Audio and Video
Audio and video have both progressed side-by-side throughout their development from the 1950’s until the present day. Digital audio has changed the complete audio, music and video industries since its inception in the 1990’s. Audio has transformed from analogue vinyl records to digital MP3’s.
Sounds have changed from being played in/on heavy record players to small and lightweight smartphones.
Video has progressed from a simple fluorescent green texted terminal for mainframe computers, to touchscreen high-resolution video screens projected to the user on glass (smartphones or tablets and some all-in-one computers). Today, there are far more choices of what you want compared to what there was available back in 1960.
So we can have more choices suited to our individual needs and/or requirements in the home or at work. Now more than ever...movies, games, videos, photos and music are all capable of computerised high quality: high performance graphics and crisp equalised audio tracks – the capabilities are far more advanced now. Now we can stream video and audio across a wireless WiFi network while playing it from somewhere across the other side of the world – all across the internet in real-time.
It’s quite spectacular in what humans have achieved with online technologies in only a relatively short span of time. Quite amazing achievements have been made in only one single generation.
Streaming video and audio (sound) to an iPad, a notebook, a Google phone, an iPhone and to a tablet are all possible today, thanks to advances in technology. So, understanding the technology is important in understanding what is going on, so that your experience with using the device(s) or technologies is as easy as possible to take full advantage of it, as well as fully enjoying whatever it is that you wish to use and enjoy.
Analogue to Digital Transformation
The old CRT TV’s and monitors have disappeared from the shops and have been replaced by digital screens. So what was the difference between the two (2)? Well, basically analogue means a moving physical signal or image of some kind, such as: time, sound, a picture or a movie.
So for example a wrist watch with moving hands is an analogue watch. However, a watch with a screen displaying digits is a digital watch, because it is all electronic with no moving parts (no hands, in this example). The same theory goes for phones and phone calls, satellite TV, ADSL, WiFi, and Bluetooth – almost everything has switched over into a digital signal or format.
Cable technologies were traditionally analogue which analogue-to-digital and digital-to-analogue converters such as a telephone line to an ADSL WiFi Router box
Analogue (Analog) = long wave signal, with moving part(s) or non-electronic.
Digital = short wave signal, without moving part(s) or electronic.
Basically analogue (analog) means mechanical, electrical or moving and digital means electronic (non-mechanical or non-moving).
The traditional technology used to send radio wave signals is analogue – it is called Radio Frequency or ‘RF.’ Today, RF is transmitted and received in digital format also.
RF has been around for a long time, however the modulation is digital which basically means that the data is controlled and digitised before it is sent. At the receiving end, the digital data can be converted back into an analogue format, usable by the receiving device.
Audio
Sound has evolved considerably with technology, allowing machines to create, change and send music or any other sound.
Audio files such as .mp3, .WAV, .AAC and other audio file types are available for use with computers and smartphones or other devices such as MP3 Bluetooth speakers.
Bluetooth and Wired (cable) Audio Devices
Bluetooth
This is possibly the most popular of Bluetooth device – the Bluetooth speaker. These ‘combo’ speaker units are quite amazing, in that anyone can carry sound with them ‘on-the-go.’
Cable
Cable audio is still highly popular, because of stability and reliability.
Audio (Sound) File Formats (File Types .xxx)
.WAV
WAV (pronounced /wave/) files are a music industry standard in the recording studio business. Dot WAV (Waveform Audio File) formatted files are usually uncompressed analogue or digital mono audio tracks. Developed by IBM and Microsoft back in 1991, it quickly became popular amongst sound recording engineers and studios, being the preferred format for audio tracks in the studio.
WAV was and still is ‘raw’ sound, which means that it is basically untouched since/after it was recorded.
.M4A MPEG-4 Audio
Apple’s main audio file format is the .M4A which it promotes as its primary audio format.
.MP3 MPEG-3
The dot m-p-three audio format is one of the most popular audio file formats for sounds across the globe. These have been around a long time and can be used in almost any computer, tablet or smartphone.
.OGG Open Source
This file format allows for streams, pictures, audio and video. It is open source, so it is not widely distributed like other apps. It has Android and iPhone support (supported on those devices).
