Audio formats

In order for digitized audio to be stored, transmitted and transformed, certain digital audio standards must exist - audio formats... There are many such formats, each of which uses a different audio processing algorithm.

Sound recording in "digital"

By its nature, sound is the oscillatory motion of particles of an elastic medium, propagating in the form of waves - the motion is continuous and has an analogous nature. In order for digital technology to store, process and reproduce sound, it is converted to digital form using an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), which converts an analog signal into a sequence of numbers. This is called pulse code modulation. It happens like this: the ADC measures the amplitude of the analog signal many times per second and outputs the results in the form of numbers. However, the measurement result is not an exact match of a continuous electrical signal: it depends on the number of measurements and their accuracy. The frequency with which measurements are made is called sampling rate, and is one of the main characteristics of digital audio. For example, if the sampling rate is 44.1 kHz, this means that the signal is measured 44 100 times within a second. In order for the analog signal to be accurately reconstructed from its samples, the sampling frequency must be twice the maximum audio frequency. That is, if the analog signal contains frequency components from 0 Hz to 20 Hz, then its sampling frequency must be at least 40 kHz.

Sampling frequency responsible for representing the signal spectrum:

• 8,000 Hz - phone, enough for speech, Nellymoser codec;
• 22,050 Hz - radio;
• 44 100 Hz - used in Audio CD;
• 48,000 Hz - DVD, DAT.
• 96,000 Hz - DVD-Audio (MLP 5.1)
• 192,000 Hz - DVD-Audio (MLP 2.0)
• 2 822 400 Hz - SACD Super audio CD 5.1

Amplitude measurement accuracy indicates the number of bits used to indicate the measurement result. This parameter is called bitness.

Lossless formats

LOSSLESS, lossless (literally translated “lossless”) is a method of compressing audio information (archiving) without loss of sound quality. Files of this format often have the extension FLAC, APE, etc.

Quite popular and widespread today in the field of home use are ordinary music CDs - CDs. CD format was established in 1979 by Philips and Bayer. The disk storage format known as the "Red Book" allows you to record two-channel audio with 16-bit pulse code modulation (PCM) and a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz. Mass production of CDs began in 1982 in Germany. The first CDs contained up to 650 megabytes of information, which is equivalent to 74 minutes of audio. There is an assumption that the developers calculated such a volume in order to fit Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the most popular piece of music in Japan in 1979, on a compact. Since about 2000, discs with a volume of 700 megabytes, which allow you to record 80 minutes of audio, and 800 megabytes - 90 minutes, have become more widespread. Having reached the top of its development, the format gradually begins to be replaced by new ones - Super Audio Compact Disk (SACD) and DVD-Audio (or just DVD-A)... These formats use sound processing algorithms without quality loss.

There are audio storage formats (for example Wav), in which audio information is not compressed.

What is bitrate?

The signal coding technology has a mechanism for ignoring audio frequencies that are not distinguishable by human hearing. And the distinguishable ones, that is, the remaining ones, shrink. Sound compression algorithms are different, while the compression ratio itself is expressed by such a concept as bitrate(English bit rate, literally, the bit rate of information) - the amount of information in a unit of time; the lower the bitrate, the less information is contained in the file, respectively, the worse the sound quality of the compressed, recoded file. The audio bitrate is measured in bits per second (bit / s, bps). Derivative quantities are also used with the prefixes kilo (kbit / s, kbit / s, kbps), mega (Mbps, Mbit / s, Mbps), etc.

In a huge number of formats used for storing digitized video and audio (MPG, OGG, FLAC, MP3, etc.), the "bitrate" parameter is the main quality parameter, expressing the degree of compression of the data stream, thus, it sets the size of the channel for which this stream is compressed. By analogy, you can give such an example as recording on a magnetic tape at a given speed of rotation. The higher the speed, the more information is placed on a certain segment of the film, the better the sound or image will be.

We interpret what the sound is, depending on its bitrate:

• 800 bps - 800 bps is the minimum quality to make the voice recognizable.
• 8 kbps - 8 kbps - the quality of voice transmission over the phone.
• 32 kbps - 32 kbps - AM quality.
• 96 kbps - 96 kbps - FM quality.
• 128-160 kbps - 128-160 kbps - quality standard.
• 192 kbps - 192 kbps - quality DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting) digital broadcasting. Becoming the new standard for MP3 music. At the same time, bitrate, only professionals can notice the difference in sound.
• 224-320 kbps - 224-320 kbps - the quality is close to the quality of CD - uncompressed audio.
• 1411 kbps - 1411 kbps - PCM audio format, similar to CD “Compact Disc Digital Audio”.

