How to convert MP3 files to WMA?? (1 Viewer)

[Christopher Chung]

Hi,

I'm considering buying a Sonicblue Rio 600 MP3 player and I hear you can save more space by converting 128kHz MP3's to WMA (Windows Media Files). How is this all done, and a side note... has anybody heard anything good about the Rio 600 MP3 Players?

Thanks!

 

[ChrisLee]

You would lose resolution in the sound because first it would decompress your mp3 into a wav file then re-encode it into a wma file. Better just to re-encode everything from the source CDs to wma's.

 

[Masood Ali]

ChrisLee, I think you assume everyone always has the source CD for their MP3s, which is often times not the case.
Converting from MP3 to WMA will lower the resolution a little bit, but you'll increase your capacity greatly by doing so; a tradeoff you can decide the worth of.
Go here and download the Media Player Bonus Pack, which has an MP3 to WMA converter.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Don't do it. 128kbit MP3 is already borderline when it comes to quality on headphones. Then you lose quality re-encoding, and if you re-encode to an even lower bitrate with WMA you lose even more.

Well, you can try of course, but I doubt the result will be anything very pleasant. Maybe I'm overly pessimistic, but... I find material encoded below 160 or preferrably 192 to be objectionable in many cases.

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

Don't do it. 128kbit MP3 is already borderline when it comes to quality on headphones. Then you lose quality re-encoding, and if you re-encode to an even lower bitrate with WMA you lose even more.

People, this is digital information. It's not like he is recording from CDs onto Tapes. Windows XP plus will convert the mp3 files to WMA for you, and they sound pretty good, it's a different encryption scheme. I was part of the Windows XP focus group that decided what features people would and would not use.

 

[MichaelG]

Digital information can degrade when compressed. Compress a .gif file to a .jpg and the picture will lose information. Just like compressing a .wav file to .mp3 file will lose some information. By degrade I simply mean that there will be loss of information from the original.

Whether or not a focus group decided that people wanted to be able to convert the mp3 files to WMA for you, that has nothing to do with the quality of the conversion.

As far as sounds quality, that is user specific. Some people will notice the difference, others won't. Try it for yourself and decide.

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

My point in discussing the fact that I was on the focus group that developed Windows XP Plus was to tell you that the conversion from mp3 to wma was lossless and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. (This has been demonstrated)

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

I find that very hard to believe, myself. I fail to see how it can sound identical since both MP3 and WMA are lossy compression schemes. Perhaps the audible degradation isn't as huge as I first thought but it certainly can't help the sound any - what's in the (crappy) 128kbit MP3 will still be evident in the likewise crappy WMA encoded file.

If the WMA is indeed smaller than the original MP3 then at some point the sound will have to have been decoded and re-encoded in WMA, right?

Either way, I don't think WMA is a good idea anyway since it's a proprietary format. Variable bitrate MP3 is what I'll stick to until something else comes along that gets the same level of market penetration - among multiple vendors, not just Microsoft...

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

Mp3 is a proprietary format also. It's a codec that people have to license, JUST like WMA.

 

[Dave F]

the conversion from mp3 to wma was lossless and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. (This has been demonstrated)

It wasn't demonstrated on my PC & mp3 player. I converted some 192kHz mp3's to wma, and they sounded like crap. You are much much much better encoding from the original CD/wav files.

-Dave

 

[Joseph S]

Mp3 is a proprietary format also. It's a codec that people have to license, JUST like WMA

mp3 is a universal standard, unlike WMA. You can decode mp3 for free, encoding requires a fee be paid by the manufacturer of the encoder. WMA is closed, specs unknown, and platform specific. I'd sooner encode my stuff in Ogg Vorbis than in something I can have zero knowledge about and can play only on a very limited number of items.

WMA is propietary in that it only runs on Windows. There are no encoding codecs for Mac, UNIX, Linux, etc and there can be none for there are no specs by which to create one.

The only non windows player doesn't even work so I'd say it can only be played back on Microsoft systems as well.