Video streaming over the internet has a lot to do with the space and the time of delivery. The time of delivery is solely dependent on the file size and the internet speed. To make the file size manageable and transferable, it is imperative to compress the audio and the video of the streaming content. If the content is not effectively compressed, it may cause a delay in the delivery and that can ultimately lead to a downfall in the viewership. Today, we will discuss compressing the audio content and some of the best audio codecs available in the market for video streaming. Audio compression is done with the use of audio codecs to stream the content seamlessly.
What Is Audio Codec And How Does It Work?
To understand what is an audio codec, first, we need to understand what is codec. Codec is the combination of two terms “coder” and “decoder” and audio codec helps in encoding and decoding multimedia files. It helps in converting the RAW file into a streamable file. Raw audio files are a little heavier and are of high quality. These files require a lot of space and therefore are not practical for streaming over the internet.
To make the audio file streamable, the audio is first encoded which involves tossing out the extra information available in the audio and decoding involves playing the audio again whenever required. Audio codecs compress the digital audio to save space and deliver the content quickly to the end users.
Common Audio Codecs Used For Video Streaming
There are a number of audio codecs available in the market that can be used for video streaming. But not all codecs are supported by every device. Some may provide better quality while others give priority to compression over the quality of the audio. Choice of the codec all depends but the most commonly used codecs are listed below:
MP3
The most well-known codec is MP3, also known as MPEG-2 Audio Layer III. This codec has revolutionized digital audio. It has made the files much small in size as compared to the previous formats. This has given a great push to streaming and downloading audio files over the internet. It has provided a speed for portable digital audio and is widely in use in the present time as well.
AAC
AAC or Advanced Audio Coding is developed after a few years of MP3. It brought much efficiency to the audio compression. It provides a better quality of audio at the same bitrate as the older one. This codec has been upgraded several times to increase the efficacy of the audio quality. Although it is a closed-sourced format yet it is a widely in use audio codec over the internet.
WAV (LPCM)
WAV or Waveform Audio File Format is used on windows computers primarily for uncompressed audio. This audio file format is used to store the uncompressed audio and lies in the RIFF family. This is the widely used audio format by professionals since it is close to the original audio and not suitable for end-users due to its enormous size.
WMA
WMA or Window Media Audio is developed by Microsoft and is part of the Microsoft Media Foundation. It consists of four codecs that include- WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Voice, and WMA Lossless. WMA is widely used as compared to WMS Pro. These files can be played by most of the media players for Windows OS.
Opus
Opus is considered the next-generation codec and is not widely used presently. It brings higher audio quality at different bitrates as compared to other bitrates listed above. It is an open and royalty-free codec that is supported by both iOS and Android. There are expectations that this codec will be in use widely in the future.
Final Thoughts
The core purpose of using the audio codec is to compress and make the file deliverable to the audience. The choice of audio codec is solely based on the needs of the creator and the audience that the creator is targeting.
