Audio / Video files

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This section is dedicated to the discussion of audio or video files.

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Q: I want to play a certain AVI file, but my player claims that I need a certain codec. How can I find out what I need?

A: From Vorn:

Get this file, and it will tell you what you need.

http://www.headbands.com/gspot/gspot221.exe

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Q: I have MP3 files that I want to convert to WAV files. I don't want to buy any software to do this, and was looking for a free way to convert these MP3 files to WAV's. What can I use?

A: Surprisingly, ordinary Winamp will do the job. Set the output preferences to be a file on your hard disk at the directory of your choice. Then, just play the MP3 file as you would normally. You won't hear any sound, of course, but your computer will be writing a WAV file version of that MP3 onto your hard drive.

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Q: What are WMA files? Are they as good as MP3 files? These files seem a lot smaller...

A: WMA files are Microsoft's own version of audio files. Allegedly, they can hold the same audio data that MP3 files can, using half of the storage space. Supposedly (if you believe Micro$oft), a 64 kbps WMA file is equivalent to a 128 kbps MP3 file, but after listening to Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" recorded in both formats from the same audio source, I strongly disagree. A 96 kbps WMA file, though, is nearly indistinguishable to most people, when compared to a 128 kbps MP3 file.

As to whether you want to keep one format or the other, it all depends on whether you are willing to take the penalty of reduced compatibility of a WMA file over an MP3 file, just to save a few megabytes (or in SOME of you folks, gigabytes) of space on your hard drive. Some of you are too cheap to spend 85 dollars to get a new 80 GB hard drive...

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Q: I was given some audio (or video) files that were in .ra or .ram format. Windows Media Player won't play these, and I know these files are good, since I saw them playing on a friend's PC. What do I need to play these files?

A: The .ra (or .ram) format is a proprietary format used by Real Networks products. I do not recommend installing Real Player on your system, since it's about as invasive as Gator.exe, and attempts to hijack your system.

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Q: Why won't my MP3 files compress any? I wanted to use Winzip to compress them, but am not seeing much effect.

A: There are a few tricks you can try to employ. You can use Winzip's option for maximum compression, or try other programs, such as ARJ, JAR, RAR, etc. Using the old UNIX gzip may be better than anything.

The fact remains, however, that a MP3 file is already compressed, and you aren't going to be able to get much more compression, even with the best of programs.

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Q: I have some MIDI files, and wanted to burn them to a CD. Is there any way to do this? Also, is there any way I can take an audio file, and convert it to MID format?

A: To the first part of your question, yes. You can use WINAMP and set the output to be a file on your hard drive. This will record the MIDI file as analog audio.

Be warned, though, that you will see a exponential increase in the size of your file. Remember, a MIDI file is nothing but pure numbers that are fed into a MIDI synthesizer chip on your sound card (or possibly emulated in software mode). No actual audio is contained within the MIDI file itself. These numbers are translated by the synthesizer, which then assigns a pitch, sound bank, loudness, etc., that is then used to play a pre-recorded sample (either in software mode, or hard-coded onto the ROM of the sound card).

If you output this to a file using WINAMP, it will record the audio in analog format, and all digital assignments will be lost. This WAV file created, though, will be a pretty good copy of what the MIDI file played, although you now cannot fine-tune each instrument's playing.

As for taking analog audio, and converting it to MIDI format, this is extremely difficult, and in many cases, all but impossible, unless you took the time to record custom samples, and store them in the MIDI synth's memory. In addition to this, you would have to manually sequence each track for each instrument, and for vocals, this would simply be a truly impractical task (also close to improbable).

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Q: Well, I went ahead and installed Real Player against your recommendation. Is there any way to convert RAM / RM files to something else that I can burn to a CD?

A: You can take a cable with a 1/8" stereo plug on each end, plug one end into the Audio Out / Line Out port of your sound card, and the other end into the Line In port, and then manually record the playback as analog audio. I do not recommend this, though...

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Q: I installed RealPlayer8 Basic on my system, and still can't play various RAM or RM files. I thought you said that RealPlayer handles these files?

A: Real constantly updates their software, and you would have to go with their latest version, laden with scumware. The free version of RealOne should be able to handle any recent .RM or .RAM file, but be warned, that you'll be infesting your system.