I have not recorded contest audio before
(but considering it) ... but I do work
with various codec's - I use Adobe Premier
and Windows Media Encoder to produce some
multimedia content.
You may be right: Windows Media Player 9 may
have updated your system's list of available
codec's.
All my systems are Windows XP based ...
and have WMP9 on them. Additionally, I've
also installed Microsoft's Windows Media Encoder,
which provides all the components to create
content in the latest codec's.
> Also, the file sizes for decent audio changed
> from ~ 9Meg to ~ 40Meg per hour (e.g., PCM 11 kHz,
> 8 bit, mono, 10 kB/sec selected). This seemed to
> be one of the few choices where the audio didn't
> sound like square waves. But give me a break on
> the file size. YIKES.
If you get the latest Microsoft codec's for encoding,
I think you'll find they're a lot more efficient than
the MPEG codec's for about the same quality. To wit:
Windows Media Audio V2
32 kbps, 44 kHz, mono 3 kb/sec
MPEG
48 kBits/s, 44.1 kHz, mono 5 kb/sec
PCM
32 kb/s, 16-bit mono 62 kb/sec
>> After installation, start Writelog and the MPEG
>> choices (more than I used to have) were back!
>> I am satisfied with the audio quality using
>> 16 kbits/s, 12 kHz, mono, 2 k/s. The product
>> file size is back to ~ 9 Mb/hour. Enjoy.
I'd recommend that anyone who's downloading codecs
for use with Windows Media 9 series based systems,
make sure those codecs have been tested with that
configuration. I've run into numerous problems
with older codecs that were on my system ...
after migrating to Windows Media 9.
I believe that Microsoft has invested over a
half-billion dollars in the Windows Media 9
project ... I'm quite impressed with what's
been released - and what's to be released with
the forthcoming Windows Server 2003 (visa vis
media server code and functionaltiy).
Here's a link to Microsoft's Windows Media
home page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.aspx
If you're interested specifically in a comparison
of the latest codecs, visit this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/codecs.aspx
I've got all the codecs on my system as a result of
installing the Windows Media Encoder (find on the
first link above) ... but there also appears to be
a way to just get the codecs (I've not tried this though):
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/format/codecdownload.aspx
Here's instructions for how to adjust your sound
card options in WriteLog:
1) Tools -> Sound Board Options
2) Click: Select WAV File compression ...
3) Format: Windows Media Audio V2
Attributes: 32 kbps, 44 kHz, mono 3 kb/sec
4) Click: OK
5) Click: OK
Hope this helps. Glad to see any additional posts
with more info/feedback!
73
Bob W1QA
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