The bit rate can be varied from 8 to 320 kbps (the data stream from a regular CD is 1411.2 kbps at a sampling rate of 44100 Hz).

Lossy compression formats

Widespread lossy digital compression formats... Lossy compression means the impossibility of recovering the original data from the resulting file, such compression is always the loss of some of the shades of the sound. It should be noted that it will be quite difficult for an inexperienced listener to hear these losses, especially if the encoding is done at a high bit rate.

The most popular among these formats is MP3 (MP EG-1/2 / 2.5 Layer 3 ). Microsoft also did not stay away from the sound industry, having developed its own compression algorithm - WMA, which is also actively promoted on the market.

A music composition in MP3 format, recorded with quite acceptable quality, "weighs" about 10 times less than uncompressed. This determined the popularity of the format, especially on the Internet, where MP3 is the most widespread format. In it, the loss of sound quality is minimal. The file size depends on the compression ratio, so when you create an MP3 at an average bit rate of 128 kbps, the result is a file that is approximately 1/10 the size of the original CD-Audio file.

Format information can be used for comparison Wav which supports high quality sound. With a sampling rate of 44100 Hz, its bitrate is 1411 kb / s and 1 minute of a recorded file in this format takes up approximately 10 MB of hard disk space.

Bitrates and compression modes

The MP3 standard regulates streams from 8kbit / s to 320kbit / s. The most typical bitrate is 128kbit / s. The quality level at a bitrate of 128kbit / s is approximately the sound level of an average tape recorder on not the freshest tape, maybe a little better. You can also add that it is this bit rate that is widespread in recordings available on the Internet.

Based on the stream, it is easy to calculate how much one minute of music will take - divide the bitrate by 8 (the number of bits per byte) and multiply by 60 (seconds per minute) - we get the number of kilobytes. For a 128kbit / s stream, this will be 128/8 * 60 = 960 kilobytes or about a megabyte per minute of recording.

It is quite natural that the higher the bit rate, the more details of the sound can be preserved, the more realistic it sounds. In the choice of the bitrate when encoding, you have to sacrifice something - either quality in favor of small size, or size in favor of quality.

There are three compression modes for streaming data:

• with constant bitrate (English Constant bitrate, CBR)
• with variable bitrate (English variable bitrate, VBR)
• with an average bitrate (English Average bitrate, ABR)

The simplest MP3 compression mode is constant bit rate mode (CBR, Constant BitRate). At a bitrate of 128kbit / s, it is impossible to distinguish the sound of such an MP3 from the sound of an audio CD, except on the cheapest acoustics. Bitrates of 160 and 192kbit / s are already noticeably better in quality than 128kbit / s, but the resulting files are still not so large. "Artifacts" (flaws) of the codec are almost invisible. Bitrate 256kbit / s is recognized for audio fidelity, almost complete absence of distortion. In the instructions for the Lame codec, this bitrate is even named as Studio Quality. And the ceiling itself - 320kbit / s - is intended for those who value quality the most, or for owners of very high-quality Hi-Fi or even Hi-End equipment.

V variable bit rate mode(VBR, Variable BitRate) the concept of bit rate is very vague, codecs "for the user" generally use only quality control (like in Xing Audio Catalyst). Others (Lame) allow you to set additional parameters - minimum and maximum bitrates, again quality. When encoding VBR, the codec itself chooses the desired bitrate, based on the parameters specified for it, and during the encoded fragment, the bitrate can change. The Lame codec developers advise in this case to set the minimum bitrate threshold in order to avoid bad results.

VBR varieties include coding ABR (Average BitRate), average bitrate... In the reviews, we can hear mostly positive responses about this mode, especially ABR at 256kbit / s. This mode works in much the same way as VBR, with the exception that the codec adheres to the average setpoint. Currently, the codec having ABR mode is Lame.

Most common audio formats

• AAC(Advanced Audio Coding) - other names are MPEG-2 AAC and MPEG-2 NBC. Evolution of MP3 files. With a lower bitrate, they are not inferior to MP3 quality.
• AIFF is a file format for Mac OS, uncompressed data. High sound quality.
• ASF (Advanced Streaming Format) is the standard format for the OC Mac. Large file size with high sound quality comparable to AudioCD.
• AudioCD(CDA) - High quality analog audio.
• FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) is a free audio codec that compresses audio up to 50 percent without losing sound quality.
• Liquid Audio (LQT, LA1) is a secure pay-to-download format for music over the network.
• MP2 (MPEG-1, Layer2) is an obsolete audio format, predecessor to MP3.
• MP3(MPEG-1, Layer3) is an audio format that provides acceptable sound quality with a high compression ratio. One of the most popular formats in the world.
• VQF is an audio format, an outdated analogue of MP3.
• Wav- standard Windows file, high quality sound is supported. Takes up a lot of disk space.
• WMA(Windows Media Audio) is an up-and-coming format from Microsoft. With smaller file sizes and lower bitrate, it is not inferior to MP3 quality.

