New Music Format Provides Better Audio Quality Than MP3s

A new audio format called QDX was introduced with exclusive easy to use features, great flexibility, and better-than MP3 quality sound. QDX was introduced by QDesign Corporation, a leading provider of advanced digital audio compression technologies. According to the company:

The QDX technology is based on two fundamental concepts, audio quality and size scalability. Fully optimized for Internet streaming, QDX provides the highest audio compression at the highest quality, delivering in one single file both CD-quality audio at 128kbits (12:1 compression) and full-bandwidth stereo at 24kbits (60:1 compression). QDX also supports inherent bitstream scalability that offers users the unique Fit-To-Media and Fit-To-Stream capabilities.

QDXs Fit-To-Media function allows consumers to simply click-and-drag personal playlists to portable players without ever needing to transcode or convert music files. Using QDX Fit-to-Media users can automatically store up to 2.5 hours of music on a 32MB portable digital music player, compared to the maximum of approximately 30 minutes of MP3 files. Encoding music to QDX simplifies the transfer process and users are freed from worry about available memory, transcoding, bit rates, sample rates, file sizes, or storing multiple versions of songs at various bit rates.

The Fit-To-Stream feature of QDX offers master once, deliver everywhere flexibility, meaning a single source file is all that is required to stream top-quality music over the widest array of modem speeds, bandwidths and connections. This on-the-fly scalability results in reduced asset management overhead for the music providers and consistent delivery of the best possible quality audio according to consumers. Optimization of subscriber access and convenience allows record companies and other music producers/distributors to capitalize on the Internets key asset; the ability to deliver personalized content on demand, anytime and anywhere.

In addition to compression quality and user convenience features, QDX offers copyright owners the benefit of an unpublished format with integrated encryption and watermarking which contribute to preventing access to content by unauthorized players. QDX is designed for SDMI compliance and is compatible with the InterTrusts MetaTrust Utility and other industry-approved digital rights management/copyright protection measures.

You can find more information about QDX at the QDesign web site.