Sustainability of Digital Formats
Planning for Library of Congress Collections
Sustainability of Digital Formats
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| Introduction | Sustainability Factors | Content Categories | Format Descriptions | Contact | |
| Full name | Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE) with Linear PCM bitstream |
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| Description | WAVE file format with Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM) audio. |
| Production phase | Used for content in initial, middle, and final states. |
| Relationship to other formats | |
| Subtype of | WAVE, WAVE Audio File Format |
| Subtype of | RIFF, Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) |
| Contains | LPCM, Linear Pulse Code Modulated Audio (LPCM) |
| LC experience or existing holdings | When reformatting analog sound recordings, the Broadcast WAVE format (either version, WAVE_BWF_1 or WAVE_BWF_2), wrapping LPCM, is used as the archival master format for mono and stereo audio at the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation and by the American Folklife Center. |
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| LC preference | The Broadcast WAVE format (either version), wrapping LPCM, is preferred as the archival master format for mono and stereo audio when reformatting analog sound recordings. The Library is a participant in the Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group that published a recommended specification for BWF bext metadata conforming to version 1 in 2009, with an update conforming to version 2 in 2012. |
| Disclosure | See WAVE. |
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| Documentation | See WAVE. |
| Adoption | Very widely used. |
| Licensing and patents | No special issues. |
| Transparency | See WAVE and LPCM. |
| Self-documentation | See WAVE. |
| External dependencies | None |
| Technical protection considerations | Not applic.able. |
| Sound | |
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| Normal rendering | Good support. |
| Fidelity (high audio resolution) | See WAVE. |
| Multiple channels | Requires use of WAVE Format Extensible (WAVE_FORMAT_EXTENSIBLE). See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg463006.aspx. |
| Support for user-defined sounds, samples, and patches | Not supported. |
| Functionality beyond normal rendering | Files greater than 4 GB in size may be produced using the MBWF ("RF64 with a bext chunk") specification, EBU-TECH 3306, MBWF / RF64: An extended File Format for Audio (2009). See Notes. |
| Tag | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Filename extension | See related format. |
See WAVE |
| Internet Media Type | See related format. |
See WAVE |
| Magic numbers | See related format. |
See WAVE |
| Microsoft WAVE format registry | 0x0001 |
From Microsoft registry. |
| General | |
|---|---|
| History | Format created by Microsoft and introduced with Windows 3.1. Adopted as basis for European Broadcasting Union (EBU) WAVE_LPCM_BWF standard. |
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