Digital video

Recently, it has become possible to create digital video films quite easily, it is convenient to store video archives in digital form. Digitized records do not deteriorate over time, do not lose quality when copied, and can be easily edited. Video compression technologies, which continue to improve even now, play an important role in their distribution.

For additional reading:

Video formats, video codecs, video containers

Standard is a specification (description) of a data encoding (compression) algorithm.

Popular standards:

• Standards MPEG(Moving Picture Exper Group) - are distinguished by high speed of compression / decompression of video and audio and high compression ratio without noticeable loss of image quality. The MPEG-1 standard provides a "picture" similar to VHS video. MPEG-2 (DVD-Video) is comparable in quality to TV images. MPEG-3 was developed for high definition television (HDTV) systems and is now part of the MPEG-2 standard. MPEG-4 is used in the development of interactive multimedia, graphics applications, and digital television.
• H.264 (also known as MPEG-4 AVC(Advanced Video Coding) - adopted as a standard for compressing high-definition video (HD, HDTV), distributed on the next generation optical media: Blu-ray and HD DVD. H.264 compression provides excellent image quality and small file size, but places higher demands on the hardware for encoding and playing video files.
• WMV(Windows Media Video) - Microsoft's video compression format; for recording, usually a Windows Media container (* .wmv) is used.
• Real Media- the format allows you to change the quality of the video stream depending on the quality of the communication channel; it is used for live television broadcasting on the Internet.
• Dv- the recording format used in digital video cameras.

Other formats: Apple Quicktime, VCD (Video CD), Super Video CD, ASF (Active Streaming Format).

Codec- software implementation of the coding algorithm.

Popular codecs:

• DivX- the most widespread proprietary codec of the MPEG-4 standard;
• Xvid- open codec based on one of the versions of the DivX codec;
• x264- codec for compression in the H.264 standard.
• TrueMotion VP6- a direct competitor to MPEG4-ASP codecs (such as DivX and Xvid), at low bit rates it gives a noticeably better picture than all ASP family codecs, is used as one of the main encoding options in the Flash Video format.

Strictly speaking, a decoder is responsible for decoding (for example, ffDShow), although a codec is often understood as both an encoder and a decoder. One of the most popular decoder packages is K-Lite Codec Pack... If the required decoder is not installed in the system, the video will not be played back. To determine which particular decoder is missing, you can either use the player, or using a special program, for example, AVIcodec or GSpot.

Container- the file format in which the video sequence, audio track / tracks, subtitles and service information are saved.

Popular containers:

• Audio and Video Interleaved ( AVI) - standard media container for Microsoft Windows; allows the use of various codecs, usually DivX and XviD.
• MPEG-4 Part 14 ( MP4) - a media container that supports audio and video from the MPEG-4 group; the official container standard for H.264 video; can only contain audio in AAC format.
• Matroska (MKV) - open and flexible container format; file extensions: * .mkv - for video with subtitles and sound, * .mka - for audio files, * .mks - for subtitles.
• Flash Video ( FLV) - a media container for transmitting video over the Internet; is used by popular video hosting services YouTube, Google Video, RuTube and others.
• Ogg is a media container for the Vorbis audio codec and Theora video codec.
• Windows Media- video container format developed by Microsoft; extensions: * .asf, * .wmv, * .wm.

Other types of containers: Ogg Media (* .ogm), RealMedia (* .rm, * .rv, * .ram), QuickTime (* .mov, * .qt), Video Object (* .vob), DivX Media (* .divx), MPEG-2 program stream (MPG), 3GP.

Bitrate- an indicator that characterizes the amount of information per unit of time, usually in each second of recording. The lower the bit rate, the “lighter” the file, and the poorer the picture and sound quality.

