What characterizes the WMA format and what is it?

Many users still remember those times when the main program for viewing video on the computer was the standard "Universal Player". Functional he did not shine, and friendliness in relation to inexperienced users did not differ. Only in 2000, Microsoft Corporation submitted to the public the application of Windows Media Player 7.

It differed from its predecessor not only by its convenience, but also by the fact that the WMA format created by the company itself appeared in it. What is it and where can it be used? As we already said, it was developed in the "dungeons" of Microsoft, where by that time it was finally understood that they could not fight the triumphant march of MP3.

In addition, their standard players at the time supported it is not too adequate, and therefore rapidly lost popularity. As a "popular" alternative, the WMA format was created, which since then has been "pushed" into the Windows family by hook or by crook. Success of this practice had little, and not the least role in this played the very policy of the management of the Redmond company.

To begin with, they made the WMA format completely proprietary - closed for distribution, modification and use in third-party products. And if for their "Office" this practice had a positive effect (after all, nobody canceled the monopoly), then it was frankly silly to enter the market of multimedia formats, already crowded with players.

However, the characteristics of the WMA (Windows Media Audio) are not so bad. So, the manufacturer claims that the compressed music file with a bitrate of 160 kbit / s in its quality is in no way inferior to the MP3 file with the same figure of 256 kbit / s. The application is controversial, and its first versions did not support a higher bitrate, which made the WMA format not very popular among music lovers. In addition, with a sound frequency above 15 kHz, all the "extra" was cut off mercilessly, so that there could be no question of any "quality of the CD".

We must give credit to Microsoft: using their virtually unlimited resources, they have achieved the introduction of support for their offspring in almost all "iron" and software players, so today the desire to change the format of WMA to MP3 to play it in your player has lost its relevance. Moreover, from the distant 1995, when its first version appeared, the codec was "doross" to its ninth reincarnation, in which many errors of past issues were corrected.

In particular, the quality of sound has greatly increased, there was a possibility of two-pass VBR-coding, which automatically transferred the "forever forgotten" WMA to the category of strong enough players in the digital audio market. In addition, a very famous and popular Winamp player can "rob" it with music CDs, which requires only the out_wma.dll plug-in.

Thus, it makes no sense to remake WMA to MP3 format , because thanks to Microsoft's perseverance, this codec is on par with competing formats supported by all devices and programs for playing digital music. In addition, as a result of this conversion, the sound quality can deteriorate significantly, which is unlikely to please you.