Is this really a WAV file?

[Ichinisan]

To you digital audio enthusiasts:
Is there anything unusual about this WAV file?

VLC reports:

Stream 0
Type: Audio
Codec: PCM MU-LAW (mlaw)
Channels: Mono
Sample rate: 8000 Hz
Bits per sample: 16

My voicemail messages at work come to me via email attachment. The filename extension (.wav) seems to indicate that it's uncompressed and should play on anything. Windows Media Player can play the file just fine...but only on my work computer. If I forward the message to a personal address or try to listen to my VM from my home computer, WMP can't play the file. It would be great if my iPhone could play it...because I already access email from my phone. What's wrong with this WAV file that prevents an iPhone from playing the email attachment?

 

[BoberFett]

Yes, that's a WAV file. It's typical for voicemail systems to use MU-LAW.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C-law_algorithm

 

[Ichinisan]

Yes, that's a WAV file. It's typical for voicemail systems to use MU-LAW.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9C-law_algorithm

Thanks. Do you know why one system with WMP can play it and another cannot? Do I need to install a codec for an uncompressed file?

 

[BoberFett]

Yes, it's the codec. ULAW files are encoded to boost certain frequency ranges, so to properly play it back it needs to be decoded with that in mind.

 

[Ichinisan]

Yes, it's the codec. ULAW files are encoded to boost certain frequency ranges, so to properly play it back it needs to be decoded with that in mind.

Damn...I guess there's no way my iPhone is going to play it from the email application.

 

[BoberFett]

A brief search leads me to believe that playing G.711 files on the iPhone is still a pain in the arse.

 

[Ichinisan]

Strange. I tried to open another WAV file. Instead of a voicemail, this was a conversation recorded by the same system. I'd expect it to be the same codec.

It plays in WMP, but doesn't play in VLC.

No suitable decoder module:
VLC does not support the audio or video format "undf". Unfortunately there is no way for you to fix this.

After the error message, the file is no longer open and I can't get VLC to display media info.

 

[Ichinisan]

A thought: There must be some way to take WMP codecs from this XP machine and install it on my Win7 machine (assuming they are limited by 32-bit/64-bit).

 

[Ichinisan]

I still can't listen to these recorded conversations in VLC. I got the latest version and let it wipe all preferences. There's no error message at all. I simply load the files and it behaves as if no files were loaded. I can't get any codec information or anything.

Is there a way to find out which codec WMP is using and copy / register those files on another machine?

 

[DominionSeraph]

Try foobar.
If that doesn't work, try Media Player Classic: Home Cinema with the K-Lite codec pack.