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Author Topic: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?  (Read 6718 times)

DavidDahl

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Hello,

I currently have my entire library (about 9500 tracks) encoded with WMA lossless.  I am interested in moving them over to FLAC for better compatibility with my new ROKU 3.  I understand how to convert the files I manually however I cannot figure out how automatically convert the entire library at once.

So my question is:  how do I select my entire library for a batch audio conversion?

Thanks!

David
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rayooo

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2013, 04:48:20 pm »

'not sure if this is the easiest way.. I just selected (album view) the top left album, then scrolled down and did a shift-click on lower right album...which then all albums show up as selected.

Then Tools -> Library -> Convert Format.. which opens up the "Convert Format" dialog Action Window area.

I suspect like most things with MC, there are multiple ways of accomplishing this as well.

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6233638

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2013, 05:07:04 pm »

As rayooo suggests, if your entire library is all WMA Lossless, I would just do a select all (Ctrl+A) and convert the format. (right-click > library tools > convert format)

It might be worth creating a new library view or smartlist that is filtered to only include WMA Lossless files first though, and then converting from there.
There might be some MP3s or other lossy files that you forgot about in your library, and I wouldn't recommend converting those.
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whatsup

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2013, 06:36:16 pm »

And be prepared for this process to take a long time...I would suggest doing it in small batches as I have learned from doing the exact same thing with over 1million tracks.
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kstuart

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2013, 10:14:10 pm »

And be sure to have a backup of the original WMA files, in case you discover that something went wrong due to a glitch...

6233638

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2013, 11:10:21 pm »

And be sure to have a backup of the original WMA files, in case you discover that something went wrong due to a glitch...
Does Media Center not verify the integrity of its conversions?)
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kstuart

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2013, 10:26:46 am »

But - for example - there could be a bug in the code that caused it to not verify. :)

Just reminding about that backup is always a good safety practice - especially if you are doing something to your entire music collection !

RSleith

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2013, 11:12:34 am »

...for better compatibility with my new ROKU 3. 

I'm curious as to how you are streaming to the Roku. I tried Plex but gave up in complete dissatisfaction.

I've read of batch conversions with dBpoweramp, but haven't tried that yet. Plus it's another software purchase...
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6233638

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Re: How do I batch convert entire library from WMA Lossless to FLAC?
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2013, 12:54:17 pm »

I've read of batch conversions with dBpoweramp, but haven't tried that yet. Plus it's another software purchase...
As long as Media Center is verifying the integrity of its conversions, you should have no problem letting it handle them. I have not encountered any problems so far.
Prior to MC I was using dBpoweramp to handle conversions and it does have the option to verify the conversions are good before removing the original files. I don't think you should have to purchase it though, MC should be sufficient.

Perhaps one of the developers could chime in.
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