Real Audio - Definition and Overview

RealAudio is a proprietary audio codec developed by RealNetworks. It is especially designed to conform to low bandwidths, and it can be used as a streaming audio format, i.e. played at the same time as it's downloaded. Many radio stations use RealAudio to stream their programming over the internet in real time. The first version of RealAudio was released in 1995. As of 2005, the current version of the codec is RealAudio 10.

RealAudio files normally have a file extension of .ra, .rm or .ram.

The main player for RealAudio content is RealNetworks' RealPlayer. With RealPlayer, it is however not possible to save an audio stream to a file. The free programs MPlayer and StreamBox VCR can be used for this purpose. Another free program to play RealAudio files is RealAlternative (http://www.codecguide.com/about_real.htm).

See Also

• Shoutcast -- a free, mp3-based program for internet radio stations
• Windows Media Audio -- Microsoft's media formats

External links

• Description of the codec, from RealNetworks (http://www.realnetworks.com/products/codecs/realaudio.html)
• Unofficial StreamBox VCR download (http://p084.ezboard.com/fstreemeboxvcrfrm7.showMessage?topicID=27.topic)
• How to download Real Audio streams and convert Real Audio to MP3 (http://swen.antville.org/stories/735413/)