3.7-- Setting the output "container" size

Use this selector to choose the desired output container size (either for the default new task settings or for the selected task(s) settings, as determined by the toggle state of the settings panel). This setting determines the word-size used to store each sample. Measured in bits, it must be a multiple of 8, and must be equal to or greater than the bit-depth. In most cases, for reasons of storage efficiency, the container size is chosen to be the closest multiple of 8 above (or equal to) the bit-depth. However, in the case of bit-depths between 18 and 24, a container size of 32 rather than 24 is often used. This is because the 24-bit container requires additional computations in order to re-package each sample into a sequence of three consecutive 8-bit words (for this reason, the format is often referred to as "24-bit packed"). By contrast, use of the 32-bit container requires no re-packaging (for this reason, the format is often referred to as "unpacked"), and is therefore less CPU intensive, albeit with a cost in "wasted" storage space for bit-depths below 32.

Possible values are for container size are:

Output bit-depth	Notes
input	Output container size is set equal to the input container size (which must be within the supported range of [8, 16, 24, 32] ).
8, 16, 24, 32	Choice from list of available container sizes. ReSample will forbid the selection of a container size smaller than the bit-depth, but will allow the selection of any container size larger than the bit-depth. With this complete flexibility, care should be taken not to select a bit-depth/container-size combination that will render the file "non-standard" and therefore potentially unusable in other software environments.