problem with huge lossless wma file

[moRRis]

I downloaded a 3.7 GB lossless WMA file from a radio station's archive but am having problems with it. First, it plays only in Winamp (I use the old 2.8 version with the WMA plugin). It is completely seekable and sounds fine. The file is not protected by DRM or anything. But WMP says it is" corrupt or the Player does not support the format you are trying to play." No program I've tried to convert the file to WAV has worked. dBpowerAMP, Cooledit, wmal2pcm, some other downloaded programs. I can't get it to open in ASFTools, either. Anyone know what could be wrong?

[ChristinaS]

What version of Windows Media Player do you have? if indeed it it lossless .wma you should have the codecs to play it - at least in WMP9 and up.

How in the world did you download over 3GB ? It must be about 24 hours of recording?

[moRRis]

The file is a 6-hour radio show. The only player that will recognize it as a playable file is Winamp. I have WMP 9.0 with latest updates. Since the file is playable, it must be salvageable. I need only a small portion of the huge file but don't want to run through the sound card and get an inferior recording.

[LtData]

The problem, it looks like, is that when the 3GB lossless file is decompressed into a WAV before conversion, it tops the 4GB limit dMC has for files. This is probably the problem with every other program you try to convert with also.
As to why it can't be played, that's a good question.

[adaywayne]

The file is a 6-hour radio show. The only player that will recognize it as a playable file is Winamp. I have WMP 9.0 with latest updates. Since the file is playable, it must be salvageable. I need only a small portion of the huge file but don't want to run through the sound card and get an inferior recording.

Playing through your soundcard and re-recording in wave format is unlikely to degrade the sound to a degree that will be detectable.

[neilthecellist]

The problem, it looks like, is that when the 3GB lossless file is decompressed into a WAV before conversion, it tops the 4GB limit dMC has for files. This is probably the problem with every other program you try to convert with also.
As to why it can't be played, that's a good question.

(Neil bears in mind for life that dMC and other programs can't convert a >4 GB file)

As for why it can't be played, have you tried another computer?

[LtData]

Just so you known, the reason is that dMC and nearly all conversion programs are 32-bit programs that can address a maximum of 4GB of memory (RAM).

[neilthecellist]

ah ok. i see....what about linux though?

[LtData]

The problem is the application themselves are 32-bit. Even with a 64-bit OS, the application cannot read more than 4GB of memory.

[ChristinaS]

The file is a 6-hour radio show. The only player that will recognize it as a playable file is Winamp. I have WMP 9.0 with latest updates. Since the file is playable, it must be salvageable. I need only a small portion of the huge file but don't want to run through the sound card and get an inferior recording.
Could the file be actually an uncompressed .wav file rather than lossless .wma? If it's only 6 hours long then there's something ultra strange there.


And I had indeed been mistaken in my calculations. If it were a lossless wma file, it would be more like 12 hours of recording in stereo, or 24 hours in mono. Since it is only 6 hours, then it appeaars to be uncompressed in any way.

1 minute in 16-bit, 2-channel stereo PCM wav = 10 MB
1 hour = 600MB
6 hours = 3.6GB - give or take a few megs.

[neilthecellist]

this is very strange....how did the file get created in the first place?

[moRRis]

Hello! I have tried renaming the file to .wav and even .pcm but it will not open in any program with these extensions. Very bizarre.

[neilthecellist]

I remember a way on UNIX.....

[neilthecellist]

o wait. There's a way on WIndows.

"When in doubt, Auxiliary Input it"

[ChristinaS]

Hello! I have tried renaming the file to .wav and even .pcm but it will not open in any program with these extensions. Very bizarre.
.pcm is not the extension associated with a PCM wav file.

What does Winamp say the file actually is? Do you get anything when you hover over its name in Windows Explorer for the pop-up information?

[neilthecellist]

I'm very confused. How on earth did this file get created in the first place??

Have you tried using Aux. Input?

[ChristinaS]

I'm very confused. How on earth did this file get created in the first place??

Have you tried using Aux. Input?
He did say it's from a radio station, a 6-hour radio show, so it's whatever the radio station used to encode it.

I was under the (probably mistaken) impression that a lot of radio stations actually use Real Media encoding, targeting multiple audiences, so the file is used for streaming, with has several bitrates running concurrently.

[neilthecellist]

Right, the question is, how did the radio station encode it?

[ChristinaS]

Right, the question is, how did the radio station encode it?
No, the first question is exactly what type of file it is. It is obvious it is not a regular .wma file, chances are it's not a .wma file at all, lossless or otherwise.

Then you worry about how it was encoded.

[neilthecellist]

good point.

[moRRis]

The file's original extension is asf. When I run the mouse over it, this pops up:

Type: Windows Media Audio/Video file
Duration: 5:59:59
Bitrate: 1413kbps
Protected: No
Size: 3.55 GB

So the system can tell the correct length and bitrate of the file, but it just can't play it natively.

[ChristinaS]

The file's original extension is asf. When I run the mouse over it, this pops up:

Type: Windows Media Audio/Video file
Duration: 5:59:59
Bitrate: 1413kbps
Protected: No
Size: 3.55 GB

So the system can tell the correct length and bitrate of the file, but it just can't play it natively.
Open WIndows media Player > Tools > Options > File types . Is the format Windows Media File (asf) checked?

I think a possible problem is that it may be a multi-bitrate file, meant to be streamed from a streaming server.


------

Ok, I did some tests. The only way I managed to get such a bitrate and a file size that corresponds to an uncompressed 16-bit 44.1KHz stereo wav (i.e. 10MB/minute of audio) was to in fact start with a 24-bit 48Khz 2-channel stereo wav and encode it to wma lossless using VBR Quality 100 48Khz 2-channel 24-bit 1 pass VBR.

I don't have a problem playing the file in Windows Media Player 9. Of course, my file is only 1 minute long.

[neilthecellist]

(Neil looks at Christina's last post ^^^) Haha one minute....of course. No one would ever make a 6 hour radio show....


Like I said before, I think the only solution is the Auxiliary Input the file to get another file out. And how was it ASF to begin with? :confused: