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Author Topic: Which converter setting to use?  (Read 1699 times)

grshakes

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Which converter setting to use?
« on: March 23, 2003, 03:24:42 am »

I have about 300 x 30/40second snippets of music for music/film quizzes. They are in various formats, some mp3, some wav and some wma etc. I assume it would be far better if they were all in the same format but I don't know which would be the better format to use. The majority of the files have been created using Media Editor and, once I have finished, they will be played back using Media Jukebox.
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
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Rusty

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2003, 06:14:52 pm »

Gidday - Pity no one else has bothered to reply to you & I'm no expert but ...

It's really all up to you & depends on your particular situation ... is space a problem, will they always be played back via your computer etc?  If they will always be played via Media Jukebox & your computer, then you can really just leave them as they are.

.MP3 files will take up the least amount of disc space & can be easily swapped & played etc on any MP3 players & those CD players that can play MP3 & every computer regardless of operating system.  Copying from their original format, (say a CD to MP3) will mean that a small loss in audio quality will occur, but that is not generally audible unless you are playing them thru a very good audio system (so I've been told).

.WAV files take up the most space, but again are very portable & player/computer friendly & are an audio "lost free" format like .APE (where .APE is about half the size of a .WAV file & this is the format I use when I copy tracks from music CD's, but .APE is something that you'll typically use only with Media Jukebox or Media Centre).

.WMA is not so player friendly & is also a format that involves audio loss.

Your 30/40 second snippets won't take up much space in themselves, but who knows what else you have on your hard drive & it all mounts up.

So I hope that is of some use & if I'm incorrect in any matter I hope someone else may put us both straight.

Regards - Rusty.
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grshakes

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2003, 04:51:59 am »

Thanks very much for your reply.
All my files are mp3 origionally, I then use MJ Media Editor to record around 30 seconds but when I go to 'Save As Type' and select mp3 I get the warning 'This programme has performed an illegal operation and will shut down'. The details are far too technical for me to deal with! It happens every time I select mp3, but is fine if I select wav, ogg or wma.
I then thought if I saved them as wav files I could use the MJ converter to change them back to mp3 but when I select mp3 in the converter it asks me for 'EXE path' and 'Parameters' which again is a bit technical for my not so technical brain! I have looked at the MJ help files but they don't really explain it, and I have done searches on the internet for explanations about ogg (which I know nothing about) but there seems to be quite a mixed response out there so I'm none the wiser!
Space isn't really an issue but if it saves a lot of space converting to mp3 it would obviously be better in the long run.
Thanks for any help
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xen-uno

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2003, 06:09:10 am »

What build are you running? I would DL and install 396 and then DL all the plug-ins. You shouldn't get that error message unless you using the external encoder option in which case you would need to provide path. The wav files (may) need to be 22 kHz min (sampling rate) and stereo to work with the LAME encoder. They may also need to have a minimum bit depth of 16. These can be checked by right clicking on the wav in an explorer window and checking properties. This can be done within MJ as well.

10-27

grshakes

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2003, 07:37:25 am »

I am running 8.0.336.
I paid for the licence a few months ago, so wasn't sure if I could download it again. Will I need to pay again or does it automatically up-date if I download a newer version?
As far as I know I haven't downloaded any plug-ins - sorry to be so ignorant, but I organise my files, play my music and rarely dare to get too technical in case I do some damage!!!
Thanks
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JimH

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2003, 07:50:03 am »

You can just download the latest version of 8 and install it.

Details on the license are here:
www.mediajukebox.com/license
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Rusty

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2003, 04:11:19 am »

What I normally do is use the uninstaller that comes with Media Jukebox, this will take out the operating side of it, but leaves your library files etc.

So 1st click your START button, bottom left of your Windows screen, then ALL PROGRAMS, then find your MEDIA JUKEBOX entry on the list & click it & at the bottom of the mini menu that opens you should see UNINSTALL MEDIA JUKEBOX.

Click that & on the new screen you should see two boxes & one should already have a tick in it = REMOVE ALL MEDIA JUKEBOX REGISTERY ENTRIES & that's what you want, as you want to leave your library in tact. So now just click remove=no more MJ.

Once this is done you can now download the lastest version of MJ at:

http://www.musicex.com/mediajukebox/index.html

Once this is downloaded & you're in your new version of MJ, go to SETTINGS (top left of your screen), then OPTIONS, then scroll down to ENCODING, then in the box next to ENCODER you should see "Uncompressed Wave" with an up/down arrow to the right of it, click that & the mini menu opens. Click on any one you want, say MP3 & if it's not already loaded just follow the prompts to download the associated software (which downloads very quickly).

It's easy ... All the best - Rusty

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grshakes

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Re: Which converter setting to use?
« Reply #7 on: March 27, 2003, 05:14:09 am »

Did everything you said and it works fine so thanks a million for all your help.
Can I pick your brains one last time? I have about 2000 mp3 music files on my hard drive and want to move them all onto a portable hard drive so I can use them between my pc and laptop without having them permanently on both. If I move all the files will I have to re-import them all into MJ or will MJ find them automatically?
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