wma2mp3 - where is my failure???

[neromen]

Hello Script-Cracks,

newbee needs help (to a not-newbee it will be easy I hope) with wma2mp3 related

Tried trough several weeks now to solve my problem:
Want to change OS from WIN XP to FC5/6, want to convert my legal wma-files to mp3 (using mp3 in my car, ogg would be better...) and using the script wma2mp3 from http://voidmain.is-a-geek.net/files/scripts/wma2mp3.
This are my results:

[root@Daten 1]# wma2mp3 1.wma
MPlayer 1.0pre8-Fedora-GS-4.0.2 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Duron(tm) Processor (Family: 6, Model: 7, Stepping: 0)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.



Playing 1.wma.
ASF file format detected.
Clip info:
name: People In Love
author: 10cc
copyright: (C) 1997 Mercury Records Limited
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/13.61% (ratio: 24002->176400)
Selected audio codec: [ffwmav2] afm: ffmpeg (DivX audio v2 (FFmpeg))
==========================================================================
[AO PCM] File: 1.wav (WAVE)
PCM: Samplerate: 44100Hz Channels: Stereo Format s16le
[AO PCM] Info: Faster dumping is achieved with -vc null -vo null -ao pcm:fast
[AO PCM] Info: To write WAVE files use -ao pcm:waveheader (default).
AO: [pcm] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A: 0.3 (00.3) of 228.0 (03:48.0) ??,?%

Exiting... (End of file)
LAME 3.97 32bits (http://www.mp3dev.org/)
CPU features: MMX (ASM used), 3DNow! (ASM used), SSE
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 18671 Hz - 19205 Hz
Encoding 1.wav to 1.mp3
Encoding as 44.1 kHz 192 kbps j-stereo MPEG-1 Layer III (7.3x) qval=3
Frame | CPU time/estim | REAL time/estim | play/CPU | ETA
14/14 (100%)| 0:00/ 0:00| 0:00/ 0:00| 3.6571x| 0:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kbps LR M$ % long switch short %
192.0 50.0 50.0 14.3 28.6 57.1
Writing LAME Tag...done
ReplayGain: -6.1dB


Seems to be all ok - but the result is a mp3 with only 9kb - I do not know much about this (to me...) brandnew OS - probably someone of this forum know the newbee-trick to solve my problem.

thx for your help

neromen

[Void Main]

This script is Calum's baby. Here is a thread about it:
viewtopic.php?t=407

In fact Calum even started a site just for the script:
http://wma2mp3.501megs.com/

If it's not converting properly then I have to wonder about the format of the source file you are trying to convert. Maybe it's something with DRM in it so it can't be played/converted? Or maybe it's a new WMA format? I would ask for a copy of a file you are having problems converting but it appears they are copyrighted and I assume not distributable. I found an online sample of the file here:

http://www.7digital.com/stores/productD ... sid=530070

but not something that can be downloaded. The file that you download from there is just a text file that streams the audio from a web site. So without a sample I'm not sure I can help. Even with a sample I'm not sure I can help if it's crippled with some sort of DRM. :)

[neromen]

Dear Void Main,

Yes - you are right - there is DRM inside - and i own the right to have the files - I bought them. (my failure, I know...)
The Original-File to this example is 5388 KB - the license-files should be there in a lame-directory or anything other?
The wma is devinitly not online-musik, I have it in my HDD

http://wma2mp3.501megs.com/ I have found - but sorry about, there is no forum like here. Where to get in contact to Calum?

cu
neromen

[Void Main]

Yes - you are right - there is DRM inside - and i own the right to have the files - I bought them. (my failure, I know...)

Actually when DRM is involved "own" isn't really a word you can use since you are restricted in what you can do with it. If you "own" something then you usually have full rights to do whatever you want with that something. Even if I knew how to convert a DRM infested file to another format I believe it may actually be illegal for me to tell you how to do it under the stupid laws relating to DRM. This may not apply to you depending on whatever country you live in but it applies to me (US). The best thing you can do is not pay for such nonsense. You would be much better off buying the CD (assuming the CD isn't crippled) and rip your own tracks. That way you can easily put them in whatever format you need them in to listen to them on whatever you want to listen to them on. Sorry I can't help you there.

Where to get in contact to Calum?

Calum will probably read this within a few days. He visits here frequently.

[Calum]

yes here he is!


well, looking at your first post, it seems like LAME is picking up the file and converting it with 192kbps. I'm not sure what else to ask for. Are you using the most up to date version of wma2mp3 by the way? I believe the one from void's files may be an older one. This shouldn't cause the problem, but it's worth trying.

the only other thing is i could ask you to send me this file by email and see how i get on trying to convert it. If so, let me know and i will PM you my gmail address to send to, depending on the size of the file. Of course, if this file has some useless DRM protection, which prevents it from being played in mplayer, then this is not something i can fix, this is the part of your post that i am concerned about:

Code: Select all

Starting playback...
A: 0.3 (00.3) of 228.0 (03:48.0) ??,?%

Exiting... (End of file)

i'm not sure if the actual original file is being successfully decoded by mplayer in the first instance. Try the following:

Code: Select all

mplayer -ao pcm:file=nameoffile.wav nameoffile

where nameoffile is the name of the file and nameoffile.wav is the name of a wav file to output to for testing. Once you have this wav file (it should take some seconds (or a couple of minutes even) to generate, then try to play it, using winamp or wmp on windows, or play or xmms on *ix, and see if you can hear the file properly. if not, then it's a DRM issue.

