Converting MP3's

[Guest ob1]

Hi, though this is my first post, I've been reading threads on this site for a while. I recently got the smt5600 and I love it. I wouldn't have had the guts to even buy the phone and unlock it if it weren't for the info I got here. Thanks!

I was reading a post not too long ago that explained how to convert MP3's to a smartphone format (don't know what) that cuts the size by 2/3, so that 3MB MP3 would be around 1MB on the phone.

Unfortunately, I can't find the post anymore. :roll: Anyone have suggestions on where to find the tread or other options for shrinking audio files on the phone? Thanks...

[Guest Disco Stu]

Welcome to the forum :(

The first thread I could come up with is this one :

http://www.modaco.com/HOW_TO_Converting_MP...WAVs-t3235.html

If you're thinking of wma format you'll need Windows Media Encoder I think. It's freely available with a quick Google. Windows Media Player may even be able to do it nowadays.

Someone's going to come along and shame me very soon though because I'm not an expert on this and there's bound to be a better solution :oops: :o

[Guest ob1]

Welcome to the forum  :(

The first thread I could come up with is this one :

http://www.modaco.com/HOW_TO_Converting_MP...WAVs-t3235.html

If you're thinking of wma format you'll need Windows Media Encoder I think. It's freely available with a quick Google. Windows Media Player may even be able to do it nowadays.

Someone's going to come along and shame me very soon though because I'm not an expert on this and there's bound to be a better solution  :oops:  :o

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow, you guys are fast! Cool, thx stu, I'll give it a go...

[Guest effbee]

I just use the Sync option in XPs Media Player 10 it coverts them as needed on the fly.

[Guest mossywell]

There are plenty of apps to do the mp3 to wma conversion, from high end audio apps to windows media player. Persoanlly, of the freeware, I'd go for Windows Media Encoder: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...er/default.aspx.

But, a word of caution... remember that mp3s are encoded in a "lossy" way. That is, information has been discarded when creating the mp3 to keep the file size down. The same is true when creating wma files*. However, they don't throw the same stuff away (well, in truth, some of it is the same stuff, namely the high "inaudible" frequencies, but much of it is not the same). So, when you go from mp3 to wma, you're going to be degrading the sound quality even more than it is already even if the resulting wma file is bigger than the original mp3! So, my advice is (assuming you are interested in sound quality):

1. Once you have a lossy format such as mp3, try to avoid converting it to another lossy format if at all possible. E.g., find a player for mp3s perhaps.

2. When converting, try different levels of compression and listen to the result. If you manage to compress it using media encoder to 1/10 the original size and you're happy with the result, then go for it - it's your ears that cound after all!

* OK, there is in fact a type of lossless wma, but I'm ignoring this as a 320 kbps mp3 converted to a lossless wma results in ("usually") a file that is 3 to 4 times the mp3 size.

HTH

M

[Guest Driekus]

dBpowerAMP is great for converting audio files (mp3->wma for instance):

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/

I use it to convert my mp3's to 64kbps wma's, which is enough for me, especially on a C500. I never notice a lot of quality loss.

It's a really easy program, it even shows in the "right-click-menu", so just select a number of songs you want to convert, right click your mouse and select "convert to".

Edited September 26, 2005 by Driekus