8
3
I have thousands of music tracks in WMA format from when I used to use Windows Media Player to rip CDs. Now I'm having problems playing them on my Linux desktop at work.
Is there a good solution (for Windows or Linux) for converting all the WMAs to MP3s while leaving them in the same directories as before? I tried using iTunes to do it, but it started creating new directories to store all the converted tracks, which I don't want.
1In Linux (what distro, by the way?) some combination of
find -execdir
andffmpeg
should do it, but I will run some test before I post an answer. – William Jackson – 2011-06-19T19:27:02.0472Be aware that any time you convert between lossy formats, you lose quality. Whether that loss in quality is audible depends on the original quality, the the encoder you're using for the transcode, your playback equipment, and your ears. If it were me, I would look at re-ripping the CDs (if possible) rather than transcoding. Even though I know that takes a lot more time. You might also consider storing your ripped CDs in a lossless format (FLAC is my favorite, but there are others), and transcoding that to MP3 for your portable MP3 player, etc. That of course requires more disk space. – Flimzy – 2011-06-19T21:38:48.840
@William: At work I use openSUSE, at home I use linux mint (ubuntu) and windows 7. I'll have to check out ffmpeg when I have time and see if I can write a bash script or something. If you post an answer that works then I'll mark that – Eddy – 2011-07-01T11:47:50.613
@Flimzy: I'll try converting a few tracks and check by ear whether I notice the loss in quality. I'm not an audiophile so I suspect it will probably be ok for me, but better safe than sorry I suppose – Eddy – 2011-07-01T11:49:30.303
I use DB PowerAmp Music Converter for this, awesome software but not free (mp3 license required)...http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm
– Moab – 2011-07-05T12:49:29.863