MP4 How it works vs. MP3?

It's a matter of bet that most people don't know the difference between MP3 and MPEG-4 formats and even less really know how they work. Most of the users know only the fact that MPEG-4 is a latest generation technology.

So, here we are going to talk about how MPEG-4 works and how MP4 differs from MP3.

MP4 Disambiguation

MPEG-4 devices are portable entertainment devices which are capable of playing video as well as audio and are generally referred to as MP4 players. So, MPEG-4 is generally known as MP4. 'MPEG' itself stands for Motion Picture Experts Group (an association of industry members responsible for setting technical standards for digital audio and video).

Essence

MPEG-4 is a container format for multimedia content including video, audio, subtitles and still images. It is wrong to consider that MP3 means MPEG-3. There is no such format! MP3 actually stands for MPEG-1 Layer 3.

MPEG-4 is based on technology developed for QuickTime format (Apple). It works using the data 'streaming'. Namely, by transmitting data streams to the receiving device. It is designed to support different formats: for video (MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1), audio (MP3, MP2, AAC), images (JPEG, PNG) and subtitles.

MPEG-4 can be expanded, meaning it can be adapted to include new technologies. Being a container, it can be scaled for various data transmission rates. This enables transmitting of most types of streaming from dial-up modems to Ethernet networks.

Since MP4 players are not limited only to audio files but also play video and image files, they tend to be a bit bigger than MP3 players. This is due to the screen required for visualization. MP4 players are also equipped with greater hard drives because of the storage requirements for videos. The hard drive can also act as a removable hard drive for the computer, storing data.

Extension

MP4 files are distinguished by the file extension (usually .mp4). However, a number of other extensions can be used. For instance, video files are sometimes saved as .mp4v files. At its turn, audio files use an .mp4 or .m4a extension.

Final word

So, is MP4 to remove MP3 from the market? Well, when we talk about devices - YES, on the other hand when we talk about format -NO. This is because MP4 supports MP3.

It is already not enough to own just an MP3 player, no matter how advanced it is. The manufacturers are aware of the fact that the so called 'MP3 era' fades. So here is a need of new, up-to-date technologies that will replace the older ones.

The MP3 format was first introduced in 1993, being then one of the most compressed formats. It was a great solution for those who wanted to store a great amount of music and still have some free space on their hard drives. But in the long run MP3 proved to have several bugs. Among these it was the quality - an important issue for professionals.

It is not a secret that the MPEG-4 format came up to exclude the MP3 shortfalls, but we still have MP3 format wider spread than MP4, and no doubt that the future belongs to MP4 and to devices supporting it.