MP3 vs. WAV's vs. WMA

[troysvihl]

Could someone run down the basics on these different file formats or give me a link to a sight that does?

I thought that WAV files were only used for games and other program that used sound effects, but I've been looking at getting an MP3 player and there are a few that support that file format. (I'm not sure why you would want to upload your game effects onto an MP3 Player, so I'm assuming I'm wrong on this) WMA, as far as I know, is a new format from MS that debutted with their WinME multimedia player. (Is this correct?)

Also, I have been slowly converting my huge CD collection to computer format so that I can easily transport my collection. So far I've just been using the WinME program that converts to WMA. (at least I think that is the correct accronym, perhaps I'm confusing it with another format) I've only saw one MP3 player that supported that format. Is there a real difference in quality between the three formats? Is there any real advantages/dissadvantages between them? Have I wasted my time in converting my music to MWA format when i should have just used MP3?

Oh, and what about the ATRAC3 format? Any other formats that I haven't stumbled across yet?

[Edited by troysvihl on 10-18-2000 at 02:24 PM]

[glc]

WAV has been around forever. Audio CD's are actually WAV format - if you just "rip" audio tracks off your CD's onto the hard drive with no conversion, you will have WAV files (BIG wav files - figure 8 megs a minute). MP3 was around before WMA. WMA is actually Microsoft's answer to Real Audio, and has been around for a while now.

You would be better off ripping your CD's and converting them to MP3 (1 meg a minute), as there are several players on the market that support it. There is a small loss in quality converting WAV to MP3 or any other compressed format.

[troysvihl]

thanks for the reply.

I was unaware that music CD's are in WAV format. Does that mean if I burn a CD with any WAV file, I could play it on any CD player?

[glc]

Yes. In Adaptec, all you have to do is open the audio CD layout editor and drag the WAV files into it, and you can burn your own audio CD playable on *most* CD players.

[Charliey]

Wav is basically a raw audio format,
mp3 is an older comression format.
WMA is as glc said is a microsoft format made to compete with real audio and mp3, its compression makes files a bit smaller.

other formats: VQF its a new format that offers smaller files then mp3, but it takes more cpu power to play the songs. more info: http://www.vqf.com