Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!taco!hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.multimedia Subject: Re: Microsoft Multimedia "Standard" - sim to IFF? Keywords: RIFF,IFF Message-ID: <1991May25.025244.23547@ncsu.edu> Date: 25 May 91 02:52:44 GMT Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Distribution: comp Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 31 > I read recently (last few months?) that Microsoft had a "New" standard > for Multimedia -- This sounded like a file format standard similar > to (:-) the IFF standard on the Amiga. > > Does anyone remember seeing this, and if so, what it is called? Quoting from the IBM/Microsoft Introduction: "RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format) is the tagged file structure developed for multimedia resource files. The structure of a RIFF file is very similar to the structure of an Electronic Arts IFF file. In fact, RIFF is not actually a file format itself (since it does not represent a specific kind of information), but its name contains the words "interchange file format" in recognition of its roots in IFF." > How similar is it to the IFF standard on the Amiga? As noted above, it's similar; yet different enough (especially since it uses Intel byte-ordering) to be incompatible. One neat thing is that chunknames in lowercase are defined to be chunk-specific names. > How/Where can I get a copy of the Microsoft standard?? The quick answer is: from Microsoft! The exact answer is: I lost their address from which I got my copy months ago. It's called "Multimedia Specifications" and contains info on RIFF and MCI (Multimedia Control Interface.. a high level language for external device control). > Please reply by email, since I've been having trouble keeping up I'll email a copy of this msg. best - kevin