Video file extensions

• AVI(Audio-Video Interleaved) - an extension of a huge number of video files, a container developed by Microsoft that can store 4 types of streams - video, audio, text and midi. This container can contain video of any format from mpeg1 to mpeg-4, sounds of different formats, any combination of codecs is possible.
• WMV(Windows Media Video) is a format from Microsoft, it is in this format that you will receive a video made with Movie Maker.
• MOV - Apple Macintosh QuickTime format, can contain, in addition to video, graphics, animation, 3D. Most often, you need a QuickTime Player to play this format.
• MKV - (Matryoshka or Matroska) - a container that can contain video, audio, subtitles, menus, etc. Has open source code, is not yet very common, but very promising.
• 3gp - video for third generation mobile phones, small size and low quality.
• FLV(Flash Video) is a video format for posting and transmitting on the Internet, used by such platforms for posting video clips as YouTube, RuTube, Tube.BY, Google Video, Movie and many others.
• SWF (Shockwave Flash) is an extension of animation created in Adobe Flash, as well as video in flash format, played by browsers using Flash Player. Flash movies are also widespread on the Internet.
• RM, RA, RAM - extensions to the RealVideo format from RealNetworks, which is used for television broadcasting on the Internet. It has a small file size and low quality, but allows you to watch, for example, a TV news release on the website of a certain TV company.
• VOB(Versioned Object Base) is a container extension that can contain multiple video (MPEG-2) and audio streams, as well as movie menus and subtitles. These are the main files on the movie DVD.
• IFO - files on a DVD disc that contain information about the movie, menu, order of launching VOB-files, necessary, for example, a DVD-player, i.e. service files. Created during conversion or authoring, i.e. DVD burner.

Techniques for converting media files

Any modern computer or laptop, with good codecs installed, can play almost all multimedia formats. But besides video playback, there is a need for its simplest processing: cut out a fragment, change its audio track, rearrange the movie, prepare it for viewing on mobile phones or PDAs. Many video processing programs, especially free ones, only work with a small, fixed set of video formats. For different purposes, it becomes necessary to convert the video format. That is why video converters were created.

Online converters

Zamzar interface

It is possible to solve the problem of transcoding a file from one format to another without installing any additional software, which is sometimes very important. Here are some examples of online converters.

Zamzar

YouconvertIt

YouconvertIt interface

Video converting software

There are a lot of programs for converting media files. Solid lists of such programs, both paid and free, are presented on network resources

There are several classifications of converter programs, among which one can distinguish between highly specialized and universal, paid and free. Here I would like to present several universal free solutions.

SUPER

aTube Catcher

Free Studio

Another serious media combine is Free Studio - a free set of programs for editing and converting media files, copying and burning multimedia discs ...

With this free software, you can convert video and audio files to various formats for iPod, PSP, iPhone, BlackBerry and other mobile devices; burn and copy DVD and CD discs; upload and download videos and music to your computer, iPod, PSP, iPhone and BlackBerry; edit audio and video files, as well as record video from the screen and take screenshots.

Free Studio consists of the following sections:

• programs for converting video and audio (8),
• programs for photos and pictures (4),
• programs for editing video and audio (4),
• programs for recording and converting discs (5),
• programs for YouTube and the Internet (8),
• programs for mobile devices (16),
• DVDVideoSoft Toolbar 2.7.

It offers both one installation for all programs (55.87 Mb), and the ability to install any program (or a combination of programs) from the package. A description and operating instructions are provided for each program.

This is probably the most convenient free software for our purposes, its only problem is its amazing fundamentality. But we suggest you familiarize yourself with it and try to use it. You should like it. Besides - one of the few - Free Studio has a Russian-language interface.

Modifying and fragmenting a media file

Video sequence

To work with the video sequence of your video, we offer you two very interesting and practical free packages - VirtualDub and video software from Free Studio.

Working with VirtualDub

Retrieving fragments of a video file

Suppose you captured some film from the air, and while this film was running, you inserted various advertisements ten times, now you need to cut out this advertisement. This is done very simply.

• Open the file in VirtualDub. You can simply drag the file into the open program window.
• We find frames with advertising. The fastest and most convenient way to search for ads is by dragging the slider with the mouse cursor.
• An advertisement (large fragment) has been detected, now it is necessary to stop at the frame (precise positioning) from which it starts. To do this, it is convenient to use the arrow keys on the keyboard [<] и [>] - jump to the previous and next frame. You can also navigate using the arrow keys on the keyboard in combination with the keys or. You can do the same by pressing buttons on the screen.
• Now, the frame from which the advertisement starts has been found, we press the button on the keyboard, thus we marked the beginning of the fragment to be deleted. In the same way, we look for the end of the advertisement, find the last frame of the advertisement - click.
• The fragment is selected, to delete it, click.

That's it, the fragment has been deleted!

The same can be done by pressing buttons on the screen.

For the changes to take effect, you must save the AVI file.

Attention!!! Depending on the method of saving the file, the precision of cutting out fragments is different !!!

In the case of live-stream copying, the video clip is cut by keyframes!

Merging fragments into one video file

Very important!!! All video files must have the same streaming data !!!

What does it mean? This means that all parts of the file being collected into one file must be compatible with each other in several ways.

