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Author Topic: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?  (Read 901 times)

Striker

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Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« on: April 29, 2024, 01:24:13 pm »

I have selected an mp3 file and tried "convert format" to flac and I can click the button and I see the status as "In Queue", but nothing happens.

I've never had this issue before with v30 32 bit  (running v32 64 bit now)

(yes I know I will not gain any quality, but I want to edit the file and dont' want another round of lossy losses when I save it)
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JimH

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2024, 01:25:27 pm »

It won't help.  Don't do it.
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Striker

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2024, 01:29:25 pm »

It won't help.  Don't do it.

I have already stated that I know there will be no gain in quality converting from mp3 to flac.

Either way... MC used do do the conversion with a warning, now it lets me select flac and the Convert button is there and clickable, but nothing happens.

Why does the MC gui allow me to select a file for conversion and then do nothing?

From the wiki...

Quote
Audio Conversion

When converting Audio Formats you have a wide range of formats to choose from (popular ones include, FLAC, APE, MP3, Uncompressed) as well as the ability to configure the various encoder settings (such as Bitrate, quality etc)
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dtc

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #3 on: April 29, 2024, 02:57:24 pm »

I just tried it and it gave me a strong warning message but allowed me to proceed and did the conversion.  This is with 32.0.42. Not sure why yours does not work, but it does for me.
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Striker

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #4 on: April 29, 2024, 03:11:59 pm »

I just tried it and it gave me a strong warning message but allowed me to proceed and did the conversion.  This is with 32.0.42. Not sure why yours does not work, but it does for me.

Thank you for testing.  I have restarted MC and rebooted and nothing changes.

I would sure appreciate some troubleshooting help from JRiver to know what to check...

I don't think I tried a conversion on v32, but it for sure worked with v30.

I tried to convert a flac to flac (silly) but it had a progress bar and completed.

I cannot convert a flac to wav either.

I know v32 can convert from mp3 to flac... because when copying mp3 audiobooks to a flash drive for use in my vehicle, I do convert to flac for that copy... (because my vehicle has trouble with long mp3 files).
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dtc

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #5 on: April 29, 2024, 04:35:31 pm »

I can convert from flac to wav. I am using 64 bit.

What version are you on? Maybe install (or reinstall) the latest version - 42.
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Striker

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #6 on: April 29, 2024, 06:32:38 pm »

Hi Jim,

I understand that you believe I am trying to do conversions you think are bad.

Still, there is something different on my PC that others say work, so I'm asking for help to know why.

Another reason I do conversions... is when I have an mp3 music file and I get a flac version.  My process is to convert my existing mp3 files to flac and then make sure the file names match and then I copy the "real" flac files over the converted mp3 files and then have MC update the tags from the library.  Maybe there is a better way to do this, and I'm open to ideas, but for years it's worked for me.

Still the issue is not if I'm doing a conversion that is not best, the issue is why MC will let some do those conversions and not allow me to and I was asking for help from JRiver to figure it out.

I believe (could be wrong) that repeated saves of an mp3 file will result is even lower quality as even more bits are removed or altered.  I have the same belief with jpg files, each save lowers quality.

So when I want to edit a music file, I convert it to lossless, forever saving the current mp3 quality and then do my edit and keep it as flac (hard drive space is cheap).  Today I wanted to edit out 2 minutes of dialog on a live track before the music started.  I ended up using another program to do the conversion for me.

This is from the GoldWave sound editor program I use in their forum.

Quote

    Yes. Editing will degrade an MP3 if you re-save it as MP3 because it's getting compressed again.

    If you save-as WAV (or FLAC) there will be no further degradation. (With lossy compression, data is thrown-away during compression, not during decompression and it's going to be decompressed when it's played anyway.)

    GoldWave (and all "regular" audio editors) decompress the audio when you open the file. If you re-save the file in a lossy format (such as MP3) you are going through another generation of lossy compression and some "damage" DOES accumulate. You may not hear the quality loss with one decompress/re-compress cycle but it's something to be aware of and you should try to minimize the number of times it's compressed.


Anyway I assume we will disagree and that is okay.  I would just appreciate some help in how to correct a problem on my PC where an MC feature does not work for me.  Since it works for others, I assume it's my PC, but maybe it's something you can help me fix.

My first purchase was for MediaJukebox 8 way back when...  I could sure use some help now.

Thanks for reading.
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Striker

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ? [SOLVED]
« Reply #7 on: April 29, 2024, 07:02:46 pm »

Okay I am humbled... 

Forum member dtc suggested that I check that I updated my v30 Windows Defender setting to tame v32 since I recently updated from v30.

I did have c:\program files\J River set in Defender thinking it would cover sub-directories... well it seems that was wrong.

I specifically added C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 32 and now the convert format works.

I promise to never chuckle to myself anymore when people immediately suggest "anti-virus" as a possible issue.

Jim may want to add this to his Weird and wonderful (freak problems and their solutions) thread.



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dtc

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #8 on: April 29, 2024, 09:27:39 pm »

Glad you got it to work.

Actually, I do not have an explicit exclusion for MC32, but I do have a Process exemption for 

Program Files\J River\*
 
in addition to a Folder exemption for

Program Files\J River

The combination of those allows the conversions to work for me without having to have exemptions for version specific folders or executables.

Anyway, glad it is working.
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terrym@tassie

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #9 on: April 30, 2024, 05:59:03 pm »

Have a look at this https://mpesch3.de/, it's a lossless mp3 editor, might save you some time in your workflow.
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Striker

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Re: Unable to convert mp3 to flac or wav ?
« Reply #10 on: April 30, 2024, 10:01:18 pm »

Have a look at this https://mpesch3.de/, it's a lossless mp3 editor, might save you some time in your workflow.

Thanks I will check it out.  I'd need to be convinced there is no quality loss though.  Hopefully the site has good information.
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