Has anybody had, or still does have, any problems opening .rm or any other Real file in GoldWave? I did at one time but now I can open them with no problem.
Since RealNetworks copyright their formats, GoldWave does not support them. However, you can open them in GoldWave simply by installing (and regularly updating) the Real Alternative codec pack. I call it a pack because it also comes with Media Player Classic. You can get this off of the Real Alternative page on the Free Codecs web site. The current version is 1.75.
You need not install Real Player or any other software because Real Alternative takes care of it all. Just install the software and then open the file in GoldWave.
I hope this helps at least one person so I didn't type this for nothing .
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Real Media files are not my cup of tea at the best of times, and to try to unistall it is worse than trying to cancel an AOL account.
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A expert is one who knows more and more about less and less (Winston Churchill)
For those of us who have old files in that format, the splitter alone is a godsend. Hey, I used Real back when WMP was inferior, & my company bought Real Producer for me to transcode videos for the Internet....Now I can import & improve the audio on a lot of old vids of my band, wedding outtakes, etc.
Hey Dewd, you do know that you can import audio from Real Video files into GW with that Real splitter too, right? I haven't tried it with vbr files yet, but I'll letchez know what happens.
Last edited by Stiiv on Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Well, I used RealMedia back before WMP was ever in existance..before microsoft had thier own audio and video codecs...back before any other streaming system existed...i even knew how to meta-stream .ra files off http servers....all my internet buddies thought i was god.
the problem with the old RA files..is they're absolutely garbage and unless you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO USE THEM AS A SOURCE, there's no way to clean the audio up. most of it's physcoacoustic models were just, horrible..i mean, they were great for the day, dial-up streaming of audio and such..but i seriously would rather try to track down original source than go from a RA file.
but as i said, RA i thought was pretty much dead, gone, and part of our history..kind of like VIVO and NetVDO...oh, don't forget Netscape Cooltalk!
..and yes, i'm aware you can import RV files into Goldwave and it'll extract the audio portion....but seriously, as i said, RealVideo/Audio is dead..and I haven't had a RealAudio file laying around my system for quite some time (quite some time? try 1999). The last time i used Real was to play AMR-NB files because it was the only player that supported the GSM codec...i don't even see anyone using real as a streaming format...and the usenet groups for people that traded music...that's gone too...although i miss the LiquidAudio days.
Last edited by DewDude420 on Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
RM files = RealMedia. Same basic file except support for video. Audio only content could still be .rm
there's several flavors of realaudio
the original codec (realaudio 1.0) supported 14.4 and 28.8 mono audio. that was it. two bitrates, one codec...it revolutionized the world. both were marginal AM quality.
2.0 brought stereo into the mix (i remember the intro file with the voice panning between hard left and hard right)...again, quality didn't really get better.
at some point they redesigned a lot of the codecs and added more bitrates, better audio response and whatnot. some of the broadband codecs were ok..but everything else was...meh...
as far as how compressed..let's just say i've heard 40kbps mp3 sound better than realaudio. like, seriously, the last time i looked at RealAudio codecs...I was in Jr. High school...and just starting with goldwave.
Second question first: the Real splitter is a DirectShow "filter" that enables Windows apps to play/edit Real audio formats outside RealPlayer or Real Alt. Really! lol
Re: compression - it was ok for its time, but Real's main strength was the ability to stream media, using "stub" files. (Those are the .ram files you've probably seen...they're just text files with the actual internet location of the media file in 'em. I'm not sure, but I think Real was the first to do audio/video streaming, back in the days of dial-up.)
RA=RealAudio, RM=RealMedia, RAM=see above. The RA file format is dead & gone, but RM & other REAL formats persist.
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