An old 1990's lecture by Hawking

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around an old audio lecture by Stephen Hawking that a participant has attempted to rip from a CD. The focus is on the quality of the audio file, its unexpected small file size, and potential methods to restore or improve the sound quality.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant reports that the audio quality of the ripped lecture is poor, with interruptions and discontinuities, and seeks advice on how to fix it.
  • Another participant inquires about the title, date, and location of the lecture, as well as the original quality of the sound, suggesting that a better copy might exist online.
  • A participant mentions that the file size reported by Windows is only 44 bytes, which they find suspicious for a full hour of lecture, and explains that .cda files are merely stubs that do not contain actual audio data.
  • There is a suggestion that audio editing programs may allow playback of .cda files, but this is contingent on the software's capabilities.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express uncertainty about the original quality of the audio and the implications of the small file size. There is no consensus on how to resolve the audio quality issue or whether a better version of the lecture exists.

Contextual Notes

The discussion highlights limitations related to the understanding of .cda files and the potential for data loss during the ripping process. The original source of the lecture remains unclear, and the Wayback Machine's inability to retrieve it adds to the uncertainty.

mad mathematician
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I have some old cd which I ripped to it back then an old lecture of Stephen Hawking from www.
Unfortunately for me the quality of the sound is terrible (it's not continuous and it halts at times and then resound).
I am playing it with winamp.
Is there anyway I can fix it that it will sound as in the original time I downloaded it?

Another peculiar feature of this audio file from the cd, that my windows tells me it weighs only 44bytes (approximately 1kb), which seems incorrect to me, surely a wav file back then weighed a few MB (I mean it's from my memory a full hour or so of lecture).

Ah the voice of Hawking,"the no boundary proposal"... :oldbiggrin:
 
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Do you know the title and date and location of the lecture?
Do you recall the source and/or url where you got it from?
There may be a good copy on the internet (possibly the wayback machine).

Was the original sound (from the cd) of good quality? And the rip was poor? Or was the rip also good but somehow degraded (some kind of file error on the media)?
 
I can't really remember from which website it was downloaded, I guess it's either Cambridge's cosmology old website, Hawking.org.uk or Kavli's website.

According to the windows os this file was ripped into the CD (simple CDR) at the date of 01.01.1995.
I copy paste it to my laptop from the DVD drive, in the attachment there's this file.

I can't really tell you from where did I download it cause I don't remember, but the wayback machine doesn't get that way back...

Let me know if you can fix it.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/8xzfiyd4aziwgsv/Track01.cda/file
 
mad mathematician said:
It doesn't work for me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.cda_file
.cda is a common filename extension denoting a small (44 byte) stub file generated by Microsoft Windows for each audio track on a standard "Red Book" CD-DA format audio CD as defined by the Table of Contents (ToC) (within the lead-in's subcode). These files are shown in the directory for the CD being viewed in the format Track##.cda, where ## is the number of each individual track.

The .cda files do not contain the actual PCM sound wave data, but instead tell where on the disc each track starts and stops. If the file is "copied" from the CD to a computer, it cannot be used on its own because it is only a shortcut to part of the disc. However, some audio editing and CD creation programs will, from the user's perspective, load .cda files as though they are actual audio data files, and allow the user to listen to them.
 
you can try playing it with winamp, unfortunately as I said it sounds discontinuous.
 

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