ins, GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
La ???						(ffdshow)
LPAC						(ffdshow)
Windows Media Audio v1			(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
Windows Media Audio v2			(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
Windows Media Audio Pro			(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
Windows Media Audio Lossless			(flip4mac)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)
Windows Media Audio Voice
Musepack	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow, Monogram^[21])	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Meridian Lossless Packing	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Nellymoser Asao Codec in Flash	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
OptimFROG						(ffdshow)
Truespeech			(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
True Audio (TTA)	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)	(Perian)	(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
QCELP	(ffdshow)	(ffdshow)		(GStreamer FFmpeg plug-in)		(ffdshow)
Audio compression format	ACM	DirectShow	QuickTime	GStreamer	FFmpeg	Media Foundation

Technical details

Lossy formats
Audio compression format	Algorithm	Sample rate	Bit rate	Latency	CBR	VBR	Stereo	Multichannel
AAC	MDCT, Hybrid Subband (AAC-HE)	8–192 kHz,^[22] also: 7.35 kHz, but used rarely.	8–529 kbit/s (stereo, 44.1 kHz)8–576 kbit/s (stereo, 48 kHz)	20–405 ms^[23]			Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity, Parametric	Up to 48 channels
AC3	MDCT	32, 44.1, 48 kHz	32–640 kbit/s	32–48 ms				Up to 6 channels
AC4	MDCT	48 kHz	24-1536 kbit/s	?				Up to 24 channels
AMBE		8 kHz	2-9.6 kbit/s
AMR	ACELP	8 kHz	4.75, 5.15, 5.90, 6.70, 7.40, 7.95, 10.20, 12.20 kbit/s	25 ms
AMR-WB (G.722.2)	ACELP	16 kHz	6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05, 23.85 kbit/s	25 ms			only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
AMR-WB+	ACELP	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz	6–36 kbit/s (mono) 7–48 kbit/s (stereo)	60–90 ms
aptX	Subband ADPCM	24–48 kHz (stereo)	192–384 kbit/s (stereo)	2 ms	(4:1)			Up to 8 channels
ATRAC1	MDCT-Hybrid Subband	44.1 kHz	292 kbit/s	>100 ms			Dual Only
ATRAC3	MDCT-Hybrid Subband	44.1 kHz	66, 105, 132, 146, 176, 264, 352 kbit/s	>100 ms			Dual (LP2), Mid/Side (LP4)
ATRAC3plus	MDCT-Hybrid Subband	44.1, 48 kHz	32–768 kbit/s	>100 ms				Up to 8 channels
ATRAC9	MDCT-Hybrid Subband	12, 24, 48 kHz	36-672 kbit/s	>100 ms				Up to 8 channels
BroadVoice (BV16, BV32)	Two-Stage Noise Feedback Coding (TSNFC)	8, 16 kHz	16, 32 kbit/s^[24]	5 ms
Codec2	Speech	8 kHz	0.7, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 2.4, 3.2 kbit/s	20–40 ms
E-AC3	MDCT	32, 44.1, 48 kHz	32–6144 kbit/s	5.33–48 ms				Up to 15 channels
E-aptX	Subband ADPCM	15–48 kHz	60, 384, 767, 1024 kbit/s, 1.28 Mbit/s		(4:1)			Up to 8 channels
Encodec	Neural networks	24 kHz (Mono)48 kHz (Stereo)	1.5 (Mono only), 3, 6, 12, 24 kbit/s	?
EVS	Speech	8, 16, 32, 48 kHz	5.9, 7.2, 8, 9.6, 13.2, 16.4, 24.4, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128 kbit/s + AMR-WB bitrate modes	20 ms
GSM-HR	VSELP	8 kHz	5.6 kbit/s	25 ms
GSM-FR	RPE-LTP	8 kHz	13 kbit/s	20–30 ms
GSM-EFR	ACELP	8 kHz	12.2 kbit/s	20–30 ms
HE-AAC		22 ~ 96 kHz (also 16 kHz, but used somewhat rarely)	16 ~ 80 kbit/s (other bitrates, but used somewhat rarely: 3 ~ 264 kbit/s)	~130 ms^[25]			Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity, Parametric	Up to 48 channels
HVXC	Speech	8 kHz	2, 4 kbit/s	36 ms
iLBC	Block Independent LPC	8 kHz	13.33, 15.20 kbit/s	25, 40 ms
iSAC	Transform coding	16, 32 kHz	10–52 kbit/s	33, 63 ms
LC3	Speech	8, 16, 24, 32, 48 kHz	16-320 kbit/s	7.5-10 ms
LDAC	Subband ADPCM	44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, 192 kHz	303, 606, 909 kbit/s (44.1/88.2/176.4 kHz)330, 660, 990 kbit/s (48/96/192 kHz)	?
LHDC	Subband ADPCM	44.1, 48, 96 kHz	400, 560, 900 kbit/s	?
L2HC	Subband ADPCM	44.1, 48, 96, 192 kHz	400, 560, 960, 1920 kbit/s
Lyra	Speech	8, 16, 32, 48 kHz	3.2, 6, 9.2 kbit/s	20 ms
MP3 (MPEG-1, 2, 2.5 Audio Layer III)	MDCT, Hybrid Subband	8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz	8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 192, 224, 256, 288, 320 kbit/s	>100 ms			Dual, Mid/Side, Intensity
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II (MP2)	Subband	32, 44.1, 48 kHz	32, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, 192, 224, 256, 320, 384 kbit/s			but decoders are not required to support it	Dual, Intensity
MPEG-2 Audio Layer II (MP2)	Subband	16, 22.05, 24 kHz^[26] ^[27]	8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160 kbit/s			but decoders are not required to support it		up to 5 full range audio channels and an LFE-channel with MPEG Multichannel
Musepack	Subband	32, 37.8, 44.1, 48 kHz	20–350 kbit/s					Up to 8 channels
Opus	MDCT, LPC, LTP	8–48 kHz	6–510 kbit/s	5–66.5 ms				Up to 255 channels^[28]
RealAudio	MDCT	Varies (see article)	Varies (see article)	Varies				Up to 6 channels
Satin	Speech	8, 16, 32, 48 kHz	6-36 kbit/s	?
SILK	LPC, LTP	8, 12, 16, 24 kHz	6–40 kbit/s	25 ms
Siren 7	Derived from PT716plus, MLT	16 kHz	16, 24, 32 kbit/s	40 ms
Siren 14	MLT	32 kHz	24, 32, 48 kbit/s (mono) 48, 64, 96 kbit/s (stereo)	40 ms
Siren 22	MLT	48 kHz	32, 48, 64 kbit/s (mono) 64, 96, 128 kbit/s (stereo)	40 ms
SNAC	Neural networks	24, 32, 44.1 kHz	0.98 (24 kHz), 1.9 (32 kHz), 2.6 (44.1 kHz) kbit/s
Speex	CELP	8, 16, 32, (48) kHz	2.15–24.6 kbit/s (NB) 4–44.2 kbit/s (WB)	30 ms (NB) 34 ms (WB)			Intensity
TSAC	Neural networks, modified version of Descript Audio Codec, extended for stereo with a transformer model to shrink even more while keeping the quality high.	44.1 kHz (Mono and Stereo). Other sample rates: Uncertain.	~0.45-5.5 kbps (mono)~0.6-7.5 kbps (stereo)	?
USAC	?	7.35, 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 19.2, 22.05, 24, 32, 38.4, 44.1, 48, 57.6, 64, 88.2, 96 kHz	6-128 kbit/s (mono)12-320 kbit/s (stereo)
VMR-WB	ACELP	16 kHz	8.55, 4.0, 0.8, 13.3, 6.2, 2.7, 1.0 kbit/s	33.75 ms
Vorbis (Ogg)	MDCT	8–192 kHz	45-500 kbit/s (32-500 kbit/s for aoTuV tunings)	>100 ms	/ABR		Dual, Lossless, Phase, Point (Intensity)	Up to 255 channels
WavPack Lossy	Prediction, Quantization	1 Hz to 16.777216 MHz	196 kbit/s and up in lossy mode (for CD audio)	3523.8 ms				Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio Standard	MDCT	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48 kHz	8–768 kbit/s	>100 ms
Windows Media Audio Pro	MDCT	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz (8-22.05kHz not available in encoders that uses DirectShow like Switch by NCH Software or Windows Media Encoder)	4–768 kbit/s	>100 ms				At least 8 channels, expandable
Windows Media Audio Voice	ACELP?	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05 kHz officially (can be hacked to support higher sample rates)	4-20 kbit/s officially (can be hacked to support higher bitrates)

