TwinVQ

TwinVQ is a proprietary format to lossy audio compression data, which was developed by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT). In the late 1990s, the technology of Yamaha was bought and marketed under the name " SoundVQ " in a separate encoder. The file name extension is. Vqf. The format is described in Part 3 of the MPEG -4 standard (ISO / IEC 14496-3 ).

TwinVQ uses a unique technology to coding, vector quantization ( VQ). It does not variable, but constant bit rate at 80, 96, 112, 128, 160, and 192 kbit / s and a maximum of two channels (stereo). TwinVQ files should be about 30 to 35% smaller than MP3 files and display similar quality according to the manufacturer, but there is no evidence for it. Due to the higher complexity will be required to decode a higher processor load.

Yamaha TwinVQ marketed as an alternative to MP3, but the format was never widely known. This could be due to the proprietary nature of the format - programs of other providers were scarce, and hardware support was missing. With the occurrence of other MP3 alternatives TwinVQ was due to its limitations and the lack of support from software and hardware quickly obsolete and is now considered dead However, it is enshrined as one of several audio data compression method in MPEG -4 format.

Some programs still support TwinVQ. NTT also still maintains an Internet site on which a private playback and encoding software available, Nero Burning ROM can encode in TwinVQ, Winamp supports it through a plug- and also with foobar2000 you can via Nero plugin Nero codec play TwinVQ files (Nero installation required). Additional software, which supported TwinVQ, but no more will be further developed, are Yamaha's encoder and player, and the " K- Jöfol audio player ".

The format was 2009 from the FFmpeg project reverse-engineered so that the decoding of vqf files is supported by the open source software libavcodec.