continuous wma

[Guest goose]

Hi,

I can't really tell the difference between MP3 128kbps and WMA 64 kbps when I'm listening to them on the SPV outside with those headphones, so I am going to rip my CDs in that format from now on... only problem is, I have a load of mixed cds, continuous with no breaks between tracks.

Is there a way of encoding a whole CD as one single WMA file? There are plenty of ways to do this in MP3 format, but they are always a lot bigger in size with negligble quality difference...

Madu, saw you had an example of an asx file which consisted of a continuous mixed WMA file - how did you do it? Did you really rip to WAV to MP3 to WMA? Or is there an easy way? :roll:

Also, (nearly done! :) ) is there a way of creating an asx file from a CD? This would be my preferred way of getting music from CD to SPV, I know that I could write an ASX file which would play each track one after the other but that would take ages... looking for a smart solution and hoping that somebody has come across this before!

TIA!

gus

[Guest fozzie]

Is there a way of encoding a whole CD as one single WMA file?

Yep. Use dbPowerAmp Music Converter. It's a piece of cake to use. I did a couple of mix CDs in 64kb/s 2pass VBR wma format yesterday as it happens :)

[Guest goose]

fozzie, you are SO the man.... 15 minutes to rip a full CD to a single 64kbps 2pass VBR WMA file... magic!!! I'm delighted - not only cos I can squeeze way more tunes on my SPV but bandwidth is an issue for a mate that I do stuff for (www.a51djs.com - not sure what kind of continuous mixes you rip..) so 2 birds with one stone! quality!

..now, not to sound ungrateful like :roll: but have you worked out a way of generating ASX files directly from the CD so as to have playlists on the SPV? Maybe a better media player...

Thanks for your help, after initial idiot difficulties (i.e. not downloading the right codec and power pack :oops: !!) i have music in the best format for me! Sweet!

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Moved to help and advice...

[Guest goose]

sorry.. first offence.. wasn't sure as I had read plenty other asx, wma type threads on similar but not identical topics in main... :oops: :oops: :oops:

[Guest madu]

Use the ASX Coder to split that 1 continuous file into tracks by creating an ASX playlist. The tool creates the file for you. All you need to do is:

1) enter _exact_ filename (i use 'rename' in explorer, copy name> paste)

2) enter number of tracks or track times and hit calculate

3) generate the code and paste it in notepad

4) save as [playlist].asx

5) put asx and wma in the same folder on sd.

6) run asx from smartexplorer or create a shortcut to it in startmenu/

enjoy!!

[Guest goose]

thanks madu, I will do this, and have done before, but I was hoping for an even lazier solution :)

with various MP3-ripping tools they automatically create .cue or .m3u sheets, which I guess I can cut & paste the info from but I think I'll work on a way of converting .cue sheets to ask - nothing complicated but it's the easiest thing to get a cue sheet WITH accurate times & track names (if it's been released..) and in theory to burn the CD as it was shouldn't be too much hassle.

Thanks, will post up whatever I come up with for getting .asx files from CD, dunno how hard it would be using freedb or whatever..

[Guest madu]

Good point actually... I will probably do some more work on that app when have free time. Will make it possible to enter custom times per each track.. But nothing easier I'm afraid.. I'm no good at coding anyway.

PS: A workaround (if at all possible) would be to make an ASX from the CD and then just change the reference values in asx file to audio_filename?? [just a thought]

[Guest goose]

I think with a couple regular expressions :roll: it should be possible just to convert .cue sheets to asx files easily enough, so I will do this as I know how to get a cue sheet using something like Exact Audio Copy and freedb. I'm sure it is, prolly a web-based version using php which I'll post the URL for when done if anybody's interested.