Types of Audio Files

Downloading audio is a matter of balancing speed of the download with recording resolution and the length of the recording. A longer, higher resolution recording is larger and takes longer to download. With a high speed internet connection, this may not be a concern, but receiving a long, high resolution recording over a low speed link can be quite tedious.
Most of the service recordings on this site may be downloaded in one of four different formats. RealAudio is a highly compressed format that can create different levels of resolution, based on the settings used. It is available for most home computers, including Apple and PC. These files are downloaded, then listened to after the download is complete. They require the RealPlayer, which may be downloaded for free from the button at the bottom of the archive page.
Windows Media is available only for Windows. The Windows Media Player comes installed with Windows. It is a streaming format. This means that when the file is accessed, the system will fill a small buffer, then activate the Media player. It will continue to download the file, while playing the recording at the same time. In order to play the recording in real time, though, it requires a relatively high speed internet connection.
For those in a hurry, or with a slower, dial up connection, we have recorded the sermon alone in a lower resolution format, adequate for voice only. Most of these files are only one to two megabytes in size and are accessed using the RealPlayer.
If you would like to hear the entire service, but can put up with a slightly lower fidelity, the entire service is also available in a low resolution format. This is usually about ten megabytes and again requires the RealPlayer.
A high resolution format of the entire service in RealPlayer format is 80 to 100 megabytes.
If a high speed connection is being used, the Windows Media player will stream the data with the highest resolution. It is also the most convenient, since the streaming format usually allows the recording to being playing in less than a minute. However, since the WMA files are 120 to 150 megabytes in size, and the streaming data must be received before it can be played, trying to access them with a lower speed connection will cause inconsistent results.