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Variable bitrate (VBR) is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate (CBR), VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment. VBR allows a higher bitrate (and therefore requires more storage space) to be allocated to the more complex segments of media files while less space is allocated to less complex segments. The average of these rates can be calculated to produce an average bitrate for the file. Opus, Vorbis, MP3, WMA and AAC audio files can optionally be encoded in VBR. Variable bit rate encoding is also commonly used on MPEG-2 video, MPEG-4 Part 2 video (Xvid, DivX, etc.), MPEG-4 Part 10/H.264 video, Theora, Dirac and other video compression formats. Additionally, variable rate encoding is inherent in lossless compression schemes such as FLAC and Apple Lossless. ==Advantages and disadvantages of VBR== The advantages of VBR are that it produces a better quality-to-space ratio compared to a CBR file of the same data. The bits available are used more flexibly to encode the sound or video data more accurately, with fewer bits used in less demanding passages and more bits used in difficult-to-encode passages.〔 The disadvantages are that it may take more time to encode, as the process is more complex, and that some hardware might not be compatible with VBR files.〔 VBR may also pose problems during streaming when the instantaneous bitrate exceeds the data rate of the communications path. These problems can be avoided by limiting the instantaneous bitrate during encoding or (at the cost of increased latency) by enlarging the playout buffer. Also, encryption of VBR-encoded speech (or other signals including video) gives only limited privacy, as the patterns of variation of the bit rate may reveal what language is being spoken.〔.〕 In the past, many hardware and software players could not decode variable bitrate files properly, partly because the various VBR encoders used were not well developed. This resulted in common use of CBR over VBR for the sake of compatibility. As of December 2006, devices that support only CBR encoded files are largely obsolete, as the vast majority of modern portable music devices and software support VBR encoded files. Support for VBR in AAC and MP3 files is found in most modern digital audio players, including those released by Apple, Microsoft, Creative Technology, and SanDisk. Early VBR algorithms occasionally introduced audible artifacts when encoding monotone or minimal tones (for example audiobooks and acoustic music). These artifacts often mimicked a "digital chirp" during the quiet portions of the song or when there was only speaking. As VBR encoding algorithms have improved, these problems have been resolved in subsequent generations of the VBR standard. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Variable bitrate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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