Lossless compression algorithms can only
exploit redundancies of the original
audio signal to reduce the
data rate, but not irrelevancies as identified by psycho-
acoustics. Lossless audio coding schemes apply a filter or transform for
decorrelation and then
encode the transformed
signal. The encoded bit
stream comprises the parameters of the transform or filter, and the lossless representation of the transformed
signal. However, in case of lossy based
lossless coding the additional amount of information exceeds the amount of data for the base layer by a multiple of the base layer data amount. Therefore the additional data cannot be packed completely into the base layer
data stream e.g. as
ancillary data. The at least two data streams resulting from the combination of
lossy coding format with a
lossless coding extension are the base layer containing the
lossy coding information and the enhancement
data stream for rebuilding the mathematically lossless original input
signal. Furthermore several intermediate quality
layers are possible. However, these data streams are not independent from each other. Every higher layer depends on the lower
layers and can only be reasonably decoded in combination with these lower
layers. According to the invention, a special combination of one-time header information with repeated header information in a
block structure is used, which kind of combination depends on the type of application. Assignment
information data identify the different parts or layers of the lossless format belonging to one input signal. Synchronisation data are used to combine the different data streams or parts or layers to a single lossless or intermediate output signal. These features are used in a
file format and in a streaming format.