TTA file format (.tta)

What is a TTA file?

In short: A TTA file (.tta) is an audio file in the TTA format. TTA compresses losslessly with a deliberately simple algorithm, so it decodes quickly on very modest hardware. It can be converted to MP3, WAV or FLAC for free in a web browser with iHateFiles, without uploading it.

True Audio, released in 2004 with an emphasis on simple, fast decoding.

TTA compresses losslessly with a deliberately simple algorithm, so it decodes quickly on very modest hardware. It found a niche on early portable players that could not manage FLAC comfortably, which is a problem that no longer exists.

What TTA is good at

• Lossless
• Fast decoding on weak processors
• Open and free

Where TTA falls short

• Compresses less well than FLAC
• Very limited support
• The problem it solved has gone away

When to use TTA

Convert TTA to FLAC: smaller files and vastly better support, with nothing lost.

How to open a TTA file

Foobar2000 and VLC.

The thing that usually goes wrong

Both formats are lossless, so this conversion is entirely free of consequences.

Inside a TTA file

True Audio is lossless compression built around a deliberately simple prediction algorithm, which makes it unusually cheap to decode. That was the pitch: FLAC-class compression that a very weak processor could handle, at a time when portable players had very weak processors.

Hardware moved faster than adoption did. By the time TTA was stable, players could decode FLAC comfortably, and the reason to choose TTA evaporated. It retains a following in the Russian-speaking audio community, and most files in circulation come from there.