Nero AAC Codec

Last updated

Nero AAC Codec
Developer(s) Nero AG
Initial release1 May 2006;18 years ago (2006-05-01)
Final release
1.5.4.0 (See table below) / February 18, 2010;14 years ago (2010-02-18)
Operating system Windows, Linux
Platform IA-32
Size 2.1 MB
Available inEnglish
Type Encoder/Decoder/Metadata Tool
License Freeware
Website https://web.archive.org/web/20160310025758/http://www.nero.com:80/enu/company/about-nero/nero-aac-codec.php

Nero AAC Codec is a set of software tools for encoding and decoding Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format audio, and editing MPEG-4 metadata. It was developed and distributed by Nero AG, and is available at no cost for Windows and Linux for non-commercial use. The codec was originally part of Nero Digital, but was later released as a stand-alone package.

Contents

Nero's AAC encoder has been very competitive when tested against other encoders in scientific listening tests, for a time, second only to Apple's AAC encoder. [1]

In 2006, Chip Magazine (Germany) found that AAC files encoded with the Nero AAC encoder would consume as little as half of the space on a portable music player when compared to MP3 files of similar audio quality. [2]

Components and Capabilities

The current package is labeled version "1.5.1.0", but contains the following three utilities:

ToolRoleLatest Version
neroAacEncAAC encoder1.5.4.0 (Feb 18 2010)
neroAacDecAAC decoder1.5.1.0 (Dec 17 2009)
neroAacTagMP4 metadata editor1.5.1.0 (Dec 17 2009)

The encoder and decoder support MPEG-4 AAC LC, HE-AAC (AAC LC + SBR), and HE-AACv2 (LC + SBR + PS) Audio Object Types. Sample rates up to 96 kHz, and multichannel audio up to six channels (5.1 surround) are supported.

The metadata utility can read and write Nero Digital, iTunes, and Memory Stick format tags to MPEG-4 containers. [3]

These command-line tools are commonly used by shell scripts and programs like ABCDE, Exact Audio Copy and foobar2000 to convert audio to AAC.

History

The codec [4] [5] [6] was originally part of Nero Digital, a complete MPEG-4 Audio/Video solution. The ASP/AVC (video) codec was developed by a French company called Ateme. Nero built an in-house team to develop the AAC (audio) codec that included Ivan Dimkovic, Menno Bakker, and others. [7] Dimkovic was the author of the PsyTel codec, and the Nero AAC codec is said to be based on this work. [8] Menno Bakker was the developer of FAAC, one of the earliest widely available AAC encoders, and also what would become its companion decoder, FAAD. [9] The Nero AAC codec became a stand-alone package around 2006, although still called Nero Digital Audio until 2009. Nero apparently still uses the codec in its products. Neither Dimkovic nor Bakker currently work at Nero, and development of the codec has stalled, but the software is stable and remains a reliable, and high-quality, option for AAC encoding.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Listening Tests". HydrogenAudio. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Double space free: Nero AAC encoder". Chip Magazine. June 30, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Nero AAC#NeroAACTag". HydrogenAudio. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Former Nero CoDec competitors have become part of the industry's history.
  5. ↑ "FFmpeg native encoder quality assessment" (in Japanese). July 29, 2012. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  6. ↑ "AAC Encoding Guide/FAQ". FFmpeg documentation. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Discussion regarding people associated with Nero AAC development". HydrogenAudio. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Interview of Ivan Dimkovic - The man behind Nero AAC encoder (Interviewed on 2002-12-02)". AfterDawn.com. Retrieved October 8, 2007.
  9. ↑ Menno Bakker (July 9, 2004). "AAC Library API Documentat ion" . Retrieved October 1, 2014.
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