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Revision as of 10:17, 15 September 2005
RealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks. It is especially designed to conform to low bandwidths, and it can be used as a streaming audio format, i.e. played at the same time as it's downloaded. Many internet radio stations use RealAudio to stream their programming over the internet in real time. The first version of RealAudio was released in 1995. As of 2005, the current version is RealAudio 10.
RealAudio files normally have a file extension of .ra, .rm or .ram.
The main player for RealAudio content is RealNetworks' RealPlayer. With RealPlayer, it is not possible to save an audio stream to a file. The free programs MPlayer and StreamBox VCR can be used for this purpose, as can HiDownload. Other free programs to play RealAudio files are Real Alternative or JetAudio, which unfortunately requires to download an additional, free plugin to play them.
Codecs
RealAudio files are compressed using several different audio codecs. Below is a list of the codecs and the version each was introduced in:
- IS-54 VSELP (RealAudio 1)
- G.728 LD-CELP (RealAudio 2)
- Dolby AC3 (RealAudio 3)
- Sipro Lab Telecom ACELP-NET (RealAudio 4/5)
- G2/Cook Codec (RealAudio 6)
- Sony ATRAC3 (RealAudio 8)
- MPEG-4 AAC (RealAudio 10)
- RealAudio Lossless Format (RealAudio 10)
While the newest version of RealPlayer should be able to play any RealAudio file, other programs may not support all codecs.
See also
- Icecast -- a free streaming server for internet radio stations, supports formats MP3, Ogg Vorbis and NSV
- Shoutcast -- a free, MP3-based program for internet radio stations
- Windows Media Audio -- Microsoft's media formats