Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections
Sustainability of Digital Formats: Planning for Library of Congress Collections |
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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 leads the Federal Agencies Digital Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) Audio-Visual Working Group which published a recommended guideline for BWF bext metadata conforming to version 1 in 2009, with an update conforming to version 2 in 2012. Additional updates supporting use of the CUE and ADTL chunks were published in 2021. The Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement (RFS) includes highest native resolution PCM WAVE file available as a preferred format for media-independent audio works in digital form. |
| 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 applicable. |
| 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 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/ddi/ksmedia/ns-ksmedia-waveformatextensible. |
| 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 |
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| 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 |
IANA WAVE and AVI Codec Registries (Historic Registry). Last updated 2008-01-31 |
| Pronom PUID | See note |
Pronom's fmt/141 covers PCMWAVFORMAT but this is not precisely the same as LPCM WAV |
| Wikidata Title ID | See related format. |
| General | |
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| 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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