Apple, Amazon, and Android products with xHE-AAC

Interrupted or buffering audio and video streams will soon be a thing of the past, with a rapidly growing number of platforms and playback devices now providing native support for an xHE-AAC decoder. We are working with large content and operating system providers to make xHE-AAC and MPEG-D DRC available to an even wider circle of users.

xHE-AAC was developed for adaptive streaming via DASH or HLS and delivers transparent audio quality in favorable network conditions. If necessary, the technology seamlessly switches over to data rates and quality levels that are appropriate for an overloaded network. MPEG-D DRC metadata are required as standard and ensure an optimum user experience in any listening environment: For example, the volume of hard-to-understand dialog can be dynamically boosted in loud environments without modifying the original audio content.

Native support for xHE-AAC and MPEG-D DRC is provided in Google’s Android 9 and 10 as well Android TV 9, in Amazon Fire OS 7 (based on Android 9 Pie), and in Apple’s iOS 13, macOS 10.15 Catalina, tvOS 13, iPadOS, and watchOS 6.

With xHE-AAC, users of products with these operating systems can enjoy uninterrupted streaming of all kinds of content – such as movies, music, audiobooks, or podcasts. xHE-AAC offers maximum coding efficiency at effective stereo data rates of 12 kbit/s to 500 kbit/s and higher. This efficiency is particularly important in developing countries where consu- mers are still reliant on 2G or 3G connections.