audio on web

[esthera]

I want to put audio (of lectures) on my website.

What is the best way to do this? MP3, real audio...?

[rhsunderground]

well do you want them playing on the site or do you want them do be downloadable?

[esthera]

idealy both.

[rhsunderground]

i see. well to do the latter you simply need to put <a href="lesson1.mp3">Lesson 1</a> Mp3's are the best way to go, as they are more or less universally readable. WMA files are smaller, but are mainly read only by Windows Media Player, though more programs are starting to read them.

having them play on the website is different, as it GREATLY slows down the loading time of your page; downloading is a much better solution.

[esthera]

how does mp3's compare to real audio?
Do they take up more space. How much space should a 1 hr lecture take up in mp3 format? What about real audio?

[rhsunderground]

Originally posted by esthera
how does mp3's compare to real audio?
Do they take up more space. How much space should a 1 hr lecture take up in mp3 format? What about real audio? WHOA DONNA! well the Mp3 size of Robin Williams Live On Broadway (1 hr. 39 min. 10 sec.), which is mainly comprised of speech, is 90.80 Mb. that's about .915 Mb per minute. i have another track that's only 180 Kb per minute. it mainly depends on the bitrate you record it at (quality). but no matter what, this one hour lecture will be VERY big. i don't know about the size of Real Audio; i don't have any files in that variety.

[Robert Wellock]

You certainly don't want to stream Real Audio File for a whole hour.

[mikeknox619]

You might try that voice2page company, you can record over a phone and they host it all.

[george1234]

You can downsample a mp3 alot, so that 1 hour isn't so big. Since a lecture is just speech, it can be heavily compressed and still reasonable - unlike music, which, when heavily compressed, you lose alot of information (eg. strings, pianos, drums, hihats, etc.)

[esthera]

as a followup -- my solution was to buy a mp3 recorder to rcord the lectures. Each hour lecture ends up about 17 mb.

[mikeknox619]

I want to put audio (of lectures) on my website.

What is the best way to do this? MP3, real audio...?



Listen to my lectures about Internet Audio solutions:

Click to here to Listen (http://voice2page.com/info/reasons.html)




Internet Audio Resources Page (http://voice2page.com/info/do-it-yourself-audio.html)

[gilgalbiblewhee]

How about a ram file?
http://i.domaindlx.com/wheelofgod/listen.asp

I use this page to pick up ram files from another site. I'm curious if it's possible to make the reload once the ram file is finished (I want to play one ram file after the other. I was guessing playing on the page might be the best option. )

[vinnydarat]

I prefer WMA, a 1hr lecture can be around 3-4Mb for 1 hour and the quality is listenable.

Personally i would forget real player, just because a lot of people don't like installing it (myself included)