Lossless Predictive Audio Compression
Lossless Predictive Audio Compression (LPAC) is a legacy lossless audio format.
Created by Tilman Liebchen at the Technische Universität Berlin, it was maintained until 2003 when it was selected as basis for the development of MPEG-4 ALS Audio Lossless coding (released in 2006).
LPAC was at one point relatively popular among lossless formats, as an encoder/decoder was available free of charge (for noncommercial purposes, and closed-source) for Windows, Linux and Solaris, along with a library that made integration of LPAC encoding and decoding into other applications relatively easy. The website offered instructions for Exact Audio Copy integration. LPAC was also much more efficient and featureful than the major lossless audio format of the 1990s, Shorten.
Addtional Reading
- LPAC website
- Further description of the algorithm
- Lossless Codec Comparison originally by Rjamorim
| Audio codecs: type/usage | for end-users to encode | on physical media etc. | legacy formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lossless | (Uncompr. LPCM) • ALAC • FLAC • Monkey's Audio • MPEG-4 ALS • OptimFROG • TAK • TTA • WavPack | MLP/Dolby TrueHD | La • LPAC/LTAC • RealAudio Lossless • RK Audio • Shorten • WMA Lossless • (others) |
| Lossy | (ADPCM formats) • AAC • AC-3 • MP2 • MP3 • Musepack • Opus • Vorbis | AC-3 • DTS • (Bluetooth codecs) | ATRAC • QDesign • Real Audio • RK Audio (lossy modes) • Speex • VQF • WMA |
| Hybrid lossless&lossy | OptimFROG DualStream • WavPack | DTS-HD MA • MPEG-4 SLS | ATRAC Advanced Lossless • mp3HD |