I’ve been trying to convert some files from WMA to MP3 and I need help figuring out what I’m doing wrong. The files are from talking books rather than music, but I assume that doesn’t make any difference.
I’m using Windows XP and used Windows Media to do the conversion, but the files that are outputted are larger than the originals. One file was 481 kb in wma but 1.52 Mb in mp3. The Windows Audio Converter help file says "To convert audio files to MP3 files, you must purchase an MP3 encoder (third-party MP3 Creation Pack). An MP3 encoder is not included with Windows Digital Media Enhancements."
I found a similar Yahoo Question, where the answer had a reference to a website called something like wma-mp3.com and I downloaded Advanced WMA Workshop. This gave me exactly the same problem, with the mp3 files larger than the wma files.
My understanding is that by using mp3 files I should be able to save lots more tracks on the same CD, or load them onto an MP3 player. Is this correct or have I misunderstood this? (I haven’t bought an MP3 player yet – that’s my next step once I figure out how to work with the files!)
What am I doing wrong?
I also tried Switch Sound File Converter and had exactly the same problem.
OK, I’ll try to explain music encoding in a short space:
1) All things being the same, I’ve heard that WMA files _CAN_ be a little smaller than MP3 under the same circumstances.
2) File size is directly dependent upon the "Bit-Rate" used during the conversion.
For example:
The sound quality of "music on hold" over a telephone vs. the same music on a CD. The phone is a lower quality than the CD, therefore you would expect the file-size of the CD music to be larger than the phone quality one. Are you with me here?
Spoken voice is also a lower-quality than either CD or Phone-music would be (work with me here, I’m trying to cover a lot of stuff here<smile>).
So, given that your original is from a "spoken" (aka talking book) the file-size would be expected to be kinda small. Now, we take a bit of a jump here.
By converting (aka transcoding) the spoken quality into a different format, without taking the "quality" into account, you got the default bit-rate. I’d expect it to be set around 128. Look around in the preferences and you are bound to find something that lets you adjust the bit-rate (i.e. how many bits per second will be used in the converted copy).
Generally speaking there is a "scale" that has cheap AM radio quality sound at one end (around 48-96), FM radio quality in the middle (around 96-128), Near CD quality (around 128-196) and High CD quality at 196+ at the other end.
Now, don’t make a common mistake, don’t transcode at a higher rate than the original was made at. The quality isn’t there in the original, so the copy can’t possibly have any better quality. As an example, imagine recording a phone converstaion onto a CD, what kind of quality would you expect to get? Phone quality of course, that’s what you started with.
Make Sense?
So,that should explain why your mp3 is larger than your wma.
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:26 am
OK, I’ll try to explain music encoding in a short space:
1) All things being the same, I’ve heard that WMA files _CAN_ be a little smaller than MP3 under the same circumstances.
2) File size is directly dependent upon the "Bit-Rate" used during the conversion.
For example:
The sound quality of "music on hold" over a telephone vs. the same music on a CD. The phone is a lower quality than the CD, therefore you would expect the file-size of the CD music to be larger than the phone quality one. Are you with me here?
Spoken voice is also a lower-quality than either CD or Phone-music would be (work with me here, I’m trying to cover a lot of stuff here<smile>).
So, given that your original is from a "spoken" (aka talking book) the file-size would be expected to be kinda small. Now, we take a bit of a jump here.
By converting (aka transcoding) the spoken quality into a different format, without taking the "quality" into account, you got the default bit-rate. I’d expect it to be set around 128. Look around in the preferences and you are bound to find something that lets you adjust the bit-rate (i.e. how many bits per second will be used in the converted copy).
Generally speaking there is a "scale" that has cheap AM radio quality sound at one end (around 48-96), FM radio quality in the middle (around 96-128), Near CD quality (around 128-196) and High CD quality at 196+ at the other end.
Now, don’t make a common mistake, don’t transcode at a higher rate than the original was made at. The quality isn’t there in the original, so the copy can’t possibly have any better quality. As an example, imagine recording a phone converstaion onto a CD, what kind of quality would you expect to get? Phone quality of course, that’s what you started with.
Make Sense?
So,that should explain why your mp3 is larger than your wma.
References :
can you tell I taught computers for 12 years? <wink>
February 22nd, 2010 at 1:11 am
You need a audio format converter:
My choice is: http://www.audioconverterpro.com/
I get this one a few years ago, and it’s the best thing ever. I tested a few dozen software before making my choice and this one does everything.
It will even create new folders, or use whatever structure that you want it too. And it’s very fast.
But most good MP3 players will play WMA.
I prefer WMA because they are more stable and overall smaller for better quality.
For example, let’s say that you have an MP3 file that’s 4Mb with a bitrate of 192 (high quality); in WMA, for the same quality, your bitrate could be 128, and the file would be 3Mb instead.
The only thing with WMA, is that it’s just not as universal as MP3, but the software I linked to, solves that problem.
References :
over 20 years in video/audio/photography/computers