.AAC All platforms supported
Advanced Audio Coding is supported by all smartphones and computer audio software to allow for great compatability across all devices, making it a standard, or universal, in effect.
Streaming Audio (Internet Audio)
Real Networks created a streaming protocol RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol) and also made their own downloadable or pre-installed Real Player. Real Player was quite popular during the 1990’s into the early 2000’s, until the iStore, Spotify and other app sites boomed in popularity. Today, you can stream video meetings/chats, radio stations and virtually whatever you want using audio and video. The amount of video chat apps available on Android and iPhone is astonishing.
.RA Real Networks
Real Audio files emerged in 1997 as an audio format for streaming audio (sound) over the internet.
.RM Real Networks
Real Media files combine Video and Audio together, such as movies and videos streamed over the internet.
Video
Ever since digital photographs were first used, quality has been defined by how ‘fine’ the picture detail is, which is correlated (related) to how much data or large the picture size will be.
DPI or ‘dots per square inch,’ became the standard term, used frequently to describe the resolution of screens, pictures and printers. The more dots per square inch, the sharper the image and finer or higher the resolution, which equals better quality.
PPI or ‘pixels per square inch,’ increased in numbers and so video development achieved high resolution graphics for TV’s, smartphones and monitors.
Webcams
Webcams are a popular peripheral that are increasing in quality (video resolution [definition]) and also include a microphone to record your voice.
Webcams record video in real-time for video chat and meetings using apps over the internet.
They are connected via a USB cable to your computer's USB port. They provide video and sound into your computer and then onto your recipient at the other end of the chat or meeting session. HD or High-Definition video emerged in the 1990's and the video quality is now higher with more definition or pixels per square inch (ppi).
Display Resolutions:
720p HD Ready! (HD 720) | 1280 x 720 pixels |
Full HD (HD 1080) | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
Ultra HD 4K (4K UHD) | 3840 x 2160 pixels |
Video File Formats (File Types .xxx, File Extension))
.MP4 Android
MPEG-4 is a very popular format used for making videos or movies. Dot m-p-four files are of the most widely used video file formats across the world.
.AVI Microsoft
The Audio Video Interleave file format was introduced by Microsoft in 1992 as a new video file type. It was incorporated into Microsoft’s Windows operating system as the main video format that can be played on the Windows Media Player program, preinstalled with Windows. People could store .avi movies onto their computers or onto CD’s.
.3GP 3GPP2
3GPP .3gp video files are supported on most smartphones, which means that they will play on most phones, using a supporting player such as VLC media player (a multi-platform and multimedia file format video and audio player).
Media Players
Since the 1990’s, software media players for computers, and now smartphones, has moved from platform dependency such as either a Microsoft Windows format .avi or Apple Macintosh .mov to multi-platform players which support the new .mp4 video format.
So for a long time, there were media player compatibility issues, just the same as with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc.) that opened, edited or created on Microsoft Windows OS’s versus opened, edited or created on Apple Mac OS’s.
iPhone
iTunes is the default media player for iPhone. You may need to sign in to your account to use this app. It can be used to listen to music, purchase music, watch videos, purchase videos, backup and restore your Apple device.
Android
Google Play Music was introduced as Android’s default music player in 2011 and was replaced in 2020 by YouTube Music as the default music player.
Gallery is the default app for viewing photos/pictures/images. Inside the Gallery app, you can preview videos such as .mp4 and then fully open the video by pressing ‘Play video,’ to open the Video Player app and watch the video in full screen mode with sound.
Windows
Windows Media Player was the original default media player built into its Windows Operating Systems up until Windows 8.1. Then in Windows 10, Microsoft replaced it with Groove Music and Microsoft Movies & TV. In Windows 11, these have been replaced with Media Player.
Mac OS X
QuickTime player is the default media player for Macintosh OS X that can play audio and video files. To watch videos, there is a preinstalled app called DVD Player. as well as iMovie and iTunes apps, which can be downloaded free from the App Store. So there are several options to watch movies on your computer or stream them online.
There is also a music app included called Music to play music and an app called Photo Booth to record videos and audio with.
Linux
VLC Media Player is a multi-platform media player, open-source (free) and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, Android and Linux. This makes it one of the most popular media players for download, today. It is installed by default on many Linux distributions, including Ubuntu Studio.