How to live with it: We discuss audio and video formats

Blu-ray player Cambridge Audio Azur 752BD

In the 24th issue, two speakers are waiting for you at once: Aleksey Shubin, a specialist in Hi-Fi and Hi-End equipment, and Timofei Shikolenkov, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Audiomania.

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Dmitry: We have a lot of topics. Audio formats, video formats, containers, lossy, lossless compression, but I want to start with a simple topic and talk about what kind of music you listen to and get started on what formats you choose, what are your addictions?

Alexei: If it is stereo, the most common [for me] format is FLAC. There is something that I listen to in MP3, but only that which cannot be found in FLAC.

Dmitry: What about the style of music?

Alexey: I am a music lover. Different music - from the violin to the “sausage”, as they say. The main thing is that there is a talented performer and, very importantly, a sound engineer. If the sound engineer is a “kettle,” then nothing will come of it.

Dmitriy:There is a FLAC, there are disks. How much does the trend of moving online now support the level of quality that you are used to, which you are waiting for? Or is it better to focus on a physical medium?

Alexei: Of course, you can focus on a physical medium. You can touch them, they are beautiful, with covers, you can buy them, which does not happen with FLAC. FLAC can also be bought, but many people do not enjoy buying something ephemeral without a shell.

If we talk about quality, today we can’t say that the CD is better than FLAC. It all depends on how the digital signal is converted, where it happens. You can put an equal sign between the sound of a CD and the sound of FLAC.

Dmitry: Are we talking about formats without compression?

Alexey: Yes.

Dmitry: If you look at what the layman is listening to: he takes a CD, or downloads MP3s from torrents, or buys something outside the [for example] App Store, iTunes, in various formats. Tell us about the “less saturated” formats in the class. What are the differences, pluses and minuses, what are the losses during compression?

Alexey: MP3, by the way, is still a very common format. A huge amount of music exists only in MP3s. The problem that FLAC takes up more space is practically not relevant today. The trend is shifting in favor of FLAC. Even my little son tells me that FLAC sounds better.

The scope of MP3 - computer speakers, inexpensive, up to ten thousand rubles. If you take a higher-level system, the difference between MP3 and FLAC will be obvious. If you have a choice, you should choose FLAC.

Dmitry: In the metro with headphones, is FLAC optional?

Alexei: In the subway, in headphones, even from a regular phone, you can hear the difference between MP3 and FLAC, if these are not headphones for five hundred rubles, but in class from three thousand rubles.

Dmitry: The file will be ten times more weight than MP3.

Alexei: Yes, FLAC is more "heavy." But a 32 GB phone is also commonplace. Again, if you have a choice, FLAC always sounds more interesting.

There used to be Super Audio CDs. And thanks to the Sony PlayStation 3 [their contents] began to leak into the Network, it became possible to copy Super Audio CD. Then it came to the recording studios that you can make money without revealing the source: sometimes DSF and DFF files appear, “concocted” from FLAC.

Dmitry: Let's try to talk about them briefly.

Alexei: Even serious studios have been fond of this recently. Most users of the system are of such a level that they will not hear any difference. Therefore, I believe that it’s too early for users to bother with what came in their raw form when the difference [between the new and the familiar] is not obvious.

This process will continue indefinitely, because it is necessary to draw money from consumers for the same music, but in a new format. If the transition from DVD to Blu-ray is really “Wow!”, The transition from FLAC to Super Audio CD, DSF-, DFF-files is not yet felt.

Dmitry: We tried to comment on the audio part. How similar is the situation with the quality of video media?

Alexei: [Often] you can put an equal sign between what is downloaded from the Web and located on disks. There is a nuance when it comes to cinema sound. If you want to listen to high-quality sound, then this is the original sound track. Dubbing, despite the increasing professionalism of duplicate actors, the sound does not do better.

I prefer to watch films in English with subtitles, to which I push my son. So also the five in English will be. This allows you to learn the language and [hear] high-quality sound. If a person has a serious system that he has been building for a long time, I’m sure the person will listen to the original sound.



