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Some 14 years after the MP3 went public, technology company Thomson is hoping that high-definition will be the next key step in its evolution as it unveils the proprietary MP3HD format.
With the major labels all stepping away from DRM, the MP3 is effectively the universal standard, compatible with almost every digital music player.
There has been much debate over the compression rates required to improve the audio quality, with many legal services offering files at either 192kbps or 256kbps, with some going as high as 320kbps.
Lossless formats, most notably FLAC and surround-sound MP3, already exist, but Thomson feels MP3HD can push improved audio quality further into the mainstream.
The backwards-compatible format was developed in Hanover by the team behind the original MP3 format.
Thomson feels that, with broadband increasingly commonplace, the need to squeeze file sizes to rapidly send them online is no longer an issue. The company also believes that consumers are demanding a greatly improved audio experience and are no longer prepared to forego this in exchange for the speed, portability and convenience of digital.
"For MP3HD, the compression rate changes depending on the genre and ...