S3 heeft aangekondigd dat zijn in hun derde generatie Rio MP3 players ondersteuning zullen bieden voor Dolby Advanced Audio Coding. AAC werd ontwikkeld voor DVD en biedt een hogere geluidskwaliteit dan MP3, terwijl de filesize circa 30 procent kleiner is. AAC support zal voor het eerst verschijnen in de binnenkort te releasen Rio 600 player, meldt The Register:
AAC is to be wrapped into the MPEG digital media standard due to its superiority over MP3 - aka MPEG 1, Level 3. AAC provides up to 48 channels of audio, sample rates of up to 96kHz, and provides broadcast quality audio 320Kbps for a 5.1-channel audio.
S3 actually licensed AAC back in April, through its RioPort digital music portal division, which suggests the company's finally getting ready to ship the new Rios. In a statement, S3 said it would work with Dolby to optimise AAC for the Rio, something we would imagine has been going on since the April announcement.