how to convert mp3s to wav or other files...

[alton]

Hi Friends,

I am a complete newbie to this site. I have, I think, a simple question. I am working in Garage Band on a Mac and would like to send files to other musicians. I can send them MP3s but some prefer wav files. Can VLC convert MP3s to wav or other audio formats? How is it done? Is there a great difference in sound quality, file size between MP3s and other formats? Any other tips about converting files would be helpful. Thanks in advance for your help.


Best,

alton

[Arite]

VLC can transcode to other formats. It isn't necessarily the best transcoder though since e.g. the output file length can be slightly different (by a few milliseconds so not much difference ) - i.e. not bit-for-bit identical.

MP3 is a lossy audio compression algorithm. WAV is uncompressed audio. Trancoding from a lossy format to another lossy format isn't recommended as you lose quality by doing that.

If you want to convert e.g. a MP3 file to a WAV file in VLC try the commandline:

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vlc --sout "#transcode{acodec=s16l,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:std{access=file,mux=wav,dst=OUTPUT}" INPUT

Where INPUT is your source file, and OUTPUT is you destination (e.g. "/home/username/output.wav" for a *nix based system).

The input can be any audio format that VLC can play.

If you wanted to e.g. convert to AAC (MP4 container):

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vlc --sout "#transcode{acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2,samplerate=44100}:std{access=file,mux=mp4,dst=OUTPUT}" INPUT

Where INPUT is your input file and OUTPUT is your destination (so, as above but with a different extension, e.g. ""/home/username/output.mp4").

The bitrate in the example above is 128kbps - can be changed (to e.g. 160, 192, 256, 320 etc.). Also the sample rate can be changed (to e.g. 48000Hz).

Cheers, Arite.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Maybe our wiki sucks for that part.
Arite, could you add this to our streaming howto? (A new page, I would say)

[Arite]

Sure, I have made a new page called "Streaming HowTo New" in the Documentation namespace:
http://wiki.videolan.org/Documentation: ... _HowTo_New

I thought a whole new page was better than adding a subpage to the old Streaming HowTo to avoid mixing old/new content. There is already an article on transcoding (here), although that is slightly outdated too and focuses on using the commandline. So I thought I'd write a fresh description of transcoding using the GUI and commandline using VLC 1.0.x (and later).

Cheers, Arite.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, the old streaming howto is missing a page for convertion, so I believe you should add this streaming howto in the TOC.

[Arite]

OK, well I could move the article to be a Streaming HowTo subpage? I have added links to it in the Streaming HowTo TOC and main Streaming HowTo page (called "Convert files to other formats".

Arite.