One day, procrastinating from doing schoolwork and about two days
after Microsoft had released their new standard for compressing
sound, called MS Audio 4, I decided to see just how good (or bad)
the codec was and ran these tests, pitting it against MP3 and
RealAudio, both of which it was supposed to crush. While I certainly
don't think the quality is earthshattering as it does not scale well
to provide CD-quality audio and has annoying high-frequency artifacts,
it may give RealAudio a run for its money in the low-bitrate market.
<br><br>
As it turned out, the report became pretty popular. Over 30,000 people
are estimated to have viewed this report. A second report will be
forthcoming, covering MP2, MP3, AAC, AC-3, QDesign, EPAC, RealAudio,
MS Audio 4, and VQF. (I decided to reserve CodecReview.com from Internic.)
<br><br>
<b>NOTE: this report is getting pretty old and may not be representative
of the current version of Windows Media.</b>
<p>
<font color=red>december 4, 2000</font> - audio samples are back online!
<br><br>
<a href="summary.php3"><b>Executive Summary</b></a>
<br><br>
<b><a href="introduction.php3">Introduction</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="equipment.php3">Equipment</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="dtmf.php3">DTMF Tone Tests</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="slide.php3">Sliding Tone Tests</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="speech.php3">Speech Tests</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="music.php3">Music Tests</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="updates.php3">Updates</a></b>
<br><br>
<b><a href="links.php3">Also of Interest</a></b>
<br><br>