Lossless formats
Audio compression format	Algorithm	Sample rate	Bits per sample	Latency	Multichannel
ALAC	Lossless	1–384 kHz	16, 20, 24, 32^[29]		Up to 8 channels
ALS	Lossless	0–4 GHz	8, 16, 24, 32 (int or float)		Up to 65536 channels
ATRAC Advanced Lossless	Lossless	44.1 kHz	16
Dolby TrueHD	Lossless	48, 96, 192 kHz	16, 20, 24		5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos object-based audio^[30]
DTS-HD Master Audio	Lossless	48, 96, 192 kHz	16, 24		Up to 7.1^[31]
FLAC	Lossless	1–1.048575 MHz (>655.350 kHz need not be streamable)^[32]	4–32	4.3–92 ms (46.4 ms typical)	Up to 8 channels
HD-AAC
LA	Lossless	0–4 GiHz	16	?
L2HC	Lossless	44.1kHz	16
Monkey's Audio	Lossless	1–655.350 kHz	8, 16, 24, 32 and 32-bit float	1670 to 26,749 ms (varies with compression)	Up to 32 channels since version 5.50^[33]
OptimFROG	Lossless	0–4 GiHz^[34]	8, 16, 24, 32 (int or float)
OSQ	Lossless	6, 8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 64, 88.2, 96 kHz	8, 16, 20, 24
RealAudio Lossless	Lossless	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1 kHz	16	Varies
Sac	Lossless	1–48 kHz	1-16	?
TAK	Lossless	8–192 kHz	8, 16, 24	?	Up to 6 channels
True Audio (TTA)	Lossless	0–4 GiHz	8, 16, 24	approx. 1045 ms^[35]	Up to 16 (with ffmpeg), but no channel allocation
WavPack Lossless	Lossless, Hybrid	1 Hz to 1 GiHz	Up to 32 (and 32-bit float), and 1-bit DSD.		Up to 256 channels
Windows Media Audio Lossless	Lossless	8, 11.025, 16, 22.05, 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 kHz	16, 24	>100 ms	Up to 6 channels