• VIDEO - bitrate (Kbps), sampling rate (fps), picture size (resolution), resolution (16: 9; 4: 3, etc.), codec (not always)
• AUDIO - bitrate (Kbps), frequency (Hz), number of channels (mono \ stereo), codec (MP3 \ PCM \ OGG \ etc.), Variable (CBR \ VBR \ ABR) and number of channels (2; 5; 7) and streams (one or more).

Open the first file to be merged in VirtualDub. Then, from the File menu, select Add AVI Segment ...

Select the next fragment in the order you need. Many stream-compatible files can be added at this stage, which can be preselected.)

ATTENTION!

• in the Append AVI segment ... window there is a checkbox for automatic segment detection,
• files are located in the same folder and have almost the same names, for example video 001.avi, video 002.avi, video 003.avi, etc.

THEN when you add a segment for the FIRST time (in this case video 002.avi), the next ones will be added automatically !!!

Further, before saving the glued clip, you should set for both video and audio data streaming copying, in the Video - Frame rate ... section - Adjust the input frequency, put a dot next to the option Change audio and video to match n (25.000fps)

Setting up compression in VirtualDub

Compression in VirtualDub

In the drop-down menu "Video" there is an item "Compression ...". This is the menu for selecting the codec with which the video will be compressed.

Which codec to choose is up to the user. There are codecs that are widely used and have become practically de facto (DivX). There are other codecs that do not provide the worst quality, but are not widely used. Actually, each codec will be good for some of its tasks.

When you click on the "Change" button, the codec settings window appears. For each codec, it is purely individual. Some codecs require external bitrate control and keyframe placement.

You can read more about compression in VirtualDub.

VirtualDub options

A few words about an important branch of the development of "oak" -. It is a standalone program based on the VirtualDub source code and many useful add-ons. It makes sense to place it in the same directory as VirtualDub itself in order to use a common set of plugins.

VirtualDubMod is a very powerful utility for working with video, with which you can glue, cut, rearrange video fragments. There is also the ability to convert video files using various video codecs and filters, a program based on VirtualDub source codes and many useful additions. VirtualDubMod's interface is similar to VirtualDub. VirtualDubMod has a significant difference - the Audio menu has been replaced by Streams, which reflects the focus on working with multiple audio streams and subtitle channels. VirtualDubMod fully supports MKV and OGM containers.

The capabilities of this program are that it allows you to work with more video files and sound than VirtualDub

Working with Free Studio

Working with Free Video Dub

Free Video Flip and Rotate

There are situations when you got a video shot by someone (or you yourself shot it) on a mobile phone or digital camera with a video function, which was rotated relative to the correct orientation during shooting. The resulting video is also scanned, and it is not very convenient to watch it, rather, it is not convenient at all. In this case, the Free Video Flip and Rotate program comes in handy.

Rotate and rotate videos with one click. Fast and easy. The program has 7 profiles:

• rotate the video 90 ° clockwise;
• rotate the video 180 °;
• rotate 90 ° counterclockwise;
• flip the video horizontally;
• flip video vertically;
• flip the video vertically and rotate it 90 ° clockwise;
• flip the video vertically and rotate it 90 ° counterclockwise.

Audio track

Recording an audio track from a microphone

Using a standard Windows tool — sound recording software — you can record sound as a digital file to your computer from a number of devices, such as a microphone connected to your computer's sound card. The types of audio sources you can record from depend on the available audio devices and input sources on the sound card installed on your computer.

What is the procedure for recording an audio track from a microphone using the built-in Windows tools?

1. Make sure you have a sound input device, such as a microphone, connected to your computer.
2. Click Start - All Programs - Accessories - Sound Recorder.
3. Click Start recording.
4. To stop recording audio, click Stop recording.
   Additionally... Press to continue recording audio. Cancellation... In the dialog box Save as click Continue recording, record sound, and then press Stop recording.
5. Select a field File name, enter a filename for the recorded sound, and then press Save to save the recorded audio to an audio file.

Notes:

• Working with the recording software requires a sound card and speakers connected to the computer. A microphone is also required to record sound.
• By default, recorded audio is saved as a WMA (Windows Media Audio) file. When using Windows Vista Home Basic N or Windows Vista Business N, audio files are saved as WAV files, not WMA files.
• You can play the recording with a digital media player that supports WMA file playback.

Audacity

In addition to recording sound, Audacity can be used to process (edit) all kinds of audio, including podcasts: normalization, trimming, fading effect. You can change the recording speed and pitch. There are also many functions for physically editing multiple files (cut, merge, flatten). Supported formats include Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV and all formats supported by libsndfile.

