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Date: Sat, 17 May 1997 07:21:19 +0300 (EEST)
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From: Petri Helenius <pete@sms.fi>
To: fyeung@fyeung8.netific.com (Francis Yeung)
Cc: hasty@rah.star-gate.com, multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: real time mpg3 encoder?
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Francis Yeung writes:
 > 
 > Pete,
 > 
 > Thank you for the education.
 > 	
 > Now, I understand.
 > 
 > You folks are talking about MPEG1 layer 3 audio streams and 
 > players.  MPEG1 audio can be encoded in 3 standards called layers.  
 > MPEG2 can also support MPEG1 audio.  MPEG2 audio added surround sound 
 > with 5.1 channels.  DVD uses MPEG2 video but MPEG2 audio only in 
 > Europe, Dolby AC3 audio in the US.   In the past, most MPEG (1 
 > and 2) players and encoders are for layer 1 and 2.  Layer 3 is for 
 > low bit rate encoding and only until recently people are using layer 
 > 3 to stream high quality audio on Internet.
 > 
Actually, layer 3 is more of high quality than low bitrate. The low
bitrate for the quality kind of comes along. 128kbps layer-3 audio
pretty much beats other layer codecs regardless of bitrate.

Pete