Is the original sound track always available in WMA format? I go and buy any music most of the time its mp3. Is there any other CD/DVD also existing in WMA format?
TaureanBull, let me clarify a few points for you.
A CD also called, Redbook CD, is the only digital format in which music is stored. A CD uses a format called CDA. This format can only be played from a CD player, and
cannot be copied or used as a computer file. A CDA files uses a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a sample rate of 2 bytes per sample. Thus it requires 44100*2 or 88200 bytes of storage for every second of a mono song. If you are using stereo it takes 176400 bytes per second. This works out roughly to about 10MB for every minute of song. Most songs that you hear are between 3 to 4 minutes. Thus most songs would occupy about 40MB of space.
WAV (short for Waveform Audio File Format) is a format introduced by Microsoft as a standard for Windows based systems. The format follows closely the standards set by Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) that was an attempt to make all computer files recognisable by all major operating systems such as MS Windows, Apple OS and Unix. Unfortunately Apple brought out its own AIFF and did not follow the RIFF standards, though there are applications that can recognise a WAV file in Apple OS.
A computer file has three distinct chunks - a header, data, and an index. Though WAV can store and play compressed data, MS wanted WAV to be used by professionals and used uncompressed methodology. Thus it uses the same 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 2 bytes sample per second. In other world, once converted from a CDA to a WAV, there is no difference between the two.
WMA or Windows Media Audi is a different baby altogether. This is actually an audio compression technology and forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA has four codecs - WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, and WMA Voice. WMA was introduced as a competition to MP3 and Real Audio. Other codecs were introduced later for different segments. WMA can be used to refer to an audio file format or to it's codec.
A CD can store any computer file as a data file. But, it will have limited use outside the computer and OS on which it was created. A WAV file, for example, cannot be played on most CD and DVD players, but can be played on any Windows OS machine. Most modern players can play MP3, though.
The use of computers as a source has not yet gained enough popularity for music to be recorded and sold in computer based formats. Thus you will continue to see the sale of original music only in Redbook CD formats.
Cheers
Appears like a de rigeur rite of passage during the pre-teen years, doesn't it?
.. search and you will find quite a few threads having this discuession....... check out this one...
