MPEG Layer-3 Producer Series of Software Encoders
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(c) 1997 OPTICOM, Erlangen, Germany. All rights reserved.


This file contains the following information:
1. License Agreement
2. System requirements
3. How to install MPEG Layer-3 Producer
4. What is MPEG Layer-3 Audio?
5. Where to get support?
6. More MPEG Layer-3 Products?
7. Disclaimer


1.	License Agreement

USE OF THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO THE SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS SET FORTH
BELOW. USING THE SOFTWARE INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS. IF
YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS, YOU MUST RETURN OR DELETE THE SOFTWARE
IMMEDIATELY. "Use" means storing, loading, installing, executing or
displaying the software. You may not modify the software or disable any
licensing or control features of the software except as an intended part
of the softwares programming features.

This software is not shareware! If you want to use the full
functionality, you are required to buy your personal license of this
software. You may not copy or reproduce the software for any purpose
except to make one (1) archival copy of the software. You may not give
copies of this software to other people. You may not sell, rent or lease
the software to others. 

If you are a registered user, you are entitled to use this product for
your own use. You may not sell, rent or lease the software to others
without written permission of OPTICOM. You may use only one copy of the
software at one time. You may not use this software on a network or on
more than one computer at the same time without a licence for
"concurrent use". 

You must not give away your personal copy. Doing so will result in an 
infringement of copyright. Fraunhofer and/or OPTICOM retain the right of
claims for compensation in respect of damage which occured by your
giving away of the software copy. This claim shall also extent to all
costs which Fraunhofer and/or OPTICOM incur in defending itself. 

The license and right for the use of this Software does not include the right
to create, generate, encode or otherwise modify data or bit streams:
o to be used, sold, published, distributed, disposed of or otherwise marketed
  via pre-recorded media, such as but not limited to CD-ROM, magnetic tapes,
  memory cards and the like;
o to be used, sold, reproduced, published, distributed, disposed of or
  otherwise marketed via any kind of network, if a user will have to pay
  a monetary or equivalent compensation for the access, copying etc. of
  such data or bit stream;
o for the purpose of broadcast and/or radio and/or multicast service 
  transmission such as but not limited to "Internet Radio" and the like.

THE SOFTWARE IS WARRANTED IF AT ALL, ONLY ACCORDING TO THE TERMS OF THIS
LICENSING AGREEMENT. EXCEPT AS WARRANTED HEREIN, FRAUNHOFER AND OPTICOM
HEREBY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS WITH REGARD TO THE
SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE AND
NON-INFRINGEMENT.


2.	System requirements

To run MPEG Layer-3 Producer on your computer you will need a 
Pentium PC with 16-bit sound I/O running MS Windows 95 or Windows NT. 
Please note that 16-bit operating systems (MS Win3.x) are not supported. 


3.	How to install MPEG Layer-3 Producer

To start the installation process simply double click on the icon of the
file 
	PRODUCER.EXE

The file will be self-extracting and you will be guided through the
installation process.


4.	What is MPEG Layer-3 Audio?

Efficient coding techniques are today a must for the processing of audio
and video data with computers. A lot of progress has been achieved in
the recent years in this field. While there are several proprietary
formats for audio coding the ISO/IEC standardization body has released
an international standard recommended by the MPEG group (Moving Pictures
Experts Group, ISO/IEC IS11172-3 and IS 13818-3). 

Non-coded audio means data processed with 8 or 16 bit linear data words
sampled with the sampling frequency (e.g. 44.1kHz for CDs). This means
that you end up with 1.4Mbit for one second of music in CD quality. By
using MPEG compression you can shrink down that data by a factor of 12
and still gain CD-like quality. Factors of up to 24 and more still allow 
for a quality significantly better than just reducing linearily the
sampling frequency and the number of bits. This is realized by
"perceptual coding" techniques taking into account the limited
resolution of the human ear.

Until recently because of the workload of these algorithms add-on
DSP-hardware was necessary to perform the coding/decoding in realtime.
Now, with MPEG Layer-3 Producer, software encoders have been launched
that handle fast encoding on a standard CPU just by software! 

You will be able to achieve compression rates of
 
1:4         by Layer 1 (corresponds to 384kbit/s for a stereo signal)
1:6...1:8   by Layer 2 (corresponds to 256...192kbit/s for a stereo signal)
1:10...1:12 by Layer 3 (corresponds to 128...112kbit/s for a stereo signal)

...and the sound quality will still be comparable to CD.

An acceptable sound quality at even lower bitrates can be achieved by
exploitation of stereo effects ("joint-stereo mode") and by limiting the
audio bandwidth in combination with lower sampling rates.

Layer-3 is the most powerful audio coding scheme in the MPEG family. For
a given sound quality level, it requires the lowest bitrate - or for a
given bitrate, it achieves the highest sound quality. 

Some typical performance data of MPEG-1 Layer-3 (for 96 kbps total
bitrate and more) and MPEG-2 Layer-3 (for 64 kbps total bitrate and
below) are:

sound quality -------- 	bandwidth - mode ------ bitrate -- reduction ratio

"telephone sound"       2.5 kHz     mono           8 kbps*       96:1
"better than shortwave" 4.5 kHz     mono          16 kbps        48:1
"better than AM radio"  7.5 kHz     mono          32 kbps        24:1
"FM radio"               11 kHz    stereo     56..64 kbps    26..24:1
"near-CD"                15 kHz    stereo         96 kbps        16:1
"CD"                   > 15 kHz    stereo   112..128 kbps    14..12:1	

*8 kbps: Fraunhofer is using a non-ISO extension of Layer-3 for enhanced
performance

Keeping in mind maximum data rates of 2 x 64kbit/s using ISDN and
14.4kbit/s or 28.8kbit/s with modems, MPEG Layer 3 is the clear choice
for network applications. 


5.	Where to get support?

IMPORTANT: If you should encounter a problem, please first check our
online-support for known bugs or problems at
    
      http://www.opticom.de (Select "Support" from the frames menu).

In case you do not find helpful information, registered users may get
support by sending email to:
	
	support@opticom.de

Please always report YOUR PERSONAL REGISTRATION CODE together with your
full name or we will not be able to process your questions. Also, please
report precisely the type of your hardware together with the encountered
bug or problem.


6.	More MPEG Layer-3 Products?

For the availability of other MPEG Layer-3 developments and products, like
our DOS Shareware, players for Windows and other platforms, please check
the latest update of our websites:

	http://www.iis.fhg.de/audio/
	http://www.opticom.de


7.	Disclaimer

Don't forget that there are no warranties associated with this software.
While we believe that our software is reasonably bug free and well
behaved, we are in no way responsible if our software does not work the
way you would expect it to work. No matter if it locks up your computer,
garbles your floppy disks or does any other harmful things to your
computer - it is entirely your problem. Fraunhofer - IIS / OPTICOM are
not liable for any infringments or damages of third parties' rights in
consequencs of your use of this product.
Fraunhofer - IIS / OPTICOM are in no event liable for, respectively do
not warrant the trustworthiness, quality, industrial exploitability,
serviceability of this product for the supposed purpose or 
any other purposes. All orders are subject to the general terms and
conditions of OPTICOM ("Allgemeine Verkaufs- und Lieferbedingungen").

This information may be subject to change. All brand and product names
are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
All rights reserved. 
 1997 OPTICOM, Erlangen
