What is the difference(quality) between MPEG-2 AAC & MPEG-4 AAC?

LC, Main & LTP profile, what is the difference

What would be the best encoder for AAC?

There is no real quality difference, the actual AAC data is basically the same. However, the LTP profile is only used in MPEG-4 and could provide better quality on some samples when using an encoder that has a well optimised LTP module.

The best AAC encoder is of course the Nero AAC plugin , which will be released really soon.

Menno

There is none yet, because this has been the same since the finalization of MPEG-2 AAC in 1997. But when AAC+ will be standardized as a core element of MPEG-4, it will drastically change the quality of low bitrate encodings, but not for high bitrates, because SBR is a tool for 64 kbps and below.



If the short explanations I gave recently in other threads aren't enough, you could read the MPEG-2 FAQ of the MPEG Audio Subgroup, the technical FAQ from the Dolby website or the dissertation of Ye Wang (141 pages, also from his other publications) where he also gives a very good overview of several tools used in different codecs for enhancing the sound:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....4048&hl=ye+wang



One that beats the sh*t out of the FhG evaluation build at 64 kbps, is free of charge, open source and comes with a one-year subscription to my local pizza service at no cost. Unfortunately this doesn't exist, so we'll have to wait for Nero's plugin and/or the CodingTechnologies demo version of aacPlus, I'm afraid.