ITU-T formats
Audio compression format	Algorithm	Sample rate	Bit rate	Bits per sample	Latency	Stereo	Multichannel
G.711	companding A-law or μ-law, PCM	8 kHz	64 kbit/s	8 bit (log)	125 μs (typical)
G.711.0	Lossless compression of G.711	8 kHz	0.2–65.6 kbit/s	8 bit (log)	5–40 ms
G.711.1	MDCT, A-law, μ-law	8, 16 kHz	64, 80, 96 kbit/s	16 bit	11.875 ms
G.718	CELP, MDCT, Lossy	8, 16 kHz	8, 12, 12.65, 16, 24, 32 kbit/s	16 bit	42.875–43.875 ms
G.718B	CELP, MDCT, Lossy, Sinusoidal Coding	32 kHz	36, 40, 48 kbit/s	16 bit	49.625 ms
G.719	MDCT,^[36] Lossy (incorporates elements of Siren Codec and Ericsson technology)	48 kHz	32–88 kbit/s in 4 kbit/s steps, 88–128 kbit/s in 8 kbit/s steps	16 bit	40 ms	only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container	only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.721	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	32 kbit/s	13 bit
G.722	sub-band ADPCM, Lossy	16 kHz	64 kbit/s (comprises 48, 56 or 64 kbit/s audio and 16, 8 or 0 kbit/s auxiliary data)	14 bit	4 ms
G.722.1	Modulated Lapped Transform (MDCT), Lossy (based on Siren Codec)	16 kHz	24, 32 kbit/s	16 bit	40 ms
G.722.1C	Modulated Lapped Transform (MDCT), Lossy (based on Siren Codec)	32 kHz	24, 32, 48 kbit/s	16 bit	40 ms
G.722.2 (AMR-WB)	multi-rate wideband ACELP, Lossy	16 kHz	6.60, 8.85, 12.65, 14.25, 15.85, 18.25, 19.85, 23.05, 23.85 kbit/s	14 bit	25 ms	only in MPEG-4 Part 12 container
G.723	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	24, 40 kbit/s	13 bit
G.723.1	MP-MLQ, ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	5.3, 6.3 kbit/s	13 bit	37.5 ms
G.726	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s	13 bit	125 μs
G.727	ADPCM, Lossy	8 kHz	16, 24, 32, 40 kbit/s	13 bit
G.728	low-delay CELP, Lossy	8 kHz	16 kbit/s	13 bit	0.625 ms
G.729	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	8 kbit/s	13 bit	15 ms
G.729D	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	6.4 kbit/s	13 bit
G.729E	CS-ACELP, Lossy	8 kHz	11.8 kbit/s	13 bit	15 ms
G.729.1	CELP, TDBWE, TDAC (MDCT), Lossy	8, 16 kHz	8 kbit/s, 12–32 kbit/s in 2 kbit/s steps	16 bit	48.9375 ms

Notes

The latency listed here is the total delay (frame size, plus all lookahead) at the normal operating sample rate (typically 44.1 kHz).
Lossless compression will have a variable bit rate.