Blu-ray player Denon DBT-3313

Another point: if the sound is seven-channel (there is 5.1 sound in the cinema, there is 7.1), then 7.1 - then 95% of the original English soundtrack sounds better. Speaking about the difference in formats: there used to be MP3, now it is FLAC, it used to be DVD, now it is Blu-ray. The sound difference between DVD and Blu-ray discs is huge. Provided that the equipment supports Blu-ray discs, or what we download with Dolby Digital or DTS-HD Master sound is much better than what was previously on DVD discs.

Although there are times when the professionalism of the sound engineer “pulls” the DVD to an amazing level. If our listeners have an interest [in what] can be pulled from a DVD format, I recommend listening to a John Fogerty concert [on DVD]. Great concert and reference sound for DVD.

On Blu-ray, such a sound is found everywhere, still much higher bitrate. If for Dolby Digital the ceiling is 640 kbps, then on DTS-HD disks a bitrate of the order of 5000 kbps is the norm. The difference is ten times. It is especially heard on concert recordings (many assemble a multi-channel system not only for cinema, but also for concerts).

You can’t run into concerts in Europe, and having a good system and buying a disc, you can feel yourself on the second, third, fifth rows of the concert hall and get an emotional charge for a long time.

Dmitry: To download rips from the Network, do you need to record them somewhere, or can they be played from the network storage? How widespread is it now, how much are people using it? Has taken root or did not take root?

Alexey: Absolutely took root. A huge number of people gather NAS-server. There is a box in the pantry, it has 5-6 or 10-20 hard drives, and all this is reproduced by the corresponding equipment that can work with NAS-servers.

And the most common option is a "flash drive", a hard drive. We insert into the multimedia player, and it plays the content. Many Blu-ray-players, which are equipped with DVD, CD, Blu-ray-drive, also know how to read modern formats. Leaders: OPPO and Cambridge Audio. Today they are "omnivorous", they can read everything that we download or purchase.



Network Player Onkyo C-N7050

An important point - the distribution path. They are at an embryonic level. Sometimes I’d like to get some kind of film in the quality I need, but today it’s a real problem to legally purchase content. Everything that Apple sells doesn't sound at the level that suits me.

Dmitry: We are talking about transmitting information over the Web, so the sound is averaged over file sizes.

Alexei: Relatively small. I never listen to the Russian soundtrack, although I understand that 90% of people watch films with translation. When it is possible to compare, a person always hears the difference between the original and the duplicated track.

Dmitry: Maybe there are some other online stores that still allow you [to enjoy higher quality sound]?

Alexey: They are gradually appearing. 4K content will most likely be distributed over the Web. Within a few years, the situation with legal paid content should stabilize, because [the same] game market has moved on a civilized footing for a long time.
It's comfortable.

Want to pay the publisher for the product that he produced, pay. With films, not everything is so rosy. But Apple is developing its service, and people can purchase content legally. Although not of perfect quality, you have to start with something.

Dmitry: What can you say about the future of Blu-ray?

Alexei: The future of Blu-ray discs is definitely not the x264 codec, but the x265 codec. Finally, they adopted the specification for next-generation Blu-ray discs, under 4K. They will be 60 GB and 100 GB. At the end of the year, new Samsung players, the Panasonis, should appear.

The situation with the codec is not completely clear to me. The x264 codec gives too large files; most likely, a new codec (x265) is required. For the consumer, this means that devices that played the x264 codec will not play the x265 codec because it requires a lot more resources.

In the case of computers, this is solvable, but you can’t change the processor on a TV. It is likely that after some time there will be a change of "pieces of iron" for new ones. Someone will have a processor power reserve, maybe someone will solve it at the firmware level, someone will not have enough power, respectively, they will have to change the hardware.

Dmitry: Judging by what you say, do you choose Blu-ray discs yourself?

Alexey: Yes, disks, files. If I do not have the opportunity to purchase something, I can download.

Dmitriy:It would be interesting to look at your system. How did you come to her? Maybe something changed? What is it now?

Alexei: How many things have changed! He has come a long way since 1996. It will soon be twenty years since I get sick with movie theaters. There was a huge amount of acoustics, sources. At first, in the home theater, there was a Panasonic VCR, several Samsung stereo models with Dolby Pro Logic decoders, when the rear was very cut down in the frequency range.

Then the DVD revolution made a real revolution. He brought in a lot of picture quality. The sound from the film switched to digital, a full-fledged rear appeared, it made sense to acquire good acoustics on the rear channels.

