.cda files

[pizzaman]

lol i know this is not really a priority, since my computer has a whole lot of spyware(which i still can't fix). Anyway can anyone tell me what a .cda file is, and if i can make one of my own?

[Mjshl2]

I took this from some site I found

.CDA files are not, strictly speaking, files at all. Taken more accurately they resemble Microsoft's shortcut files in that they point to information rather than containing it themselves. In the case of a shortcut, this means a pointer to a file somewhere on your computer, a .CDA file serves the same purpose for an audio CD and simply points to the track and sector on a disc where a song begins.

When you browse an audio CD using Windows, you'll notice that it appears to contain a directory of .CDA files and double-clicking on any given file will play the relevant track. Copy the file to your hard disc and then remove the CD, however, and it's a different story. At best, the player will report that the relevant CD is not present; at worst it will play from the same point on whatever CD happens to be in the drive at the time.

Nero can convert and make .cda files I believe.

[pizzaman]

Ok, thats what i thought, but why have them? Do they take up less space then other files?

[Iconoclast]

Mjshl2, you have taught me something, there. I was wondering why all of the files on a burned Audio CD were only 2 KB in file size, including tracks up to 7 minutes long! But when I would copy them to my hard disk and play them there, it wouldn't play. I thought it was just an audio format that is only playable on CDs because it uses a CD's file system to play or something absurd like that.

As for the part when you said they are shortcuts to things, I did not understand.

[Mjshl2]

Another bit of info on .cda,
CDA (CD Audio Track)

CD Audio (.cda) tracks are audio files that are stored on CD media. You can play .cda files only from a CD-ROM. To test a .cda file, either try to play a different .cda file from your CD-ROM or try to play a .cda file from a different CD-ROM. The .cda files are representations of CD audio tracks and do not contain the actual pulse code modulation (PCM) information. You cannot play the file if you copy a .cda file from the CD-ROM to your hard disk.

The current standard for CD audio requires a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a sample size of 16 bits (2 bytes per sample). As a result, you need to store 2 x 44,100= 88,200 bytes of data every second to record in mono. Recording in stereo would require twice that much storage. That extrapolates to about 10 MB of data for every minute of stereo sound! It is for this reason that compression schemes such as MP3 are so important.

[Iconoclast]

Yes, that's true! I'm not much of an audio optimization and compression guy, in fact, I'm more with imaging. But WAV compression is REALLY severe in file size and should only be used with very short sounds. MP3 is a critical format for music.

And there's something funny about your avatar. I can't lay my finger on it. What is he shoving?

[Mjshl2]

Shoving? Its Ryu from street fighter, hes just in his fighting stance from the game.

[Iconoclast]

Yes, he is very...enthusiastic. But I'm not necessarily complaining.

[chaos master]

you can use www.filext.com to find info about any file extention. It helped me find the right programs and stuff.

[pizzaman]

Sorry to interupt your conversation about funny looking avatars, but im lost.:confused:
I know that WMA files take up a lot of room and that mp3 files dont, but i didnt understand one word of the rest.

[Mjshl2]

which part exactly dont you get? The .cda part right before that?

[pizzaman]

That part :confused:
The current standard for CD audio requires a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz and a sample size of 16 bits (2 bytes per sample). As a result, you need to store 2 x 44,100= 88,200 bytes of data every second to record in mono. Recording in stereo would require twice that much storage. That extrapolates to about 10 MB of data for every minute of stereo sound!

[dtfreak05]

thats how much space would be taken up if you did not compress the cd audio or if you used .wav files. its how full cd audio is recorded.