(Advanced Audio Coding) An audio compression technology that is part of the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 standards. AAC, especially MPEG-4 AAC, provides greater compression and better sound quality than MP3, which also came out of the MPEG standard.
Popularized by the iPod
AAC is the default format for Apple's iPod. It was chosen because it added sound quality and also supported digital rights management (DRM), which is administered through Apple's iTunes jukebox software. AAC songs purchased from Apple's music store are copy protected (see formats below). With iTunes, users can also choose to rip their CDs to AAC instead of MP3.
Profiles
AAC is available in profiles, which determine how the algorithms work to encode the audio data. Main offers the highest quality. Low Complexity (LC) is lower quality, but uses less CPU processing. Scalable Sampling Rate (SSR) is a variation of LC. Long Term Prediction was added in MPEG-4 to improve the Main profile. See aacPlus, Apple Lossless, MP3 and iPod. Following are the file extensions used for AAC:
Popularized by the iPod
AAC is the default format for Apple's iPod. It was chosen because it added sound quality and also supported digital rights management (DRM), which is administered through Apple's iTunes jukebox software. AAC songs purchased from Apple's music store are copy protected (see formats below). With iTunes, users can also choose to rip their CDs to AAC instead of MP3.
Profiles
AAC is available in profiles, which determine how the algorithms work to encode the audio data. Main offers the highest quality. Low Complexity (LC) is lower quality, but uses less CPU processing. Scalable Sampling Rate (SSR) is a variation of LC. Long Term Prediction was added in MPEG-4 to improve the Main profile. See aacPlus, Apple Lossless, MP3 and iPod. Following are the file extensions used for AAC:
AAC File
Extension Type of AAC File
MP4 Standard MPEG-4 video & audio
M4A Unprotected AAC
M4A Apple Lossless
M4P Protected AAC
M4B Protected AAC audiobook
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Audio Transcoder 1.9.4.1198 (Windows)
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- uSeesoft PSP Video Converter 1.5.0.6 (Windows)
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- uSeesoft DVD to iPhone Ripper is a fastest DVD to iPhone ripper software for iPhone, iPone 3G, iPod, Apple TV, PSP and PS3. You can easily rip almost all kinds of DVD movies to iPhone MP4 video format as well as iPhone audio formats like MP3, M4A and AAC. With...
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- Video Converter Professional is a powerful video software that supports conversion of many video formats: MP4, 3GP, AAC, AC3, MP2, MP3, MOV, MPEG, RM, WAV, and SWF. What's more, Video Converter Professional allows adjusting parameters of audio/video codec. Moreover, you can also extract and convert the audio from a video...
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- Video : mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4, H.264, XviD, Theora, avi, wmv, mov, flv, dv, 3gp, svq, mvk, ffv1 and more. Audio: mp2, mp3, m4a, aac, flac, alac, wav, wma, ac3, ogg and more. Other Formats: .avs, .dxa, .flic, .fli, .mlp, .mvi, .nsv, .pva, .nuv, .swf, .mts, .dca, .mpc, .mtv, dca, ......
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- uSeesoft Video to iPhone Converter is the best video to iPhone converter or iPhone Video Converter which can convert all popular video formats to iPhone MP4 format. At the same time, this converter can convert all popular video formats to MP4 format which can be supported on iPhone 3G, iPod,...
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- 4Media MP4 to MP3 Converter 5.1.26.1113 (Windows)
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- uSeesoft DVD Audio Ripper 1.5.0.6 (Windows)
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- Xilisoft iPod Video Converter 5.1.26.1120 (Windows)
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- Xilisoft DVD to iPod Converter SE 5.0.51.1016 (Windows)
- Xilisoft DVD to iPod Converter is a powerful DVD ripper and video converter tool, which can help you convert DVD to iPod Video format MPEG-4, and to iPod audio formats including MP3, AAC, M4A easily and fast, with perfect output quality. What's more, you can capture pictures from DVD movies...
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- uSeesoft Audio Converter 1.5.0.6 (Windows)
- uSeesoft Audio Converter is a easy and super Audio Format Converter that can convert audio files with a super conversion speed and excellent sound quality. It can convert audio files between all popular audio formats including MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA, M4A, RA, RAM to iPod MP3, M4A, AAC.This professional...
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- iRip 1.4 (Mac)
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- A Better Finder Rename 8.41 (Mac)
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- Tag&Rename 3.5.4 (Windows)
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