I switched to Blu-ray in 2001. I bought the first player on credit, and it was not cheap. It was the Panasonis, as it turned out, with terrible sound quality, one of the first models. There were Pioneer, Yamaha, Cambridge Audio and DVD players. Amplifiers and receivers I changed a lot.

I have now stopped. Came to a Blu-ray multimedia player. I also have a universal Cambridge Audio Azur 752BD player and an Atoll power amplifier. There is no receiver. I believe that it is superfluous in my system, because I do not need the rich HDMI switching that the receiver provides.

Power amplifiers reveal the potential of acoustics incomparably higher than any receiver. This is a specialized device in which there is almost no compromise; without loss, it enhances power well.



Atoll AV 500 multi-channel power amplifier

Dmitry: How many years does the system exist in such a package?

Alex: Cambridge and Atoll I have a year and a half. But for the new generation format, Cambridge Audio will have to be changed in the future. I will not change Atoll in the next ten years, because a power amplifier is a thing that is not subject to obsolescence, there is no electronics that is developing very quickly.

If a person is determined to buy a cinema in which he does not want to change something for a long time, the system will most likely be on power amplifiers. The source or processor can be changed. Power amplifiers have been justifying themselves for many years, this is not such a “poppy” option, as is the case with the receiver, but it gives a different sound level. Investing in a stereo power amplifier in a movie theater is a great investment for a long time.

Dmitry: How accessible are systems that will allow you not to change something again for a new format, namely 4K?

Alexei:What today will allow you to work with 4K? There are still no matching Blu-ray players. There are receivers with HDMI 2.0 connectors that can be fully used in 4K-systems. There are many projectors and televisions that work with 4K. We are waiting for the most important thing - the carrier. Certified HDMI 2.0 cables began to appear.

For those who will output image and sound from a computer, and this is convenient, there are video cards from NVIDIA with an HDMI 2.0 connector. Gamers are already happy, playing with pleasure. And movie theaters will have to wait. The content that is on the web, content from video cameras shot in 4K can be viewed on a computer monitor and the difference with Blu-ray discs will be noticeable.

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Timothy: Speaking of formats, one cannot help but say how a digital signal is encoded. We had a whole issue about converting an analog signal to a digital one, but let's talk about it again.

There are two parameters: a certain number of bits and a certain number of kHz. What happens next? Why is MP3 quality measured in kbps? Initially, MP3 is an integral part of the format that the Fraunhofer Institute developed. It was necessary to develop a technology for transmitting video with sound over low-bandwidth networks. That sounded the task. It was necessary to develop some way to compress video and sound in order to further transmit this via the Internet.

The Internet was then slow, and without video, and it was necessary to transmit information over low-bandwidth networks. Therefore, the measurements were in kbit / s, that is, a method for measuring channel capacity. MP3 - one of the layers, parts of the combined MPEG-1 format - Moving Picture Experts Group - the same group of experts that developed this format at the Fraunhofer Institute. And the third layer is the sound, and therefore abbreviated as MP3. It was necessary to make some kind of extension, and they did MP3.

Dmitry: Now there are no problems with the speed of the Internet. Let's talk more about the difference between formats and lossless compression.

Timothy:A lot of problems exist in various areas related to compatibility with previous versions. Firstly, there is equipment that uses something, and secondly, a combination of people and equipment. MP3 was developed in the last century - at the end of the 90s. Despite the fact that the format is imperfect, it was calculated on slow computers, and the encoding capabilities in this format require certain processor resources.

The processors were much slower, the channels were with less bandwidth. And now, despite the fact that the conditions are completely different, people continue to use it because it exists. Everyone is used to it. There are huge collections, they are recorded. The second time to collect a collection there is no desire. And high bandwidth. You press the button, and the composition is already on the computer screen.

Dmitriy:ITunes has a good solution: the iTunes Match feature. Our entire library, which is compiled on MP3 even with poor quality, can be compared with what is stored in the Apple library and get the best quality recordings on your device.

Timothy: This is a format that appeared a little later. AAC lossy compression. I'll tell you about him.

