[TriLUG] Audio format converter -- WMV to MP3?

[Shane O'Donnell]

On 2/13/06, Cristobal Palmer <cristobalpalmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> If you really want to do what you're saying, you'll need mplayer to
> decode the wmv and lame to encode tha mp3.
>
> BUT
>
> What you're describing (transcoding) means that you're going from a
> lossy format to _another_ lossy format, so you lose quality in the
> process. If your original wmv bitrate was lower than about 192, you'll
> probably be able to hear a difference. Plus, you'll need to choose a
> high mp3 bitrate, which means you'll likely _increase_ the end file
> size. Even if you've got really high-bitrate wmv files, why invest
> that time and energy when you can just play them with mplayer in the
> first place?

Only reason to do it would be, hypothetically, if I was given a whole
bunch of WMV files for which the original source was vinyl and I have
no access to the albums--nor would I personally go to the effort of
converting them...and my portable media player will only play
MP3/WMA/WAV while my Tivo plays only MP3 (that I'm aware of).  With
MP3 as lowest common denominator (accentuate "lowest"), that's the
plan.

And given that the original source is vinyl, I'm not necessarily
wrapped up in retaining all the glory of the hisses and pops anyway...

>
> Better yet, go find the CDs and rip straight to flac. :)
>

CDs?!?!  Oh, you kids and your new-fangled gadgets....

Shane O.