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Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

engineering.fb.com

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Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#11

Post by orangepurple »

Teever wrote: post #9
zinekeller wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Patents. I presume that the Facebook and Instagram apps bundle their own decoder (which Meta paid) but you need to convince other companies (or wait for OS integration for Firefox) to include xHE-AAC.

When I set up my jellyfin server I learned that Firefox doesn't support h.265 and that there's no way to add codecs to the browser. Does anyone know why it isn't possible to add codecs to the browser?

Chrome quietly supports h265 decode as of version 107 https://chromestatus.com/feature/5186511939567616

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#12

Post by ipaddr »

awill wrote: post #3

This codec isn’t supported on the web. So it is Android and iOS only. This post talks about the improved audio quality, but I don’t buy it. This was probably done to reduce storage and bandwidth, not to improve audio quality. Phone speakers aren’t good enough to notice. Also, I wish they had backed opus…

This change breaks video in stories on the website.

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#13

Post by dopa42365 »

awill wrote: post #3

This codec isn’t supported on the web. So it is Android and iOS only. This post talks about the improved audio quality, but I don’t buy it. This was probably done to reduce storage and bandwidth, not to improve audio quality. Phone speakers aren’t good enough to notice. Also, I wish they had backed opus…

Their web version seems to be the fallback (h264 etc) that is guaranteed to run on every device from the last 20 years pretty much. Then again, they clearly don't care about anything outside of their apps, the web experience (instagram especially) is a complete disaster of a walled garden with highly gimped functionality and extreme limitations everywhere.

The only good customer is one that willingly opts into all ads I guess.

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#16

Post by charcircuit »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #8

As far as I know, xHE-AAC has no advantages over Opus, however, Opus is free from patent licensing.

>xHE-AAC has no advantages over Opus

The main features focused on in this article are loudness management and adaptive bitrate audio. From what I can tell Opus supports neither of those things.

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#17

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

orangepurple wrote: post #11
Teever wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I set up my jellyfin server I learned that Firefox doesn't support h.265 and that there's no way to add codecs to the browser. Does anyone know why it isn't possible to add codecs to the browser?

Chrome quietly supports h265 decode as of version 107 https://chromestatus.com/feature/5186511939567616

What’s quiet about it? Seems like it was announced.

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#18

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

awill wrote: post #3

This codec isn’t supported on the web. So it is Android and iOS only. This post talks about the improved audio quality, but I don’t buy it. This was probably done to reduce storage and bandwidth, not to improve audio quality. Phone speakers aren’t good enough to notice. Also, I wish they had backed opus…

don't people wear headphones?

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#19

Post by 8n4vidtmkvmk »

zinekeller wrote: post #6
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can’t it be supported in web browsers? Is there a technical limitation or it just hasn’t been done because only Meta uses it?

Patents. I presume that the Facebook and Instagram apps bundle their own decoder (which Meta paid) but you need to convince other companies (or wait for OS integration for Firefox) to include xHE-AAC.

you can decode image files on web using wasm... i think perf suffers a bit though. audio i don't know, that's probably harder. you would probably lose the benefit of loudness normalization iiuc.

Re: Why xHE-AAC is being embraced at Meta

#20

Post by yieldcrv »

awill wrote: post #3

This codec isn’t supported on the web. So it is Android and iOS only. This post talks about the improved audio quality, but I don’t buy it. This was probably done to reduce storage and bandwidth, not to improve audio quality. Phone speakers aren’t good enough to notice. Also, I wish they had backed opus…

Built in sound level management sounds like a good enough reason
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