The fastest way to edit audio files, allowing you to remove unwanted parts from an audio track without any re-encoding.

"Without re-encoding" - that is, without losing the quality of the original !!! It's lossless audio editing, and it's also very fast.

Supports many audio formats: MP3, WAV, AAC, AC3, M4A, MP2, OGG, WMA.

Preparing images

Optimizing graphic files

It is worth mentioning once again about optimizing graphic files for the Internet and the screen. There is a program included in the Microsoft office suite that deals with optimization, cropping, reducing / increasing the size, changing the contrast and brightness of pictures.

You can read about working with Microsoft Office Picture Manager:

• How to reduce the weight of a picture using a standard graphics editor

Preparing Pictures with PowerPoint

It is impossible to insert static frames, which are as bright and varied in design as slides in presentation programs (for example, Microsoft Office PowerPoint), into a video that is edited using simple editing programs. What to do if you still need such static frames (slides)?

Obviously, it is worth using the Microsoft Office PowerPoint program to prepare them, only in the end use a different method of saving the file.

We would like to draw your attention to a tutorial on saving presentation slides as graphic files.

Programs in the list: 9 | Updated: 21-08-2014 |

Such programs as media format converters are simply necessary for all users, it would be more correct to say to those who watch movies and listen to music, and there are probably all of them. In addition, in our time, all kinds of mobile devices with the ability to view video and play audio, a format converter is a very necessary thing in the software industry.

download Media Format Converters in Russian for free

Format Factory 3.3

Format Factory is a program that can be a reference for other converter developers. The first main advantage is the user-friendly interface. Everything is so simple and understandable that even if the Russian language was absent, it would not make it less convenient. The second advantage is multi-format. Moreover, in addition to all kinds of audio and video formats, it is possible to convert graphic formats and dump DVD to images. In the latest versions, the ability to combine tracks into one media file of the desired format has become available. The third advantage is that it is absolutely free. 4th wide list of mobile devices. Fifth ........

Free Video Converter 3.2

Simple and functional video converter, for those who just need to convert one format to another. The main focus of this converter is made on various devices: it contains ready-made presets for converting video for Playstation 3, PSP, Xbox360, iPhone, iPAD, iPod, Zune, high definition video (HD avi, HD Mpeg2, HD wmv). The user interface is well organized. You can choose the codec yourself. You can also enable the option to preview the video running synchronously with the conversion process. From the name it says that this is a video converter, therefore it does not work with audio formats, although it can extract sound from video ...

VideoMASTER 9.15

VideoMASTER is a universal video converter with a simple and convenient interface in Russian. The program will help you quickly convert any video file from the category of "unreadable" to the category of "readable" and "make friends" it with any technique. Just upload the video to the application, select the appropriate format in the catalog, start the conversion and wait for it to finish

MediaCoder 0.8.3

A very powerful transcoding tool. The media encoder is more suitable for more experienced users, as it contains many different options. Although Mediacoder is inferior to Format Factory in terms of interface organization, it surpasses it in functionality and capabilities. Includes special modes for converting video for consumer players, Psp, IPhone, iPad, mobile phones. Can use Nvidia Cuda technology. Do video trimming, demultiplexing, give very detailed information about the file and much more. Works with H.265 code. In addition, the converter is free with Russian language support.

Xmedia Recode 3.2

Free Russian-language audio video converter. A very impressive list of output formats (37 pieces!) And presets for a wide variety of devices. Great for the task of simply converting files without bothering with the settings ...

Free FLV Converter 7.6

The converter is designed to work with Flv files. The program contains two main functions: 1) Search for videos on YouTube Yahoo Google Megavideo, (adult video hosting sites are also included in the list) .. with the ability to download videos. 2) This is a conversion from Flv to all common formats and vice versa.

MKV2VOB

If there is a Hd movie in mkv and there is a desire to watch it on the Ps3 console, then this utility will be very useful to you. It converts Mkv to Vob usable for Ps3 without loss of quality, and it will do it very quickly. Multi-channel audio is also retained. In other words: movies mined on the mkv network are easily converted for Ps3 ....

Free Hd Converter 2.0

This video converter is specially designed for the owners of Hd cameras. And its main purpose is to convert from the MTS, M2TS, Mpeg format to the following formats: Avi, DVD, FLV, Mp4, 3gp, WMV HD. Moreover, for these formats it is possible to set the required quality level: from the lowest to the highest. Thus, get the output Mpeg HD, AVi HD, WMV HD. To do this, you can use both ready-made settings and independently set the necessary parameters: resolution, audio video bit rates, frame rate, screen aspect ratio, output format ...

