MPC Audio In Matroska

[Sniffer]

I have been away for a while so i'm not updated,

The Matroska container already support MPC Audio???


Thanks for the usefull info.

[KpeX]

It is not yet supported in Matroska. The search button does a great job of updating you on things when you've been away for a while. Basically the lead developer of MPC wants to wait until SV8 (the next version of MPC) to use it with video. There is a directshow filter capable of playing back MPC but no implementations for muxing it into any format yet.

[Sniffer]

Thanks for your time.

So everything the same, the best lossy format still away from matroska container.:(

[tiki4]

According to HA forums the lead developer Frank Klemm hasn't been seen online for a while. There was an initiative of ChristianHJW to revive the SV8 project. The links to the mailing lists can be found on HA.org. Unfortunatly I can't tell how this project evolves for the moment. I think they are still waiting for a word of Master Klemm...

Sad, but it still may take a long time for SV8, if ever.

tiki4

P.S.: I think it's just a matter of hours till Christian jumps in.

[Sniffer]

ChristianHJW is making a hell of a job in matroska project.

But in audio AAC is good but MPC is always better. Hope they can manage to bring it on ASAP.:)

[tiki4]

Sure, MPC performs really well in the listening tests performed at HA.org. Even at 128 kBit/s it still has high quality. Anyway it was tuned with high bitrates in mind (> 160 or so) and there is really is your best option when you are ripping audio CDs.

On the other hand AAC is a fast developing codec nowadays (maybe the fastest) and has some really nice features that MPC is lacking:

* hardware support
* multichannel support
* can be incorporated into different containers (MP4, MKV, OGM).

Also remember that Quicktime AAC won the 128 kBit listening test and that Ivan Dimkovic is really doing an impressive job at Ahead to polish his AAC plugin. I think both codecs have their niche but it seems to me AAC is stepping out of it very fast now.

tiki4

[ChristianHJW]

Master Klemm himself surprised me this week in a long telephone conversation, telling me that the only real reason for the sonic advantages of MPC compared to other codecs is the superior psy model it has, and not because of its encoding principle ( subband coding ).

He mentioned that he may think of making an AC3 or AAC encoder with his psy model, as he is convinced that these compression formats could be superior to MPC if being well tuned, with a proper psy model.

I feel that MPC could have a great future, if Frank decides to make a clear cut with the old subband coding principle, and makes a complete new codec, based on everything he knows about audio compression.

Speaking for the matroska team, we hope that Frank will at least freeze the SV8 bitstream specs soon and give us a SV7 to SV8 conversion tool, because implementing SV7 into MKV seems to be pretty difficult, if not impossible. Lets see what he will come up with.

[tiki4]

Hi Christian,

I read your post at HA.org and I was really astonished that after month of silence Frank Klemm came back to the light. Beyond all hope maybe MPC development can evolve now. But is an AAC (or AC3) based SV8 Musepack still Musepack? I think that this is somewhat very different to the MP2 based SV7. As some guys mentioned already at HA it would be really nice to first freeze current status and repack into the new bitstream format that can then be incorporated into Matroska. Then one can make a clean cut and go for something new. Anyway I will wait what 'Master Klemm' comes up with as I really like the format very much.

tiki4