Opus 1.3 RC1 Released For Open-Source Audio Codec

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Opus 1.3 RC1 Released For Open-Source Audio Codec

Nearly one year after the release of Opus 1.2, the Opus 1.3 release is happening quite soon with Friday marking the availability of the release candidate for this open-source and versatile audio codec implementation...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Opus-1.3-RC1-Audio-Codec

[microcode]

The ambisonics stuff is exciting (no pun intended).

[mulenmar]

I'd love to use Opus more, but unfortunately Rockbox's fixed-point decoder implementation is inconsistent in its ability to function without stuttering and nearly locking up the UI. Happens in both the 3.14 release and the last dev build, on a Sansa Fuze+ or Sansa Fuze v2. No point in filing a bug report, either, since a) the project is basically dead in the water, b) they already know about it from previous versions and tried to fix it, and c) there's no way I can find to open the file elsewhere and determine what causes their decoder to trip up on some files and not others of about the same bitrate and complexity.

As such, the only place I'd use it is at home, where I have plenty of hard drive space, so there's no point in using anything but FLAC and OGG Vorbis, both of which are better-supported.

[PieterDeBruijn]

The ambisonics stuff is exciting (no pun intended).

As far as I can see, this is the only operational codec with ambisonics support. Even the Dolby Labs are only in exploratory phases. Great to see this innovation pushed via open source. Is the BBC the driving force behind this part of the development?

[ksec]

Opus is the, may be only codec that actually lives up to its word. It is amazing! And 1.3 makes it even better at the lower end. ( I wonder if this means it is now as good EVS or better ). I wonder if we could one day see a 64Kbps audio that beats 128kbps MP3, as both AAC and mp3Pro promised and failed to do so.

[andy22]

I wonder if we could one day see a 64Kbps audio that beats 128kbps MP3, as both AAC and mp3Pro promised and failed to do so.

There was no recent test regarding this scenario with 1.2/1.3 beta, but given the 2014 results with 1.1, i would not be surprised if 64kbps opus is already on par with 128kbps mp3. I think it may come down to specific artifacts and how they are perceived. I use 96kbps 1.2 opus on my phone and could not tell the difference compared to 128-150 kbps VBR mp3 files.
So just test for yourself with the available blind listing test kits out there.

[microcode]

As far as I can see, this is the only operational codec with ambisonics support. Even the Dolby Labs are only in exploratory phases. Great to see this innovation pushed via open source. Is the BBC the driving force behind this part of the development?

Facebook is also interested in ambisonics, and IIRC YouTube too.

[ksec]

There was no recent test regarding this scenario with 1.2/1.3 beta, but given the 2014 results with 1.1, i would not be surprised if 64kbps opus is already on par with 128kbps mp3. I think it may come down to specific artifacts and how they are perceived. I use 96kbps 1.2 opus on my phone and could not tell the difference compared to 128-150 kbps VBR mp3 files.
So just test for yourself with the available blind listing test kits out there.

Well because the latest test with 1.2 96Kbps is roughly the same or better then MP3 @ 128Kbps. But 64Kbps is still not there yet.

[rudregues]

I have all my songs in .opus already. Amazing work from devs. Even Whatsapp and Youtube mainly uses Opus as default audio.