[neromen]

Dear Calum,

seems to be DRM-issue...

[root@Daten 1]# mplayer -ao pcm:file=1a.wma 1.wma
MPlayer 1.0pre8-Fedora-GS-4.0.2 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Duron(tm) Processor (Family: 6, Model: 7, Stepping: 0)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.

Playing 1.wma.
ASF file format detected.
Clip info:
name: People In Love
author: 10cc
copyright: (C) 1997 Mercury Records Limited
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg/libavcodec audio decoders
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/13.61% (ratio: 24002->176400)
Selected audio codec: [ffwmav2] afm: ffmpeg (DivX audio v2 (FFmpeg))
==========================================================================
[AO PCM] File: 1a.wma (WAVE)
PCM: Samplerate: 44100Hz Channels: Stereo Format s16le
[AO PCM] Info: Faster dumping is achieved with -vc null -vo null -ao pcm:fast
[AO PCM] Info: To write WAVE files use -ao pcm:waveheader (default).
AO: [pcm] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A: 0.3 (00.3) of 228.0 (03:48.0) ??,?%

Exiting... (End of file)
[root@Daten 1]#

Should I send you together with the drmv1key.bak (license-file) an example? Where I can find your eMail-Adress?

Dear Void Main,

you´re right, it had been a big failure - it never will happen again...
I thought, it would be a very good idea, only to buy the songs I really like without all the other songs I never ever will play.
But now with a crashed OS I have problems with other licence-codes (MS-Office will not be installed any more cause of the serial is already registered to me...) I decided to change completly to Linux-based system.
And if it is possible, I want to take with me all files - not only spreadsheet and word document - my music as well.
And believe me - I´ve learned in the past monthes about all my expensive failures about software in the past years!

cu
/neromen

[JoeDude]

all those spread sheets and word docs can be saved to other media and transferred to linux. There are a couple of Office applications in Linux which are compatible with the MS version. You may have to give up some of that music though... But, you will never have these problems again. Remember, office products that cary viruses can still be written to linux, however, the don't affect linux...they will still be there waiting for another win system to pick them up though! Which brings me to another topic...strating ...


NOW!

[Void Main]

You can use OpenOffice.org on Linux and/or Windows. It's better than M$ office in my opinion. It supports more formats (and can save in PDF for instance). See: www.openoffice.org

[neromen]

Dear Void Main and JoeDude,

I took my decision - and my OS will be linux (with openoffice and all other tools).
But there is a lot of work and time (and money...) which I spent in the music.
I want to save this. Thats all.

cu
/neromen

[Void Main]

I did a google search and it would appear there are apps out there can can convert DRM files. I don't know if there are any free ones, and I'm not quite sure how they are legal under the DMCA laws. I would be careful. I am not sure what else to say but really I think it should be possible if you have the proper codecs available in your MPlayer installation. Hopefully Calum can come up with an answer for you.

[Calum]

Before i start: I have tried to be understandable, in my response below, but please do ask for clarification if i am not making sense to you.

Should I send you together with the drmv1key.bak (license-file) an example? Where I can find your eMail-Adress?

[root@Daten 1]# mplayer -ao pcm:file=1a.wma 1.wma

Okay, now the command you have put in here will output a file called 1a.wma however the file is NOT a wma file, it is a wav file. To avoid confusion, i would have called it 1a.wav instead. Also, some programs won't play wav files, if they end with something other than .wav

Okay, so get your newly created file and change the name so it ends with .wav
Next, try to play this wav file with something (xmms, play, any wav player program) and see if you can hear it.
If you can't listen to it, then check what the filesize is, in case it is very small.

If you can hear the wav file, then the problem is not a DRM issue, and may be able to be resolved, but i would like to know the above information from when you try to play the wav file.

If you can't hear the wav file, then i suspect the reason is that there is some DRM issue stopping you from playing the source wma file properly in mplayer in the first place. Have you tried doing:

Code: Select all

mplayer 1.wma

just to make sure that mplayer can actually play the wma file?

If you *cannot* hear the wav file, and cannot get the wma file to play using mplayer, then i think this is a DRM issue. If this is the case, then you won't get any support from me, and you will have to try to resolve the issue by contacting whoever issued the music file to you originally.

It's outwith my knowledge to fix DRM problems, and it is also against my principles to help someone to play a DRM infected file.

Please do perform the above tests and let me know the outcome. If it's not a DRM issue, then the above troubleshooting information may enable me to figure out where the problem is. Good luck!

[neromen]

Dear Calum,

thx to your support - stopped now the expierience linux - have several thousends of drm-songs and do not want to waste the money.
On M$ there are no Probs (with the right codecs etc.) but with linux drm is stopping me.
Once again - thx and have a lot of fun

cu
/neromen

[Calum]

one day you will appreciate how much you have lost by continuing to waste money paying for DRM infected songs.

until then, you enjoy yourself as well.