http://www.codingtechnologies.com/products/aacPlus.htm
It appears now that v2 of AACPlus is a new thing and a superset of v1 and not simply a better tuned version of the v1 as I had previously thought. They added parametric audio to the v2 spec. Now we have 2 flavors of AACPlus. The refer to these 2 versions as: The members of the aacPlus codec family.
HE-AAC is now equal to AACPlus v1 according to the CT website.
v2 of AACPlus is a superset of v1 and HE-AAC. They have graphs on this page showing the differences in quality (using MUSHRA scores and the EBU listening tests).
Thought everyone would like to know this info. It appears (based on this page) that CT is really getting ready for a "big push" to have "AACPlus everywhere audio is played" much like the Microsoft everywhere and "Intel Inside" campaigns of the past. It should be interesting to watch.
I guess they were waiting for the International Standards to all be approved or adopted before making the big consumer marketing push with AACPlus. Now, the time appears to be for the marketing push for AACPlus...
This is evidenced by their quoting their Who's Who resume of all the standards supporting implementations of AACPlus on their site:
Standardization
aacPlus is widely standardized by many international standardization bodies. aacPlus v2 is specified as the high quality audio codec in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), and all of its components are part of MPEG-4. aacPlus v1 is standardized by 3GPP2, ISMA (Internet Streaming Media Alliance), DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), the DVD Forum, Digital Radio Mondiale, and many others. As an integral part of MPEG-4 Audio, aacPlus is ideal for deployment with the new H.264/AVC video codec standardized in MPEG-4 Part 10.
Also they claim on the page that:
"The value of aacPlus v2 has been clearly demonstrated by independent tests. In careful double-blind listening tests conducted by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), aacPlus v2 proved its superiority to its competitors even at bitrates as low as 18 kbps. aacPlus v1 has been evaluated in multiple 3rd party tests by Digital Radio Mondiale, MPEG, and the European Broadcasting Union. aacPlus v1 outperformed all other codecs in the competition."
I guess that's that then, and no more listening tests at low bitrates need ever be done according to CT.
Does this mean that CT thinks that rjamorim and other people conducting listening tests using low bitrate codecs can retire now?
