The Music Server Site
All you ever wanted to know about the world of media servers
Advanced Audio Coding - a compression algorithm (codec) for audio used by Apple iTunes. It is generally considered to provide higher compression and better quality than the MP3 codec.
Audio Interchange File Format; an uncompressed method of storing digital audio used by Apple and Silicon Graphics computers. Similar to WAV.
Software designed to encode/decode and compress/expand a data stream. In the digital music context, this would typically be digital audio data. Codec derives either from Coder-Decoder or Compressor-Decompressor. The most common codecs in current use include MP3 and AAC.
An audio codec, also known as AC-3, commonly used to encode the soundtracks of DVDs. It is a full 5.1 surround sound codec.
Dolby Pro Logic is an audio processing technology which can be used to simulate a full 5.1 surround sound source from a conventional stereo signal.
Digital Rights Management - a term describing technologies to restrict copying and piracy of copyright material in digital form.
Free Lossless Audio Codec
The Gracenote Media Database is a database containing information on millions of CDs, music traceks and DVDs. Its main application in the context of music servers is to allow the server to look up, over an Internet connection, the artist's name and track titles for a CD or music track stored on the music server. More information can be found on the Gracenote website.
A media server functions in the same way as music server, but unlike a music server it can store other types of media as well as music, for example DVDs and photographs.
A compression algorithm (codec) for digital audio data, more properly known as MPEG-1 Layer 3.
Moving Pictures Expert Group
An algorithm which forms an international standard for compression of digital audio and video (Moving Pictures Expert Group 4 ).
A device which stores a large number of music tracks (typically in a digital format, either compressed or uncompressed) and then serves tracks to one or more clients - the clients may be conventional hi-fi systems or digital music players, depending on the server.
Essentially the music server enables a user to store a complete music collection (up to many hundreds or even thousands of CDs) in single place and to access it at will.
Network Attached Storage: a storage device (usually one or more hard disks) which can be accessed directly over a computer network, rather than being incorporated inside a computer as is usually the case. This allows multiple devices to share the same storage.
Vorbis is an audio codec which is most commonly used together with the Ogg container format - hence the term "Ogg Vorbis". It is lossy, open-source, free to use format.
Pulse Code Modulation
The most common kind of plug used on interconnect cables for home hi-fi systems. Also known as a "phono plug". This plug is typically used to lead analogue signals between audio components and also as the connector of choice for co-axial S/PDIF connections.
Sony/Philips Digital Interface (or Interconnect) Format depending on whose definition you take. In any case, this is the de facto standard for digital interconnects on all consumer audio and video equipment. The physical interface is usually either a co-axial cable terminated with RCA connectors or an optical TOSLINK cable.
TOSLINK is a standard for optical fibre digital connections originally developed by Toshiba. It can be used for optical S/PDIF connections.
A method of storing audio data on computers running Windows. The data is usually, but not always, uncompressed. Similar to AIFF.
Wi-fi is the popular name for the IEEE 802.11 family of wireless networking standards. In the context of home digital music systems, wi-fi is a convenient way to wirelessly connect different digital components of the multi-room set-up.
Windows Media Audio, a family of audio codecs developed by Microsoft.
In the terminology of multi-room hi-fi, a zone is a discrete music system usually for a single room, consisting of an amplifier and speakers. A multi-room set-up consists of several zones, plus a music server to feed music to the individual zones.
Copyright 2006 The Quality Software Foundation LLC. All rights reserved. For permission to use, contact us