[vorbis-dev] Codebook Questions

[Monty]

> 2.  What exactly is being quantized during "Vector quantization"?
> My understanding of this process is as follows: for each frame of 2n
> samples (per channel), MDCT yields n values.  The floor is calculated
> and subtracted for these N values leaving the residue "vector."  This
> vector is divided into chunks, and then each chunk is encoded/quantized
> using a particular codebook.  If we have c chunks, this yields N/c
> values per chunk.  Are these n scalars the "vectors" (1-dimensional)
> that are being quantized?

Your terminology is still a bit ambiguous, but yes; a vector is a
group of scalars.

> 3.  How is a particular codebook selected for each "chunk"? 

"Any way that makes sense".  

> I assume
> this selection is made to minimize error but is also contingent on a
> particular bitrate or quality setting.

All of the above.

>  Is there some sort of algorithm
> to determine which codebook to use

Yes; right now, codebooks are chosen by frequency, representation
range and base quality setting.

>, or does the encoder sample a set of
> codebooks and pick the best one?

No.  There's no trial-and-error process in encoding like there is in mp3.

> 4.  What are classification codewords, and why are they used?

These encode the meta-information of which codebooks were used to
encode any given chunk of data.

> 5.  I'm also confused about the following multiple-pass encoding of the
> residue vectors.  The excerpt from the documentation below states that
> there is a different codebook used in each pass, but the classification
> number is constant.  How does this work?  Isn't the classification
> number related to the codebook used?

Yes, but the classification selects a set of codebooks; each pass uses
one codebook in order from this set; the encoded value is pass 0 +
pass 1 + pass 2 + ... + pass N.

Different texts have different names for this; some call it
'joint-codebook' encoding, some call it 'cascaded encoding'.

Lastly, please start a new mail thread when beginning an unrelated
subject.  I almost missed your message entirely becaue it was a reply
to an unrelated subject I had marked for hiding.

Monty

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