External links

Comparative test April, 2004
EBU subjective listening tests on low-bitrate audio codecs
Hydrogenaudio comparison of lossless formats
Tsabary, Eldad. "A Survey of Audio Coders for Electronic-Art Music." eContact! 9.4 — Perte auditive et sujets connexes / Hearing (Loss) and Related Issues (May 2007). Montréal: CEC.
Rodman, Jeffrey "VoIP to 20 kHz: Codec Choices for High Definition Voice Telephony" (July, 2008)

Notes and References

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/afconvert.1.html afconvert(1) Manual Page - Apple Developer
Web site: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), Version 1.1.2. December 21, 2015. www.loc.gov.
Web site: Most Licensed Patents under the G.729 Consortium have expired. https://web.archive.org/web/20170202062530/http://www.sipro.com/G729.html. 2017-02-02. 2017-12-22.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/phones/ps5475/data_sheet_c78-505261.html Cisco IP Communicator 7.0 Data sheet - support for iLBC
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=176491 Skype Community, Current Codec Uses
Web site: IPR Details - Google Inc.'s Statement about IPR related to RFC 3951 and RFC 3952. datatracker.ietf.org. 6 May 2017.
Web site: Additional IP rights grant - WebRTC. sites.google.com. 6 May 2017. 16 September 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160916102401/http://sites.google.com/site/webrtc/license-rights/additional-ip-grant. dead.
Kuro5hin.org (2008-07-20) Patent Status of MPEG-1, H.261 and MPEG-2, Retrieved 2009-09-05
See the main MP3 article for full details.
Web site: License – Opus Codec. opus-codec.org. 6 May 2017.
Web site: Using protected files (DRM) . . 2020-04-17 . 2010-08-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100820001555/http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/faq/drm.mspx#q11_1 . dead .
Web site: SoundCodecs. Rockbox.org Wiki.
Web site: Supported media formats. Android Developers.
Web site: Supported formats. Android media.
Web site: Audio/Video - The Chromium Projects. www.chromium.org.
Web site: Audio formats for local playback . Huawei . Huawei . 29 April 2024.
The ffmpeg project has reverse engineered some codecs of the RealAudio and Windows Media Audio (DivX Audio v1 and DivX Audio v2) formats. This enables their use on any POSIX compatible system.
Microsoft has outsourced their WMA support on Mac OS X to Telestream, Inc. who created and maintain Windows Media Components for QuickTime, replacing Windows Media Player for Mac OS.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA47643 About QuickTime 6.3 (Apple Knowledge Base)
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA47643 Media formats supported by QuickTime Player in Mac OS X 10.6.x (Apple Knowledge Base)
http://blog.monogram.sk/janos/directshow-filters/ Monogram DS filters
MPEG 2 AAC was limited to a 96 kHz sampling rate, however, with MPEG 4 AAC, a later version part of the MPEG 4 specification, the maximum sampling rate has been increased to 192 kHz.
Web site: Algorithmic delay and synchronization in MPEG audio codecs - EE Times. EETimes. 6 May 2017.
Web site: Support Documents and Downloads. www.broadcom.com. 6 May 2017.
Web site: Schnell . Markus . Schmidt . Markus . Jander . Manuel . Albert . Tobias . Geiger . Ralf . Ruoppila . Vesa . Ekstrand . Per . Bernhard . Grill . 2008-10-01 . MPEG-4 Enhanced Low Delay AAC - A New Standard for High Quality Communication . English . Audio Engineering Society. Available from fraunhofer.de
Web site: Predrag Supurovic . MPEG Audio Frame Header . September 1998 . 2009-07-11 .
Web site: MPEG Audio FAQ Version 9, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 BC . ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11 - Audio Subgroup . 2010-02-27.
Web site: Opus Codec . 2014-07-02.
Web site: macosforge/alac. GitHub. 6 May 2017.
Web site: Dolby Atmos for Home Theaters. Dolby.com. 4 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180520182729/https://blog.dolby.com/2014/06/dolby-atmos-home-theaters-questions-answered/. 20 May 2018. dead.
https://datahacker.blog/files/83/Multimedia/50/DTS-HD--and-DTS-HD-Master-Audio-Enabling-HDAudio-Across-an-Evolving-Media-Delivery-Landscape-2012.pdf "DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio: Enabling HD Audio Across an Evolving Media Delivery Landscape"
sample rates from 1 up to 1048575 hertz and bit depths from 4 up to 32 bits https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-cellar-flac
Web site: Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor .
https://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php/OptimFROG 4 bytes - sample rate
Web site: Tau Projects. en.true-audio.com. 6 May 2017. 27 October 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20151027213549/http://en.true-audio.com/TTA_Lossless_Audio_Codec_-_Format_Description#TTA_Frame_Structure. dead.
Book: Britanak . Vladimir . Rao . K. R. . K. R. Rao . Cosine-/Sine-Modulated Filter Banks: General Properties, Fast Algorithms and Integer Approximations . 2017 . Springer . 9783319610801 . 31, 478 .

Comparison of audio coding formats explained

General information

Notes

Multimedia frameworks support

Technical details

Notes

See also

External links

Notes and References