Digital sound is nothing more than numbers. What separates one container from another is how those numbers are packed, how much data (if any) is thrown away, and which devices understand the result.

Scenario: You’ve obtained an audio or video file that’s either in a format unsupported by the device you intend to play it on—an iOS device, traditional iPod, or your Mac, for example—or in a form ...

Since I put together this new rig and installed Win7 on it, I've been using Windows Media Player to play backups of old mp3's and to rip CD's. In the past I've always used 3rd party software for ...