.WAV File Name Extension - WAV Files

This section describes what is .wav file name extension or WAV files.

.wav is the file name extension for audio files - music and songs in WAV (WaveForm) format, developed by Microsoft and IBM.

The original WAV file format contains uncompressed audio data using the same encoding method, PCM (Pulse-Code Modulation), as audio CD (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) discs. So uncompressed WAV file size matches audio track sizes on audio CDs.

Audio WAV files are usually generated by ripping off sound tracks from an audio CD with an audio CD ripping software.

WAV files may also be encoded with a variety of codecs (coder and decoder) to compress audio data. A WAV file encoded with the mp3 codec may reduce the audio data to the same level as a MP3 file.

Roughly, uncompressed WAV files takes about 10MB space per 1 minute of play time. Here is how to calculate space requirement based on PCM specifications:

16 bits per sample
44,100 samples per second
60 seconds per minute
2 channels for stereo sound
1 minute stereo sound requires:
2 * 60 * 44,100 * 16 bits
   = 2 * 60 * 44,100 * 2 bytes
   = 10,584,000 bytes = 10 MB

See other chapters for more information on .wav file name extension.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Audio CD (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) Format

 Audio CD (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) Players

 Audio CD (Compact Disc Digital Audio or CD-DA) Rip Music

 WAV Audio File Format

 MP3, MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, Encoding Format

 Burning MP3 Music to Audio CD

 Windows Sound Recorder

 ISO 9660 Standard for Data CD

 Recording Data on CD

 VCD (Video CD) Standard

 DVD (Digital Video Disc) Standard Format

 TOC (Table Of Contents) on CDs

 IsoBuster - A Nice CD GUI Tool

 MPlayer - The Movie Player

 vStrip - Rip and Manipulate DVD VOB Files

 mpgtx - Manipulating MPEG Files

CD/DVD - File Name Extension and Format Types

 .MP3 File Name Extension - MP3 Files

.WAV File Name Extension - WAV Files

 .WMA File Name Extension - Windows Media Audio Files

 .ISO File Name Extension - ISO Files

 .DAT File Name Extension - VCD Media Files

 .INF File Name Extension - AUTORUN.INF Files

 .IFO File Name Extension - DVD Information Files

 .VOB File Name Extension - DVD Video Object Files

 .AVI File Name Extension - Audio Video Interleave Files

 .MPG File Name Extension - MPEG Files

 References

 Full Version in PDF/ePUB