Extension: .m4a
Codec Type: Lossless
Developer: Apple Inc. Blade and soul pc download.
Supports: 16 & 24 bit, multi channel & high frequency audio
Extra Details: Stored in MPEG 4 container
Strengths: iPod support, fast decoding, versatile ID Tagging
Weaknesses: Limited support outside of iPod / iTunes
ID Tagging: Quicktime / iTunes
Codec Type: Lossless
Developer: Apple Inc. Blade and soul pc download.
Supports: 16 & 24 bit, multi channel & high frequency audio
Extra Details: Stored in MPEG 4 container
Strengths: iPod support, fast decoding, versatile ID Tagging
Weaknesses: Limited support outside of iPod / iTunes
ID Tagging: Quicktime / iTunes
Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC, or Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE) a type of audio compression created by Apple Inc.
Having Lossless in the name, obviously means Apple Lossless is a Lossless codec, unlike a lossy codec (such as mp3) where audio quality is lost forever in the name of smaller files, lossless stores the original CD track without loss, like zip for audio. Apple Lossless can compress CD quality audio file to roughly half its original size.
Apple Lossless files are stored in the MPEG 4 container and have a .m4a extension. The MPEG 4 container is also used for Advanced Audio Compression (AAC), a lossy compression (currently all tracks purchased from iTunes Music Store (iTMS) are AAC). Have a .m4a file but do not know if it contains Apple Lossless or AAC? dBpoweramp Music Converter is able to show the contents (Apple Lossless or AAC) of an m4a file, by simply holding the mouse over. Performance Compression wise, ALAC is quite average amongst other Lossless codecs, whilst decoding speed is one of its strongest assets. ALAC files are not hindered by tagging limitations. ID Tagging Being stored in a m4a file, Apple Lossless files are tagged using the Quicktime / Apple iTunes tagging format, a relatively simple tagging format, supports Unicode characters (UTF-8). Any ID tag name can be added, yet the maximum length of each tag value is 255 characters. Multiple artists, etc are supported as is embedded album art. Technical Details Wmv license crack. Thought to be based loosely on FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec), both use Linear Prediction, Apple have not released any technical documents on Apple lossless, 3rd-party manipulation of Apple Lossless files are solely to the reverse engineering work of David Hammerton [craz.net]. Apple Lossless files can be decoded at relatively high speed, in comparison to other lossless codec. Apple lossless supports 16 bit and 24 bit audio, as well as multi channel audio, such as 5.1 First appearance: April 2004 with iTunes 4.5. Technical Lossless Codec Comparison [wiki.hydrogenaudio.org] |
Open source (encoding and decoding via FFmpeg and CUETools, decoding only via a standalone decoder) Fast encoding Fast decoding Hardware support (iPod, AirPort Express) Software support (iTunes, Quicktime) Independent encoder implementation available: ffmpeg Streaming support Tagging support (QT tags) Supports multichannel.
Ala Tags
Tai warcraft 1.24 epic. The three previous commenters make excellent anti-ALAC points, to which I would add the following regarding the 'reviled' Apple ecosystem: iTunes and ALAC do not support embedding ratings in track tags, while most FLAC editors do. Do Apple Lossless tracks remain lossless when sent via Airplay to a 4th gen Apple TV? Is 128kbps too low-quality a file size for the iPhone 5? Make iTunes recognize MP3 audiobooks with ID3 tag. Hot Network Questions How can you come out dry from the Sea of Knowledge? Apple lossless is proprietory (but not limited) to Apple, ALAC is limited to 16 bits @ 44.1 khz. That is not correct. The ALAC codec will correctly handle sample rates up to 192kHz and bit depths up to 24, just like FLAC and if you play those files back with iTunes, you get the full resolution. However, it is a one-way process.