MP3
Capability |
Rating |
---|---|
Browser compatibility and percent of browsers with Plug-in |
Excellent. |
Interactive sound design capabilities |
Limited/None. Technology is a compression format, not a multimedia authoring environment. |
Software cost for encoding and streaming |
Free to inexpensive. Small licensing fee may apply for professional applications. No dedicated server required for posting downloadable files. |
Level of documentation and support |
Limited. |
Audio encoding and content generation |
Easy. |
Audio authoring and delivery |
Difficult to Easy. Installation of SHOUTcast server for MP3 streaming requires Unix programming expertise. Posting MP3 files on a standard web server for downloading is easy. |
Audio fidelity and compression |
Outstanding. Depends on the rate. |
Low-bandwidth performance |
Excellent. MP3 shines in low-bandwidth environments. To the discerning listener, the MP3 encoding algorithm produces the most ear-pleasing and natural form of audio degradation after compression for 28.8 bandwidth environments. |
Server performance and quality of software tools for large-scale streaming |
GoodâSHOUTcast Server. But primarily a downloadable format. Streaming options such as SHOUTcast are becoming more widespread. Currently very few tools available for large-scale broadcasting. |
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