wma to mp3?

[VacantlyOccupied]

What's the easiest way to convert a bunch of .wma audio files to mp3's?

 

[kellenarb]

you could use itunes if the wma's aren't copy protected.

 

[MrPhlegm]

Will itunes convert the bit rate for mp3's from 320 to 128 so I could fit more of 'em on the ipod?

 

[dustin_c1]

Becareful with that Phlegm.

As I'm sure you are aware, mp3s use lossy encoding, meaning that when the files are decoded, they are not exact copies of the original.

So in making your 128kbps bitrate mp3s from 320kbps sources, your source file is a lossy decoding that is a lower quality than the original digital source. It's like making a dub of a dub of a cassette tape. Your 128kbps mp3 won't sound as good as a 128kbps mp3 from a CD audio source.

Likewise, transcoding wma to mp3 or iTunes to mp3 will have the same problem. While 128kbps mp3s from CD audio sources sound fine, anytime you trancode from a lossy file format to mp3, you'll want to use a fairly bitrate to minimize the loss in sound quality.

 

[MrPhlegm]

Ah, thanks, then I will just have to wait for apple to increase the size of the drive to 100GB or more. a quarter terrabyte would be nice. Maybe this christmas perhaps.

 

[kellenarb]

You also have to realize that 128kbps WMA is higher quality then 128kbps MP3, so you might not be too far off converting from 320 WMA to 128 MP3.

 

[hollisdude]

convert ALL wma's to mp3's - one word ... tunebites

 

[KMcCoy33]

I had a problem with a few songs like that so I just burned them to a CD and then extracted the CD audio files into MP3 format