This method is mainly intended to be used with 8-bit (mono and stereo) PCM, mu-Law and a-Law wave files. It can also be used with 16-bit (mono and stereo) PCM wave files, but in this case it will automatically convert them to 8-bit. Please note that this is a limitation in the DICOM standard and not in the method itself.
This method is very useful when creating DICOM objects of type "Basic Voice Audio" (1.2.840.10008.5.1.4.1.1.9.4.1), which is typically used for report dictation. Two of the main constraints of this IOD are the sampling frequency, which should be 8000; and sample interpretation, which should be unsigned 8-bit linear, 8-bit mu-law or 8-bit A-law. For more information about this object, refer to "Basic Voice Audio Information Object Definition" and "Basic Voice Audio IOD Content Constraints" in the DICOM standard.