All About MPEG Layer-3  

MPEG Layer-3 is a form of wav compression, the process of compressing a wav file to a smaller size without losing much of the quality in it's uncompressed form.

There are other forms of compression available on WIndows 95/98 machines, such as Microsoft ADPCM and IMA ADPCM. But I, and many other wav makers, feel that MPEG Layer-3 is the best form of compression. It produces the best quality in the lowest file size.

MPEG Layer-3 compressed wavs require the installation of the Layer-3 codec, which can be downloaded below, along with instructions to installation.

These compressed wavs will show up as 00:00:00 upon download in AOL's media player, as AOL only handles wavs in their uncompressed form. These wavs can only be played in chat rooms, in IMs and email if you use WavMan and in any external wav player outside of AOL, i.e. Media Player and Sound Recorder.

If you receive an error that your hardware cannot play this type of Audio, don't fret... all you need is to download and install the MPEG Layer-3 codec. It is a short, maybe 2 minute download for those with a 33.6 modem (293 KB). And yes, it is free. :)

When you have it downloaded to your chosen folder, open Windows Explorer and browse to the folder which you downloaded MPEG.exe to. When you have found it, simply install it by double-clicking it. This will breeze by very fast that you will barely see it happen.

Then you are all set, you do not even need to keep the MPEG.exe file anymore, you can go ahead and delete it. The needed files are copied to your Windows System directory.

You may need to reboot your computer before you will be able to hear compressed wavs.

~written by RnA Julie~

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