A codec compresses and decompresses audio and video data, reducing file size and increasing transmission speed. Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) is a lossy compression format developed by MPEG and considered superior to MP3. AAC has several profiles, including MP4, M4A, and M4P. AAC is an open standard and is used in Apple products for high-quality sound and DRM.
A codec — from enCOder/DECoder or COmpressor/DECompressor — is software or hardware designed to compress and decompress data streams consisting of audio and/or video data. Compression reduces the size of digital audio and video files, which means they take up less storage space and transmit faster. There are different codecs designed with different goals in mind. One important codec is Advanced Audio Coding, often referred to by the acronym AAC. Its formal name is ISO/IEC 14496-3:2001 (International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission).
The codec was developed by the MPEG group companies (Motion Pictures Expert Group). It is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards and AAC_MP4 compression was further developed from AAC_MP2. Advanced Audio Coding is considered superior to MP3, both in amount of compression and sound. Compression can be lossless, created so that the original can be restored exactly, or lossy, removing bits of data as it compresses files, resulting in more compression, but the inability to fully restore the original file . Advanced Audio Coding is a lossy compression format.
There are several Advanced Audio Coding profiles. The MP4 file extension refers to a standard MPEG-4 file, while M4A refers to an unprotected AAC file. M4P is for protected CAA. The differences between files with an .M4A or .MP4 extension, on the one hand, and an .AAC extension, on the other, are that the .M4A and .MP4 extensions signal container formats that have a tagging standard, and so they can carry song and album information with them, which .AAC files cannot. Files with the .AAC extension are not accepted by many players.
Advanced Audio Coding is an open standard. It was adopted in Apple® QuickTime®, is used in Apple® iTunes® and is the default format on Apple® iPod®, where it serves to ensure high quality sound. Because it supports protected files, and therefore Digital Rights Management (DRM), using AAC in these venues helps control access to copy-protected material purchased from the iTunes® store.
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