Re: RA-MP3 conversion (was: Podcasts - a dearth of)

Gumrat wrote:
This is what I can't grasp. I go to BBC radio player, ask to LA to
something. It comes up, I left-click (sorry Julian, I think I wrote
right-click up there somewhere, my mistake, hope it didn't confuse you
too much) "Listen using stand-alone Real Player" and Firefox asks me
what I want to do with the file - either listen in Real Player, or save
to disk. I save it to disk and Bob is my uncle, without Net Transport. I
used to use NT, and then found there was no need, for my requirements.
Anne, this must mean that Switch is able to do the RTSP download for
you. In that case you're just lucky to have a converter program that is
able and willing to handle the RTSP protocol on top of converting
between the audio formats. Consider yourself lucky that your needs
exactly fit wat Switch offers, at least if you only ever want to MP3 data.

The file you download through "Listen using stand-alone player"
definitely does not contain the audio data itself, only a pointer to the
location on the BBC servers from where a RTSP-capable program (such as
RealPlayer and, apparently, Switch) can request it. But the BBC offer a
broadcast for no more than a week with few exceptions, and then reuse
the "pointer address" for another one. As a consequence, be warned that
if you wait for a week before you hand your BBC .ram file to Switch for
conversion, you will be converting a different broadcast, whether it's
TA, a 6.30 comedy programme, or just about anything else from the BBC.
If you ever want to save the actual RealAudio data (which is smaller
than an MP3 of equivalent quality, for one thing), the .ram file isn't it.

To summarise: having the .ram file is *not* the same as having the audio
for a particular program. But apparently Switch will get the audio and
convert that to MP3 in one go, that's why don't notice the difference
with the way you're using the .ram pointer.

I mostly download RealAudio and listen on my computer. Only occasionally
do I need to convert to MP3, and my process for doing that is somewhat
clumsy (convert to WAV through a WinAmp output plugin, then call LAME to
convert to MP3). I'd like some more reassurance before I try Switch.
It's not free software as such, so does it have nag screens? Is it known
whether it "phones home"? How well can you control MP3 quality (my ideal
would by VBR, is it using LAME internally and if yes, do you have access
to all the details offered by LAME)?

An all-free software solution would be ffmpeg which can convert RA to
MP3 through a command line, but I've just tried but failed to find
detailed MP3 quality settings.

Sebastian
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: RA-MP3 conversion
    ... exactly fit wat Switch offers, at least if you only ever want to MP3 data. ... location on the BBC servers from where a RTSP-capable program (such as ... than an MP3 of equivalent quality, for one thing), the .ram file isn't it. ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: More problems with iplayer
    ... link, mplayer it down the line and to wav, then lame it to an mp3. ... How do you do the "Switch it to mp3" part? ... I'm missing something here - the links on the iplayer site give you the rstp: links, but not access to the ram file itself. ... I've just cancelled my first reply because I'd read your post as meaning you were trying to download from the BBC iplayer site, so I redirected you to the iplayer converter site. ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: More problems with iplayer
    ... link, mplayer it down the line and to wav, then lame it to an mp3. ... How do you do the "Switch it to mp3" part? ... How do you download the ram file to your PC before you convert it with Switch? ... I've just cancelled my first reply because I'd read your post as meaning you were trying to download from the BBC iplayer site, so I redirected you to the iplayer converter site. ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: More problems with iplayer
    ... link, mplayer it down the line and to wav, then lame it to an mp3. ... How do you do the "Switch it to mp3" part? ... I don't need to convert it to wav, but can convert the ram directly to mp3 by using the free Switch prog, which I saw on Umra first :-) ... How do you download the ram file to your PC before you convert it with Switch? ...
    (uk.media.radio.archers)
  • Re: Audio to MP3...
    ... unit using its programming facilities, the daily radio BBC R4 plays, talks, ... the Archers, and then listens to them on her walkman while doing housework, ... As the program plays it creates an MP3 file. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
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