Movkit Batch Video Converter Pro 3.6.8

Not difficult to use and with the same very productive video converter. It is enough to add the file and select the required format. Which can be configured according to the required quality parameters. The function of viewing the added video + Plus, you can evaluate how the video will look on the Psp, iPhone for example. Ability to choose codecs. Add a folder with files for conversion. In general, a very good software product ..

With FindSounds, today we will continue the topic, but from a more "technological" point of view. The fact is that the American Jay LeBuff, the founder of the company Imagine Research, created a unique search engine that allows you to find and recognize various sounds. The project is to some extent an analogue of a search engine like Google. The system allows you to find different types of sounds, such as the sound of a baseball bat being hit, the noise of an explosion or a dog barking. The creator of the project, Jay LeBeouf, is an electrical engineer with a degree in classical piano and a Master's degree from the Stanford Center for Computer Research. His dream is to turn personal computers into sound technicians.

And in November 2011, Imagine Research released a new software called. Its functions include indexing, classifying and searching all kinds of audio files. Now the program recognizes four hundred different types of sounds. She is able to find the sound of musical instruments and many other sounds, such as a dog barking, a knock on a door, or the sound of human laughter.

At the moment, work is underway to improve the functions of the program. Soon, the system will allow the user to decompose the audio file into separate constituent sounds that will be clearly audible. Now that the indexing of audio files has begun, sound engineers will be able to find the sounds they need through media archives in seconds, LeBuf said. After all, this development allows the computer to understand what kind of sound it is dealing with, to recognize it, after which you can search for similar records where it occurs. Here is a small video example of a demo version of how it all works:

If you take any recording and add it to popular programs for working with sounds, then what you see will help you to understand little. By loading the same file into MediaMined, you will receive information about what exactly is presented in the audio track - the system can determine not only the origin of sounds, but also their different properties - genre, rhythm, volume and many other parameters.

The software will be useful for musicians who, working with sound recording equipment, will quickly be able to select a wide range of desired sounds. In general, at this stage, the development of Imagine Research attracts the attention of interested market players. Thus, six companies have already signed a partnership agreement with Imagine Research for software testing, including the well-known film company LucasFilm. For her, the MediaMined search engine has become a tool for finding sounds in their own large collection of audio files. Other Imagine Research partners include Gobbler, an online music library and music storage service. MediaMined cost the company $ 600,000 to develop.

For the first six months of the project, about half a million files and their descriptions were downloaded. Then there was work on a program for processing these files to determine loudness, tonality, dynamic range and other characteristics. In the last phase, eight developers trained the program to recognize the characteristic as part of any digital audio archive. Work on the program continues. Of course, Jay LeBuff has created a very interesting system, which has a very promising future.

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Any user of computer systems, mobile devices or the Internet encounters multimedia files almost every day. What is a media file? Further, it is proposed to consider this issue in more detail. However, there is nothing particularly difficult in understanding the whole concept of multimedia.

What is a media file in general terms?

Let's start with the most basic. As a rule, multimedia refers to everything that is associated with video, audio and graphics files or their combination, and even with the content of texts. By and large, even presentations created in Power Point, which contain one or more of the above objects, can also be attributed to a kind of multimedia, although it is believed that this is a presentation, and not multimedia only for the simple reason that such files are programmatic or "iron" players are not playable.

It is these three large groups that represent the main directions of the entire category of multimedia. However, for all three classes, an additional classification can also be given, dividing them by format or content. So, for example, in the video category, in terms of content, there may be films, cartoons, clips, video postcards, advertising materials, etc.

And if you dig into a variety of formats in each class, there will not be enough time to describe them all, since today in the computer world you can count not even dozens - hundreds. But speaking about what a media file is, it is worth considering each category separately.

Audio

Audio or sound files are one of the largest categories, which brings together a huge number of all kinds of formats.

At the dawn of their appearance and creation, the PCM WAVE format, which was developed by Microsoft Corporation, was originally used. But files of this type were very large in size and it was quite problematic to store them on small hard drives or removable media in the form of the same floppy disks.

That all changed when the special Fraunhofer MP3 Encoder codec was developed, which made it possible to compress audio information while reducing the size of the original WAV file. True, with a slight loss of quality at the level of lowering the sound characteristics (sampling frequency, sound depth, etc.). However, today the MP3 format has improved so much that not only the difference in sound is imperceptible, but sometimes files of this standard, for example, with a bitrate of 320 kbps, sound much better than any other format.

Speaking about what a media file of the audio category is, it can be noted that recently, quite widespread and popular formats are such as:

• AIFF;
• FLAC;
• CDDA;
• DVD Audio and many others.

