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→File Formats
== File Formats ==
Digital audio can be represented by a number of different file formats, which mainly pertain to the compression scheme they use (or at least support), as well as additional features such as Digital Rights Management (DRM).
Compact Discs or CD's stored <u>LPCM</u> audio at a set format. This means every CD player expected uncompressed audio with a bit depth of 16 bits and 44.1 kHz sample rate. Digital audio eventually expanded far beyond this medium, and players and software became smarter and more varied as far as what kinds of audio they could play.
It's important to understand that file formats do not necessarily indicate the exact codec used to encode the audio they contain. They are best thought of as <u>containers</u>, with a defined header format. This allows various software to know how to extract the header information, where to find the audio data in the file, and how to decode it. A <u>codec</u> is what is actually used to en<u>co</u>de or <u>dec</u>ode the audio. Most audio player software has its own codecs, while some can refer to external software. Most file formats are limited, however, to support only a few codecs. Thus, it is common to associate compression/encoding schemes with file formats.