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Disc2Phone replacement that does WMA? |
siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
Following on from my earlier discussion where I discovered that the W800 doesn't do WMA :
(http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=101440)
My issue is that I would like somthing like disc2phone that works with WMA files as well as MP3.
Functionality required is easy pick and choose (ideally importing a playlist) of files, regardless of audio file type and bitrate, and to be able to transfer them in a supported format and lower bitrate to the W800.
Any recommendations?
Simon |
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evinco
Joined: Jun 25, 2004
Posts: 60
From: Brisbane, Australia
PM |
As much as I hate iTunes as a program (not just because I hate Apple  ), it's the only thing I've found somewhere to do the job relatively easily (support for playlist, various input, AAC/mp3 output, etc). However, I couldn't seem to stop it putting my music into annoying directories (...\artist_name\album_name\tracknumber_trackname.m4a) which is okay if you're doing whole albums but very very annoying for individual songs. If you do find a workaround to this please let me know  |
numb
Joined: Feb 07, 2005
Posts: > 500
PM |
Personally I find it much simpler to just use any software (dbpoweramp, mediaplayer, itunes, whatever) to do the conversion, saving the files in a folder I called K750 on my computer.
Then manually copy the files to my phone/memorycard afterwards.
I allways find it limiting to use a specific software that "does it all" because they allways seem to have something they dont do. Like importing certain fileformats or limiting output or like Itunes creating stupid folders etc.
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siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
Thanks for the input folks. Unfortunately iTunes is no good, as it doesn't do downsampling to match the target device's capacity. It doesn't sync with anything other than an ipod either.
dbPowerAmp is the "best" that I've seen so far, but is a bit kludgy in its interface.
Windows Media Player is no good, as it won't downsample to anything other than WMA.
Seems like there is a gap in the market! At this rate, I'm going to have to write my own util.
Cheers,
Simon |
numb
Joined: Feb 07, 2005
Posts: > 500
PM |
Most of the time I use DBpoweramp with the Nero AAC codec to create .mp4 suited for the phone. Yes it is a bit kludgy in its interface.
Mediaplayer will also downsample to mp3, you just need to enable it with a small registryhack, and select mp3 under settings.
Itunes will downsample to whatever bitrate you choose under settings.
I dont know what you mean by "to match the target device's capacity" are you refering to space left on the memorycard or bitrate ? The phone will play any mp4 bitrate up to 320kbits, but that is way overkill, mp4 128-160kbits gives very good quality for the phone. |
siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
Hi, would be very very interested in the registry hack - do you have any further information, as that would be perfect for me.
By downsampling, I mean to reduce the size of a high bit rate file, be it in WMA lossless, VBR MP3 etc, down to a size more appropriate to the limited storage capacity on the Memory Stick.
Cheers,
Simon |
Jools
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
@evinco: It's unbelievably easy to stop iTunes keeping your music organised. It's in the Preferences (of course) > Advanced > then uncheck "Keep iTunes Music folder organised".
@ siwatkins: iTunes downsamples to whatever bitrate you choose. Downsampling to fit the available space is pointless, because eventually as you add more and more music its gonna sound like old AM radio quality! And everytime you add more music to the device it would have to downsample everything again to compensate for the reduced space per track.
As someone who's ripped their entire music collection in WMA lossless format I would have thought audio quality was important to you?
Is it really so hard to use iTunes (or whatever you prefer) to downsample (if you must lose quality) then drag 'n' drop the files to the phone?
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numb
Joined: Feb 07, 2005
Posts: > 500
PM |
create a txt file called something.reg
add this:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Settings]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Settings\MP3Encoding]
"LowRate"=dword:0001f400
"MediumRate"=dword:00027100
"MediumHighRate"=dword:00036b00
"HighRate"=dword:0004e200
Run the reg file and you can now select mp3 for encoding in mediaplayer
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siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
JoolsG4: My music collection is predominantly in lossless. Lossless = large files. I want to downsample those files for use on a 512Mb Memory Stick. Clearly on a PC based storage system where storage is (to all intents and purposes) unlimited, and audio quality is of primary importantance, size is of little relevance. On a 512Mb memory stick, then a compromise can be made. To use iTunes results in duplicate files and wasted storage. It also doesn't downsample MP3s as far as I can see?
Numb: thanks for the info, will try later.
[ This Message was edited by: siwatkins on 2005-08-20 12:43 ]
[ This Message was edited by: siwatkins on 2005-08-20 12:53 ] |
siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
numb: Those keys are for initial rip settings, not for "Sync" transcoding. Windows Media Player 10 will encode by default without the registry key changes.
What I need to be able to do is transcode any input format then output to mp3 at a specified bitrate using the Sync tab. At present, the Sync function will only output WMA. |
Jools
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
I understand why you want to downsample, I never said otherwise. But obviously the more tunes you want to fit in a 512mb MS the less the quality will be.
However, as you've already got most of your music collection in lossless WMA, and the W800 doesn't support Microsofts proprietary formats, you're going to have a doubling up of data anyway, just to get the tunes you want on the phone.
Unless there's an application that converts WMA > AAC/MP3, copies it to the phone, then immediately deletes the just converted file from your hard disk you'll always have both the original WMA and the converted AAC/MP3 file.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, because as you said, your PC storage is virtually unlimited. The downside to only keeping the WMA files is everytime you change the tracks in the phone, they have to be re-downsampled.
iTunes definately can downsample MP3's (at least on my Mac it can).
If you were using a Mac, you could easily set up a Smart Folder on your desktop, into which any dropped audio file as automatically re-sampled to whatever bitrate you wanted, copied to the phone, and then deleted.
Unfortunately, I've no idea whether this is possible on Windows.
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jcwacky
Joined: Aug 10, 2005
Posts: 32
PM |
Easy CD-DA Extractor should be able to do everything you are after, it will convert from and to practically any audio format at an bitrate, you can tell it how to structure its output directories so that it meets the same structure as the K750/W800 and loads more!
I suggest you guys take a look. It is incredibly customisable, unlike that Itunes crap.
http://www.poikosoft.com/
[ This Message was edited by: jcwacky on 2005-08-20 13:47 ] |
siwatkins
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Posts: 31
PM |
JoolsG4 - I know that downsampling reduces the quality. I think my mother knows that downsampling reduces the quality. That's how mp3's work. If you are using mp3, you have to take a compromise on file size vs quality. That's the whole point.
It is NOT necessary to have duplicate files - there are applications that can transcode and resample on the fly. In fact, disc2phone does just that. Windows Media Player does just that. The only issue is that it the former doesn't do it from WMA files and the latter doesn't transcode to other than wma.
iTunes completely sucks goats in a non-Ipod environment, so it is not going to be a runner for what I want to do.
Have just discovered Music Match Jukebox, which looks like it does exactly what I want it to do - it has support for Portable devices, and can transcode to them. Without duplicate files. It alos looks like WinAmp with a transcoder plug in will also do what I want to do.
jcwacky: Will check out the other options mentioned (eg CD-DA).
Cheers,
Simon
[ This Message was edited by: siwatkins on 2005-08-20 14:01 ] |
evinco
Joined: Jun 25, 2004
Posts: 60
From: Brisbane, Australia
PM |
@JoolsG4
I tried that option a while ago, but it didn't seem to have any effect! =/ I assumed my version of iTunes was partly broken somewhere, but I've moved on to other software so never bothered fixing it
[ This Message was edited by: evinco on 2005-08-20 15:17 ] |
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Posted: 2005-08-19 22:39
