Nero Digital
Encyclopedia
Nero Digital is a brand name applied to a suite of MPEG-4
-compatible video and audio compression codec
s developed by Nero AG
of Germany
and Ateme
of France
. The audio codecs are integrated into the Nero Digital Audio+ audio encoding tool for Microsoft Windows
, and the audio & video codecs are integrated into Nero's Recode DVD ripping
software.
Nero certifies certain DVD player/recorder devices as Nero Digital compatible, and licenses the codec technology to integrated circuit
manufacturers.
The video codecs were developed by Ateme
, and according to an interview with Nero AG developer Ivan Dimkovic, the audio codecs are improved versions of Dimkovic's older PsyTEL AAC Encoder.
/MPEG-4 Part 14
(".mp4") container format and includes two video and two audio codecs:
The codecs are compliant with the ISO
/IEC
standard, with the exception of subtitles and chapter information. The video streams generated by Nero Digital can be played back on some stand-alone hardware players and software media players such as the company's own Nero Showtime.
Recode cannot rip encrypted DVD movie discs, but is able to import decrypted
DVD images for encoding. Nero Digital also does not ship its codecs as stand-alone DirectShow
or VfW
modules, preventing them from being used for general-purpose video editing. The product is not bundled with a video editor.
MPEG-4
MPEG-4 is a method of defining compression of audio and visual digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group under the formal standard ISO/IEC...
-compatible video and audio compression codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
s developed by Nero AG
Nero AG
Nero is a global computer software company headquartered in Karlsbad, Germany. It is perhaps most well-known for its burning software, Nero Burning ROM.-History:The company was founded as Ahead Software GmbH in 1995 by Richard Lesser....
of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Ateme
Ateme
ATEME is a French broadcast company specialising in video compression MPEG4 encoding/decoding solutions for contribution, video headend, and multi-screen transcoding as well as 3D technology...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The audio codecs are integrated into the Nero Digital Audio+ audio encoding tool for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, and the audio & video codecs are integrated into Nero's Recode DVD ripping
DVD ripper
A DVD ripper is a software program that facilitates copying the content of a DVD to a hard disk drive. They are mainly used to transfer video on DVDs to different formats, to edit or back up DVD content, and to convert DVD video for playback on media players and mobile devices...
software.
Nero certifies certain DVD player/recorder devices as Nero Digital compatible, and licenses the codec technology to integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
manufacturers.
The video codecs were developed by Ateme
Ateme
ATEME is a French broadcast company specialising in video compression MPEG4 encoding/decoding solutions for contribution, video headend, and multi-screen transcoding as well as 3D technology...
, and according to an interview with Nero AG developer Ivan Dimkovic, the audio codecs are improved versions of Dimkovic's older PsyTEL AAC Encoder.
Functionality
Nero Digital can generate streams in the 3GP3GP
3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones....
/MPEG-4 Part 14
MPEG-4 Part 14
MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images...
(".mp4") container format and includes two video and two audio codecs:
- ASPMPEG-4 Part 2MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-4 Visual is a video compression technology developed by MPEG. It belongs to the MPEG-4 ISO/IEC standards. It is a discrete cosine transform compression standard, similar to previous standards such as MPEG-1 and MPEG-2...
(one of about 20 profiles defined in MPEG-4 Part 2) - AVCH.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
(also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or H.264) - AAC-LC (the most widely used AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
profile defined in MPEG-4 Part 3MPEG-4 Part 3MPEG-4 Part 3 or MPEG-4 Audio is the third part of the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 international standard developed by Moving Picture Experts Group. It specifies audio coding methods...
) - HE-AACHE-AACHigh-Efficiency Advanced Audio Coding is a lossy data compression scheme for digital audio defined as a MPEG-4 Audio profile in ISO/IEC 14496-3. It is an extension of Low Complexity AAC optimized for low-bitrate applications such as streaming audio...
(defined in MPEG-4 Part 3, sometimes referenced as "aacPlus" or other, similar trademarks)
The codecs are compliant with the ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
/IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
standard, with the exception of subtitles and chapter information. The video streams generated by Nero Digital can be played back on some stand-alone hardware players and software media players such as the company's own Nero Showtime.
Recode cannot rip encrypted DVD movie discs, but is able to import decrypted
DVD Decrypter
DVD Decrypter is a software application for Microsoft Windows that can create backup disk images of the DVD-Video structure of DVDs. It can be used to image any DVD, but controversially it is especially useful for decrypting copy protected movies. The program can also record images to disc...
DVD images for encoding. Nero Digital also does not ship its codecs as stand-alone DirectShow
DirectShow
DirectShow , codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows technology...
or VfW
Video for Windows
Video for Windows was a multimedia framework developed by Microsoft that allowed Microsoft Windows to play digital video.-Overview:...
modules, preventing them from being used for general-purpose video editing. The product is not bundled with a video editor.
Comparisons with other video codecs (2003-2005)
The Nero Digital video codecs have been featured in video compression comparisons:- In the 2003 Doom9 codec comparison, the ASP codec was the fastest of all the codecs, but fared relatively poorly in quality.
- The Nero Digital AVC codec was pronounced the winner of the 2004 Doom9 codec comparison. ND ASP did not compete.
- In the 2005 Doom9 codec comparison, the ASP codec was still the fastest and fared better than previously in quality, but not well enough to make it to the finals. The AVC codec came in second overall.
- In May 2005, it won the C't magazine video codec quality comparison, competing against other AVC codecs such as x264X264x264 is a free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-History:...
, VideoSoft's codec, the MainConceptMainConceptMainConcept GmbH is a software company developing video/audio codecs and also applications and plug-ins related to video/audio encoding.-History:...
codec and the Sorenson codec. - Nero Digital AVC also won an informal 2005 'Movie Metric Benchmark challenge,' with up to a 1dB quality gain over DivXDivXDivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the...
at the same bitrate.