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whats the best tool to convert wma files to mp3.

Discussion in 'Audio' started by driffty, Dec 23, 2004.

  1. driffty

    driffty Member

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    hi,
    i have an archos 480.i have transferd about 3000 tracks to this in wma format 160kbs.
    but for some reason my archos doesnt like wma too much,after one second of a knew track starting theres a slight delay then the music kicks in again.then quiet often during play there are breaks.this happens to all tracks in wma.
    i have tried lowering the bite rate,still the same,it only plays well with mp3,unfortunatly all my ripped music is now in wma.
    i have tried using blaze media and audio converter .they work ok but i cant do a batch convertion,only album by album.allso when i transfer to archos the tracks come up as unknown album.so ill have no easy way to select tracks.
    i really dont want to start ripping the hole lot again.that would be the 3rd time.
    please some body help.........
     
  2. diabolos

    diabolos Guest

    The best thing to do would be to rip it all again. I'm sorry to say it but converting from WMA to Mp3 is going to make the audio quality drop.

    The best Mp3 encoder is the LAME (encoder). The most current stable version is v3_96_1. There are allot of good encoders out there but the one I manly use and recommend is [bold]dBPowerAMP (dMC)[/bold].

    Here is a link to good clean software:
    http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/127334

    If you don't want to re-rip everything you could try encoding everything to a lossless codec or Wave format and then encoding everything to Mp3 too maintain (atleast) the sound quality of the WMA file. This method however requires allot of hard drive disc space.

    Ced
     
  3. driffty

    driffty Member

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    cheers diabolos.
    thats what i was expecting to hear.i should have known better and stayed away from windows based format.
    there is a good point though,i can weed out a lot stuff that i should have left on the cd shelf in the 1st place and it will give me something to do over christmas.
    thanks again and hope you have a good one.
    neil
     
  4. DaveO1959

    DaveO1959 Member

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    I have had a similar problem to yours. Not that my Archos would not play WMA files but that I somehow have managed to screw up Windows Media player 10 such that it won't convert any file.

    So having ripped my CD's into WMA lossless I ended up with no way to get them out to the Arhcos in a playable format.

    I have used dbpoweramp to convert lossless WMA to MP3 @ 192 and listening to the results on the Archos they sound fine to me. If I had the time I would probably re-rip my collection to MP3 @ 320 but I needed to get some music on the player to take away for a New Year holiday and this program has saved my bacon.

    Another alternative converter is iTunes. iTunes will convert WMA to AAC or MP3 and is free (dbpoweramp requires a small payment for the MP3 codec after 30 days) but I don't know how it stacks up quality-wise.

    I downloaded iTunes to try it but noticed ripping to MP3 and transferring to the Archos some of the tags are not set up whereas they are with WMA MP3 rips and remain so if you convert from WMA lossless using dbpoweramp.

    Finally, here is a supplimentary question. How good is the MP3 ripping of Windows Media Player quality wise?

    Dave
     
  5. squizluke

    squizluke Regular member

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    I have to agree with dave and diabolos. dBPowerAMP (dMC)seems to work realy well and i have recomended it to a few ppl i know. but u will have to download the wma plugin but that shoul be no hastle. its free and easy to install.
     
  6. diabolos

    diabolos Guest

    At the time I posted I was unaware of dBPowerAMP's new fee for Mp3 burnning after 30 days. Release 10.1 was completely free.

    Ced
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2005
  7. Veblin

    Veblin Active member

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  8. driffty

    driffty Member

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    cheers for all your sugestions,
    i acctualluy delated the lot and started ripping again.
    but this time i was more selective with the cd,s.i got it down to two hundred.
    loaded it onto the archos ready for winter vacation in thailand plus six movies.
    all was going fine untill i bent down with archos in my back pocket to pick up my doughter.after that there was a read access error(something that i,ve had a few times now)so when i landed i tried to rectify this on a pc,only it wiped all the files...grrrrrrrrr.
    so now im out here with no tunes or movies.
    o,well at least the tsunami didnt get me.god bless the soles it did.
     

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