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Devices => Androids and other portables => Topic started by: vrasenas on March 29, 2009, 08:39:01 am

Title: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: vrasenas on March 29, 2009, 08:39:01 am

I just purchased a Sansa Fuze player and synched in to Media Center 13. I set the auto conversion to "Convert unsupported formats and high bitrates" since I have a lot of ALAC (Apple Lossless) and FLAC files. I ran the synch, and while it took the time to process the ALAC files, Media Center reported an "error" on the MP4 files I tried to synch. It also did this on some FLAC files but not all. It also did not reduce the size of the files. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong?

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: JimH on March 29, 2009, 08:59:01 am

Try setting the encoding to MP3.

I would not expect Apple Lossless to work.

Some players have an MTP transfer mode (set on the device).  It may not work for what you're doing.

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: vrasenas on March 30, 2009, 02:42:58 pm

I do have it set to translate to MP3.

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: Doof on March 30, 2009, 02:58:47 pm

I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. Just a disclaimer in case somebody else pipes up and knows better than I do about this...

MC uses the Quicktime engine to play back ALAC files. It does this because it can't natively decode those file types. If it can't natively decode them, you lose a couple of features that you normally get. One of those is file conversion. The others are the ability to open them in Media Editor and run the Audio Analysis (ie. volume leveling) tool.

For that reason, I won't allow any non-natively supported filetypes in my library. If they're not DRM files, I think there are some tools out there that can convert them to some other lossless format. If not, then the trick I've used is to burn the ALAC files to a CD using iTunes and then re-rip them using MC into APE or FLAC files. Once you have them in that format, then MC can do anything you like with them.

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: Alex B on March 30, 2009, 03:31:27 pm

The DC-Bass Source direct show filter can decode ALAC and makes possible to convert ALAC files.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=47737.0

vrasenas,

You may also need to remove FLAC from the supported file types if it is incuded in the list and you want to use the convert unsupported formats option.

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: vrasenas on March 31, 2009, 12:25:12 pm

Alex B, thanks for the suggestions. I loaded the DBbasssource filter and tried to do the settings according to the second link "Mp4 & M4a support". When I got to the Direct Show settings I did not have a dialog box for file types as is shown in the Wiki. Any Suggestions?

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: JimH on March 31, 2009, 12:34:00 pm

Directshow config is under "File Types" in newer versions.

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: Alex B on March 31, 2009, 12:37:07 pm

Here is a link to a newer post (and thread) that might help:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50987.msg348048#msg348048

Title: Re: Conversion of unsupported formats and high bitrate during synch
Post by: vrasenas on April 01, 2009, 04:48:25 am

Alex B, JimH,
I'm in business. I found the settings under file types and switched the "Playback method" to "JRiver using Directshow". I did not change the "Source Filter" to DBBasssource but left it on "Automatic' and it seems to be working fine. Thanks guys. You made my day!