Difference from other technologies
The difference between SureStream and bitrate peeling is that SureStream is limited to only a handful of pre-defined bitrates, with significant difference between them, and SureStream encoded files are big because they contain all of the bitrates used, while bitrate peeling uses much smaller steps to change the available bitrate and quality, and only the highest bitrate is used to encode the file/stream, which results in smaller files on servers.
A related technique to the SureStream approach is hierarchical modulation, used in broadcast, where severally different streams at different qualities (and bitrates) are all broadcast, with the higher quality stream used if possible, with the lower quality streams fallen back on if not.
Lossy and correction
A similar technology is to feature a combination of a lossy format and a lossless correction; this allows stripping the correction to easily obtain a lossy file. Such formats include MPEG-4 SLS (scalable to lossless), WavPack, DTS-HD Master Audio and OptimFROG DualStream.
SureStream example
A SureStream encoded file is encoded at bitrates of 16 kbit/s, 32 kbit/s and 96 kbit/s. The file will be about the same in size as three separate files encoded at those bitrates and put together, or one file encoded at the sum of those bitrates, which is about 144 kbit/s (16 + 32 + 96). When a dial-up user has only about 28 kbit/s of bandwidth available, the Real server will serve the 16 kbit/s stream. If the dial-up connection is of higher quality, and maybe about 42 kbit/s is available, the server will automatically switch to the 32 kbit/s stream. A DSL or cable Internet user will be served the 96 kbit/s stream. This looks good, but even though the user with 28 kbit/s can use a higher bitrate / higher quality stream (maybe 22–24 kbit/s), such thing can't be done with SureStream, unless the encoded file contains such a bitrate. This is where Bitrate Peeling comes into play.
Bitrate peeling example
Contrary to SureStream, bitrate peeling requires only the highest bitrate to be used when encoding a file/stream, which is 96 kbit/s in this case. The obvious benefit is much smaller space on a server required by such a file. An additional feature of bitrate peeling is a much finer tuning of available bitrate/quality.
If a dial-up user with 28 kbit/s available bandwidth connects to an Ogg Vorbis file/stream, the server will "peel" the original 96 kbit/s file/stream down to just below available bandwidth (in this case it would be around 20–24 kbit/s). This so-called peeling process is different from transcoding because transcoding uncompresses the file and recompresses it (a computing-intensive process), whereas the peeling process removes excess bits from the stream without more processing.
Aside from the obvious space-saving advantage bitrate peeling allows for smaller steps in the delivery bitrate (the end user will see the file in the highest quality possible for their bandwidth).
These benefits are only theoretical, as the only Vorbis peeler available is still in experimental state and produces file qualities inferior to what transcoding the higher bitrate file to a lower bitrate would.
A codec is a device or computer program which encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder.
In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data compression methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size for storing, handling, and transmitting content. The different versions of the photo of the cat on this page show how higher degrees of approximation create coarser images as more details are removed. This is opposed to lossless data compression which does not degrade the data. The amount of data reduction possible using lossy compression is much higher than using lossless techniques.
MP3 is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Originally defined as the third audio format of the MPEG-1 standard, it was retained and further extended — defining additional bit-rates and support for more audio channels — as the third audio format of the subsequent MPEG-2 standard. A third version, known as MPEG 2.5 — extended to better support lower bit rates — is commonly implemented, but is not a recognized standard.
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The authors of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high-quality digital multimedia. Its name is derived from "ogging", jargon from the computer game Netrek.
Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression. Vorbis is most commonly used in conjunction with the Ogg container format and it is therefore often referred to as Ogg Vorbis.
Windows Media Audio (WMA) is a series of audio codecs and their corresponding audio coding formats developed by Microsoft with the composer Stan LePard. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs. The original WMA codec, known simply as WMA, was conceived as a competitor to the popular MP3 and RealAudio codecs. WMA Pro, a newer and more advanced codec, supports multichannel and high resolution audio. A lossless codec, WMA Lossless, compresses audio data without loss of audio fidelity. WMA Voice, targeted at voice content, applies compression using a range of low bit rates. Microsoft has also developed a digital container format called Advanced Systems Format to store audio encoded by WMA.
Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. MiniDisc was the first commercial product to incorporate ATRAC in 1992. ATRAC allowed a relatively small disc like MiniDisc to have the same running time as CD while storing audio information with minimal loss in perceptible quality. Improvements to the codec in the form of ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and ATRAC Advanced Lossless followed in 1999, 2002, and 2006 respectively.
Speex is an audio compression codec specifically tuned for the reproduction of human speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm. Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions and is licensed under the revised (3-clause) BSD license. It may be used with the Ogg container format or directly transmitted over UDP/RTP. It may also be used with the FLV container format.
FLAC is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software package that includes a codec implementation. Digital audio compressed by FLAC's algorithm can typically be reduced to between 50 and 70 percent of its original size and decompresses to an identical copy of the original audio data.
Theora is a free lossy video compression format. It is developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and distributed without licensing fees alongside their other free and open media projects, including the Vorbis audio format and the Ogg container.
Monkey's Audio is an algorithm and file format for lossless audio data compression. Lossless data compression does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis, and Opus. Therefore, it may be decompressed to a file that is identical to the source material.
Xiph.Org Foundation is a nonprofit organization that produces free multimedia formats and software tools. It focuses on the Ogg family of formats, the most successful of which has been Vorbis, an open and freely licensed audio format and codec designed to compete with the patented WMA, MP3 and AAC. As of 2013, development work was focused on Daala, an open and patent-free video format and codec designed to compete with VP9 and the patented High Efficiency Video Coding.
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time.
Musepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s. It was formerly known as MPEGplus, MPEG+ or MP+.
Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files, audio files, or character encoding. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size, or to convert incompatible or obsolete data to a better-supported or modern format.
High-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding (HE-AAC) is an audio coding format for lossy data compression of digital audio defined as an MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC (AAC-LC) optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio. The usage profile HE-AAC v1 uses spectral band replication (SBR) to enhance the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) compression efficiency in the frequency domain. The usage profile HE-AAC v2 couples SBR with Parametric Stereo (PS) to further enhance the compression efficiency of stereo signals.
MPEG-4 SLS, or MPEG-4 Scalable to Lossless as per ISO/IEC 14496-3:2005/Amd 3:2006 (Scalable Lossless Coding), is an extension to the MPEG-4 Part 3 (MPEG-4 Audio) standard to allow lossless audio compression scalable to lossy MPEG-4 General Audio coding methods (e.g., variations of AAC). It was developed jointly by the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) and Fraunhofer, which commercializes its implementation of a limited subset of the standard under the name of HD-AAC. Standardization of the HD-AAC profile for MPEG-4 Audio is under development (as of September 2009).
Constrained Energy Lapped Transform (CELT) is an open, royalty-free lossy audio compression format and a free software codec with especially low algorithmic delay for use in low-latency audio communication. The algorithms are openly documented and may be used free of software patent restrictions. Development of the format was maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation and later coordinated by the Opus working group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force, designed to efficiently code speech and general audio in a single format, while remaining low-latency enough for real-time interactive communication and low-complexity enough for low-end embedded processors. Opus replaces both Vorbis and Speex for new applications, and several blind listening tests have ranked it higher-quality than any other standard audio format at any given bitrate until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC, and HE-AAC.
