.WAV File Format

WAV stands for Waveform Audio File Format, which allows audio recordings to be saved with different sampling rates and bitrates, but it 's typically saved in a 44.1 KHz, 16-bit, stereo format. The common bitstream encoding is the linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM) format.

WAV was joinly developed by Microsoft and IBM for storing an audio bitstream on PCs and later used as the standard format for CD audio, which contains two channels of 44,100 samples per second, 16 bits per sample.

Although a WAV file can contain compressed audio using the Audio Compression Manager (ACM), the typical WAV files contains uncompressed audio in the linear pulse code modulation (LPCM) format.

Nowadays, both WAV and AIFF format are compatible with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platform. However, WAV, as a derivative of the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF), mainly used on Windows, while Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) files are more common on Macintosh systems.

DTS (Digital Theater Systems) is a multi-channel surround sound format that is often found on movie soundtracks, DVD and laser discs. Its primary competitor is Dolby System's AC3 format.

DTS-WAV files can contain DTS audio streams in multiple channels, which are used to author stereo music and surround sound music CDs. To play or edit DTS-WAV files, the programs have to support DTS-WAV decoding and encoding.