MPEG-4 Book, The

11.2. MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding

After the completion of the MPEG-2 multichannel audio standard in 1994 [MPEG2-3], the MPEG Audio subgroup started another standardization effort to define a multichannel coding standard allowing a higher quality than is achievable while requiring MPEG-1 backward compatibility, as was the case for the first MPEG-2 multichannel audio standard. The aim of this development, initially called the MPEG-2 Non-Backward Compatible (NBC) coding scheme [BBQF97], was to reach indistinguishable quality according to the EBU definition [N1419] at bit rates of 384 kbit/s or lower for five full bandwidth channel signals. The standardization process was successfully completed in 1997, renamed MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (MPEG-2 ...