Thomson Multimedia SA and the Fraunhofer Institute, originally developers of the MP3 file format and encoder, have released the first MP3pro codec. While not compatible with Macs as of yet, the MP3pro format allows users to achieve quality equal to current MP3s at half the bit-rate, or half the file-size. Whereas 128-192Kbps is generally regarded as CD-quality for MP3, CD-quality for MP3pro is just 64-96Kbps. This matches the claims of Microsoft’s Windows Audio 8 format, and delivers quality “parity or better” than Microsoft.