Dmitry: In this case, it is possible to take an insignificant quality and get at least what Apple currently gives. But they, unfortunately, do not provide the ability to download versions with lossless compression.

Timothy:Let's talk about kbits. Why is MP3 128 kbps? Why is he so popular? Popularity is associated with compression of about 10-11 times. This is the comfortable size that was acceptable in the early 2000s: you could quickly download or transfer music.
About ten hours of compressed audio could be stored on one disk.

If you listen to this music on computer speakers, then there is no difference with the original. But it is worth a little to improve the equipment on which the music is played, and all desire to listen to it disappears. Moreover, the better the equipment, the more disgusting the music played: flaws that seemed to be inaudible, crawl out.

This does not mean that MP3 is bad, just the goal of MP3 is to transmit video and sound over low bandwidth networks. MP3 did not have the goal of replacing other audio formats.

Dmitry: We cannot consider this format as a potential alternative to what we get on the CD?

Timothy: Of course, it turned out to be a certain by-product, and this product went to the people. And it was convenient. The first portable players appeared. Flash memory was very expensive. And the ability to record not one song in the player’s memory, but 15-20, was a compromise. An alternative to a large CD player and lots of discs. The trade-off between convenience and quality has shifted to convenience.

Dmitriy:Now, looking at the average amount of memory of a smartphone, it is clear that this problem is fading into the background. It no longer needs to be addressed.

Timothy: People are used to it, they have no idea that music can be stored in some other format than MP3. There is only the possibility of choosing the quality that you are used to measure in kbit / s, based on the speed of the channel through which the stream is converted, turning into a file.

After the advent of MP3, he began to have a large number of critics, and other formats began to emerge: open, free, paid, closed, including with Apple. Microsoft has its own format Windows Media Audio, WMA-extension. A large number of formats have appeared, but MP3 and AAC remain popular.

Many people who use iTunes and Apple technology, download and listen to music, do not even know that they use the AAC format. With the same volume and flow rate, it is better in quality due to the algorithm and due to the fact that processors have since become faster and processing capabilities have grown.

In the 2000s, coding one track took several minutes, now processing takes several seconds. Formats that appeared later imply a more active use of the processor or specialized digital transformations - microchips for compressing, encoding and decoding a signal.

Dmitry: It is important to consolidate. AAC is better than MP3, but no better than CD.

Timothy:Yes. Any lossy squeeze extracts a very important component from music, one that evokes emotions. When compressing with losses, those emotions that appear when listening to the original do not arise. Some people believe that there is no difference, but they simply do not compare, or the equipment on which they compare does not allow you to hear music.

Now, when there are unlimited Internet speeds and unlimited hard drive capacities, there is no point in storing lossy audio compressed. When it became clear that there were no problems with storage, other formats began to appear that require serious participation of a computer and processor. These are complex algorithms that allow you to get the same wave that was at the input when unpacking.

Compression formats have appeared that make the file, the stream is smaller, shorter, but they allow you to restore information to the original. Such formats preserve what gives emotions, and allow you to listen to the sound fully. I'm afraid to touch on the topic of preserving sound in high resolution, it is ambiguous.

Speaking in mathematical language, the CD format is enough to save any piece of music. But there are difficulties associated with digital processing.

Dmitry: iTunes allows you to take rips, that is, sound from a CD, and store it with lossless compression. But it cannot be obtained from the library or the iTunes store.

Timothy:Yes. In summary, I’ll say that now there are two lossy compression formats: MP3 and AAC, common thanks to iTunes and Apple. And there are two of the most popular lossless compression formats: FLAC and ALAC, which, in essence, are no different, they have slightly different algorithms.

ALAC is a proprietary algorithm owned by Apple. FLAC is an open format. Both formats have the same efficiency, but there are differences; there is information on them in the Network. If we solve the problem of storing music, then you should choose one of these two formats, if you do not store music on those original discs that can still be bought - CD audio.



By the way, we are ready to undertake not only the installation and connection of equipment, but also the full range of work from designhome cinemas and music listening rooms to the end result

Dmitry: Let's move on to video formats. There is what we are used to seeing after the period in the file name in the explorer, and there are containers. Is MKV a container, or is it still a format?

Timothy: Great question. One of the first containers was avi. Now MKV is the most popular, common [container]. In it, as in a nesting doll, you can put a lot of everything, any format. It is correct to use the word "codec", that is, a codec.

