NOOB Question

[poneal]

I'm a noob when it comes to digital music. I thought that .wma files were encoded in digital 5.1 surround sound. Well, I spent .99 and downloaded a .wma file and then burned it to a cd. I then played it back on my HT system and its PCM with analog dolby prologic II decoding (not what i wanted unfortunately). Now .ac3 files play fine in dolby digital. Am i missing something here or is .wma not encoded as dolby digital? If .wma is not encoded in dolby digital then is there a site where I can purchase .ac3 music? Thanks in advance.

[N. Abstentia]

Nope. .wma is Windows Media Audio..in other words, a computer sound file.

[mtrycraft]

I'm a noob when it comes to digital music. I thought that .wma files were encoded in digital 5.1 surround sound. Well, I spent .99 and downloaded a .wma file and then burned it to a cd. I then played it back on my HT system and its PCM with analog dolby prologic II decoding (not what i wanted unfortunately). Now .ac3 files play fine in dolby digital. Am i missing something here or is .wma not encoded as dolby digital? If .wma is not encoded in dolby digital then is there a site where I can purchase .ac3 music? Thanks in advance.

wma is just an analog audio track on a computer?
Dolby pro logic II will play it.

[poneal]

Glad I didn't spend more than a buck on that .wma file. So another question. Does DVD-A discs have a 5.1 digital surround track on them also? I don't have a DVD-A player just a regular DVD player but I have heard songs played at the end of movies that sound really good on my 5.1 system (much, much better than pro logic). In particular, the soundtrack from the Gothika movie (remix of the Who song) sounded awesome. So now I feel the need for more of this and was wondering if DVD-A disc contain the dolby digital 5.1 sound track. Thanks, Paul.

[N. Abstentia]

Glad I didn't spend more than a buck on that .wma file. So another question. Does DVD-A discs have a 5.1 digital surround track on them also? I don't have a DVD-A player just a regular DVD player but I have heard songs played at the end of movies that sound really good on my 5.1 system (much, much better than pro logic). In particular, the soundtrack from the Gothika movie (remix of the Who song) sounded awesome. So now I feel the need for more of this and was wondering if DVD-A disc contain the dolby digital 5.1 sound track. Thanks, Paul.


Yeah, DVD-A discs have a 5.1 track so you can play that on regular DVD players.

[N. Abstentia]

wma is just an analog audio track on a computer?
Dolby pro logic II will play it.

You can play any anything with Pro Logic II, it's just a 'fake' surround mode.

[poneal]

I will have to buy some of those DVD-A discs because I have definitely heard a vast sound improvement between these and DPL II.

[92135011]

you would need to convert that WMF to a .aiff format first before you can play that on a conventional CD player. WMF is a way of compressing the file so that it takes less space while maintaining a certain standard of sound quality. Being able to use that compressed format requires that you decompress it, which only certain programs can do on computer. Of course, nowadays, there are mp3 players in the market that includes its own mp3 decompression.

Problem with compressing a file, is that you usually cut out lots of info. Hence, even after you decompress it, you can never get the original quality back.

BTW, there are not many WMF converters out there as there are mp3 converters. Windows media is still trying to make a scene in the digital music industry, but mp3 is still more popular. If you are into digital, try out AAC formats. In blind tests, they seem to be the best quality compression with files of the same bitrate

[mtrycraft]

I will have to buy some of those DVD-A discs because I have definitely heard a vast sound improvement between these and DPL II.


It is difficult to compare these to formats. One is descrete channel format, DVD-A the other is still matrixed, derived from the two channels. So, you cannot really compare them, apple and an orange.

[tncn]

wouldn't DVD-A be discrete and pro-logic II matrixed?

[N. Abstentia]

Well I'm not sure. Pro Logic II is definitley not discrete. However I'm not sure about DVD-A....yes the channels are discrete but the material is orginally 2 channel originally. Not sure how that would be classified, but I would think discrete would be it for DVD-A.

[mtrycraft]

Well I'm not sure. Pro Logic II is definitley not discrete. However I'm not sure about DVD-A....yes the channels are discrete but the material is orginally 2 channel originally. Not sure how that would be classified, but I would think discrete would be it for DVD-A.


I doubt that the newer master have only two tracks. the indusry have been usiong 24 and more tracks for some time now, no?

So, they can mix it to 5 no problem.

[mtrycraft]

wouldn't DVD-A be discrete and pro-logic II matrixed?


Yes, you are correct here.