Some of these formats are standalone and can be played by any player. Others are audio tracks that are embedded in the video. If we also take highly specialized formats of music programs (for example, the FLP format for the FL Studio sequencer), the number of formats increases simply incredibly.

Video

Another great class is video. In this case, videos can contain audio, video, graphics, text (for example, subtitles), etc. There are also a lot of formats in this category.

The most common are the following:

• DivX;
• Xvid;
• MPEG;
• RealVideo;
• 3GP etc.

Everything that is in this category today simply cannot be enumerated. However, there is one caveat. It so happens that the player does not play this type of media files. Why? Yes, only because for each standard it is necessary to use special programs called codecs and decoders (this will be discussed separately).

Graphics

Finally, another great class of multimedia is graphics. Here, perhaps, all kinds of formats can be counted the most. In addition, it is possible to separate stationary images and animation, which, although it belongs to graphics in terms of format, is closer to video in content, or raster and vector images. The simplest example is a GIF file. By the way, they can equally be attributed to the so-called mixed files.

As for the graphic files themselves, the matter is not limited only to standard image formats. If we take into account engineering, design or drawing software packages like AutoCAD, their "native" formats can also be safely attributed to a variety of graphic objects.

Mixed media

What is Mixed Media? The easiest way to explain this is with the example of PDF documents, which can contain both graphics and text.

Despite the fact that special programs like Adobe Reader are provided for viewing or editing them, and not the standard tools used for graphic images, they, too, in a sense, represent one of the varieties of multimedia.

Create media files

As for creating or editing multimedia, special tools are provided for each category in the form of highly targeted editors or programs that combine several capabilities.

Sound files can be created (recorded) or edited not only in specialized applications like Adobe Audition, Sound Forge or ACID, but also using video programs, which, in addition to video processing, have tools for audio editing. One of the most powerful is the Sony Vegas Pro program. But in fact, today such applications of different levels can be found quite a lot. Naturally, they all differ in their capabilities and professionalism of the result obtained.

Well, if you look at the utilities for creating and processing graphics, there is so much that an inexperienced user will simply get lost in this huge list when choosing the necessary utility.

Codecs and decoders

Separately, it is worth dwelling on codecs and decoders, which are necessary not only for the correct playback of certain types of multimedia, but also for converting formats. In this case, the same video codec can be used in some kind of converter to convert video to audio and vice versa.

The most popular and most widespread packages with a full set of necessary tools are considered K-Lite, which, depending on the modification, may contain a different number of codecs and decoders. The most complete is the K-Lie Mega Codec Pack, which contains absolutely all currently known decoders and codecs. After installation, any video codec or audio decoder is built into the operating system, programs for playing or processing multimedia automatically, so there should be no problems with their use. Only at the installation stage it is necessary to mark everything that needs to be installed.

Fast, powerful, feature-rich and easy-to-use audio converter.

Its main purpose is to edit and convert audio files from one format to another. All popular audio formats are supported, such as MP3, Windows Media Audio (WMA and ASF), QuickTime Audio (MP4, M4A and AAC), Real Audio (RM and RA), Vorbis Audio (OGG), phone formats (AMR), Creative Voice (VOC), Sun Audio (AU), Wave Audio (WAV and AIFF), FLAC, etc. We also support all audio codecs including MP3, AAC, Vorbis, GSM and ADPCM.

You can also open and convert M3U files. In addition, it is possible to download audio files over the Internet.

Support for all major key formats
Almost all popular audio codecs and formats are supported. Supported formats: MP3, WMA and ASF, M3U, MOV, MP4 and M4A, RM and RA, OGG, AMR, VOC, AU, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OMA and many others.

Advanced profile system
Using profiles, you can easily choose the quality and format of the resulting sound without having to think twice. The application has a huge number of presets covering all formats and multimedia devices. You can easily edit them yourself or create your own.

Ability to save audio from video
Now you can save an audio track or part of it from video files and create your own soundtrack in any of the available audio formats.

Removing fragments from audio files
Using the built-in editor, you can easily remove unwanted parts from audio files. After conversion, the fragments will be removed from the resulting file.

Downloading audio files from the Internet
Now you can always download audio from the site and immediately convert it to another audio format.

High quality audio conversion
When converting, we use only high-quality audio processing algorithms, so audio conversions are practically lossless in quality. The resulting quality depends only on the profile you choose.

High speed of converting audio files
All our products use algorithms optimized for the use of multiple processors to speed up their work. Our programs support and use a wide range of technologies such as Dual Core, Core Duo, Hyper-Threading and others.

High reliability and stability
We have tried to make all of our products compatible with all Windows operating systems. You shouldn't run into problems when using our programs.