MP3pro was a nice new addition to the MP3 format. It allows 64kbps files to have similar quality to files in the 96kbps-128kbps range.

What enabled this small miracle is a technology called SBR (Spectral Band Replication) developed by Coding Technologies. It saves with the MP3 stream a few bits of extra data that allows a compatible decoder to regenerate the high frequency components normally lost when compressing music to such low bitrates.

Unfortunately the addition of SBR to MP3 was never standardized. For this reason, there are few players supporting it and fewer encoders - basically, only players and encoders based on official libraries from Fraunhofer / Thomson / Coding Technologies. Particularly, no open source implementations of encoders or decoders exist, hampering adoption of MP3pro in any operating system other than Windows (the MP3pro files are compatible with all compliant MP3 decoders, but without the SBR part, greatly decreasing sound quality).

SBR was later added to the AAC standard with the HE-AAC name.

A mirror of the official MP3pro page can be visited at the Internet Archive. Coding Technologies was bought by Dolby in 2007, and you can still see a mirror of their web page (post-aquisition) at the same place.

The application available here for download - besides the XMMS playback plugin - is the Coding Technologies MP3pro demo. It can play MP3pro in all available bitrates, but encodes only to 64kbps. You can experience the full range of MP3pro bitrates (from 32 to 96kbps) using, E.G, iMPload.


Date: 2002-08-08
Version: 1.1.0
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Win32
Download: mp3ProAudioPlayer11.exe - 1.127kB

Date: 2001-06-20
Version: 1.0.0
Interface: Graphical
Platform: Win32
Download: mp3ProAudioPlayer.exe - 1.111kB

Date: 2005-09-14
Version: 1.0.1
Interface: XMMS plugin
Platform: Linux
Download: libmp3PRO-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm - 159kB