Based on the encoder encoded video or audio, the format is obtained. Video or audio formats are independent of the container. Inside MKV there can be video in any format and sound in any format, there may be subtitles and other additional information. The same goes for avi. It simply has less features, but the format of the video itself depends on the codec. Containers are what we put [data] into.

They say: video in avi format or in MKV format, and this does not mean anything. What is in this video? Before you open it, it is not known. The file extension itself does not mean anything. This is one of the big problems.

At the dawn of the first hardware video players, people faced many difficulties. It is written that the player reproduces the avi format, a person palms it into this format, and the player refuses to play, because there is a video stream inside this avi that the player cannot unpack.

Dmitry: If you look at it like a basket, where we put a lot of things, it’s interesting to understand how the sound itself is stored. How significant is the difference between the formats and containers that appeared earlier, and those that are now?

Timothy: If we talk about containers, then it makes no sense to compare, because the tasks for containers like avi were different, and the formats supported by this container were completely different. We have already left this.

All modern hardware players and players accept everything that is now. The format race, which began in the early 2000s, can now be said to be over. Then you could buy a player and after a month find out that another format has become the main one, and the player does not play this format.

Now the main video format is x264, aka MPEG-4 AVC. It is used everywhere: in modern digital video cameras, cameras that shoot video.

Digital video formats started from another. There was a time when carriers were expensive. Video cassettes were used as storage media, despite the fact that it is an analogue storage medium. People have a discord: the cassette is in the analog format, and the hard drive is digital, although in both cases the magnetic recording method is used - the magnetic head. In one case - a magnetic disk, in another - a magnetic tape, which has nothing to do with the number.

The video that was recorded on the tape was in a different format - DV or HDV. Now this format is not used. I know that some television channels used this format as the main one for storage, recording and shooting. Now it has come to the point that some television channels are filming their reports on digital cameras.

When I see this on the screen, everything in my head turns over. How so, shoot a video with a camera. We have come to the conclusion that modern digital cameras can shoot video, and they do it no worse than professional large video cameras.

Dmitry: Often the question arises in connection with 4K. Now part of the players do not support the format, codec, container, which will go with 4K video. And the content itself, it seems, is not. How long will this go on? Will this new format last for five, ten, fifteen years?

Timothy: Oh! Of course, such forecasts cannot be made! We must not forget that the Internet is in Russia for another 20 years, and the world has completely turned upside down. This also applies to computers and formats.

What are good containers? This helps to "speak the same language" to the device or program that creates the file, and the player. Therefore, containers appeared. With the advent of containers, it has become easier.

On computers, everything is elementary: there is a software player that understands the container file, it opens it, knows how to work with this file. Inside, he sees a stream: a stream of video, audio, or something else, the same subtitles. This stream is decrypted using the codec, in this case, the part that deals with decompression - decoding into a form with which you can do something.

If there is an installed codec in the system, there are no problems, you do not need to write new programs or redo anything. The ability to work with the container is self-sufficient, and then you need to add codecs to the system.



Popular TVs and projectors.

Hardware support is very similar, except, for example, that you can change the processor to a faster one on your computer if the new codec requires more processor resources to decompress the video. In the case of a hardware player is more complicated. If the installed processor cannot unpack a more modern video format, then a stream that is compressed with a more modern codec, even in the same container in which it unpacked and played the video before, cannot be played.

This is problem. It is difficult to say in advance what will happen to devices and formats. Now they are artificially creating an increase in interest in 4K, but I do not believe in it. It is clear that TV manufacturers somehow need to attract new customers. A few years ago, people exchanged beam tube televisions for flat-screen televisions. Then lured by a flat screen, a large diagonal, a small mass. Now it’s not clear how to get people to buy a new TV.

However, the resolution of the 4K matrix itself can be useful to some extent, even if there is no content. Algorithms that are used in televisions, players, projectors can improve the video, add the missing details. But it all depends on the content.

If there is an opportunity to receive content, then the equipment will be in demand. One without the other does not exist. And it is not clear who should take the first steps and invest in technology development and content development. 4K in video is like Hi-End in sound. This is a niche. And not everyone needs it.