How would I read the file other than into an array?

You can read the entire file into a scalar using the following snippet: 

my $raw_data; { local $/; $raw_data = <FH>; }

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Is there a way to access it a bit at a time?

Yes, using read.

In reply to Re^3: Binary Comparision by ikegami
in thread Binary Comparision by punklrokk

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