.RA to .MP3 conversion not working

[asdf]

I seem to be having the same troubles mentioned in this thread

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=10226

That is: when I attempt to convert an RA file to MP3, the conversion begins but after running about 5-7 seconds it will suddenly 'finish' (displaying x900-1300+ something encoding speed).


The resulting mp3 file is totally useless as it contains no data from the RA file whatsoever. If played in Windows Media Player, it is about 1-2 seconds of silence. There are no errors displayed at any time during/after conversion.

I have Real Alternative/Media Player Classic installed and can also play the RA file with Windows Media Player.

I am running r12 on Windows Vista with the following codecs installed.

Codecs Installed

Encoders (write)

m4b (Audio Book)
.m4b

mp3 (Helix)
.mp3

mp3 (Lame) Lame 3.97
.mp3

Real Audio (Helix) Release 5 - using Helix SDK v11 22/1/2007
.ra

Test Conversion

Wave Release 12.2
.wav

Windows Media Audio 10 Release 4 (WMA Pro 10)
.wma


Decoders (read)

CD Decoder Release 12.2
.cda

DirectShow Decoder
.ra, .ram, .rm, .rmvb

mp3 Decoder Release 12.2
.m2a, .mp1, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpga, .mpx

Wave Decoder Release 12.2
.wav

Windows Media Audio Decoder
.asf, .wma, .wmv

I have also tried converting this same RA file to WAV, WMA, mp3 (Helix), and even the test conversion with the same results--an almost 'instant' finish and unusable result file.

The RA file is 58meg and 2 hours long (downloaded from the BBC radio site). I have converted these files in the past (on WinXP) with dmc, having no problems--once I somehow managed to get it working and stop pulling this same problem. I can't seem to get it to work at all this time around.

Thoughts? Help? Suggestions?

[Spoon]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

Can you play the .ra file in Windows Media Player?

[asdf]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

Yes.

I have Real Alternative/Media Player Classic installed and can also play the RA file with Windows Media Player.

[xoas]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

Test conversion is ordinarily very quick and it will leave no output file. How convinced are you that the test conversion is unusually too quick and giving a false positive message that it was able to convert the file?

I don't deal hardly at all with Real Audio files and I know that the tags on RA files don't provide the same types of information that you normally get from tags in other formats but is there any information that would help us understand the properties of the RA file (starting with file size, degree of compression up to number of channels, frequency, bitrate)? Also with your attempted conversion to mp3 what settings were you using for mp3?

I don't know what version of r12 you are running. If you have a version with Professional Frequency Conversion, have you tried enabling that?

Also, you wouldn't have RealPlayer installed also would you? (If so try removing that, at least in r11.5 and earlier RealPlayer and RealAlternative together was a bad combination).

Don't know as any of this will help, but you never know.
Keep us posted on how you make out with the above.

Best wishes,
Bill

[asdf]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

Test conversion is ordinarily very quick and it will leave no output file. How convinced are you that the test conversion is unusually too quick and giving a false positive message that it was able to convert the file?

Well, I know it doesn't give an output file, but other than that running it was no different than any other option I tried. I only tried the test conversion on a whim, anyway. It didn't help anything.

is there any information that would help us understand the properties of the RA file (starting with file size, degree of compression up to number of channels, frequency, bitrate)?

The file I was attempting to convert:
Size: 57.97 MB (4% of original, 21 to 1 compression)
Original Size: 1.2 GB
Length: 2 hours 2 minutes
Channels: 2 (stereo)
Sample Rate: 44.1 KHz;
Sample Size: 16 bit
Type: ra File [.ra]

Anything not listed above had a blank field in properties.

Also with your attempted conversion to mp3 what settings were you using for mp3?

mp3 (Lame)
Bit Rate (CBR) - set to 96 kbps
Encoding: Slow (High Quality)
Frequency: as source
Channels: auto

I don't know what version of r12 you are running. If you have a version with Professional Frequency Conversion, have you tried enabling that?

Looks like I have v12.2. I don't think I have this Professional Frequency Conversion thing, though. Never heard of it/seen it.

Also, you wouldn't have RealPlayer installed also would you?

Nope, just Real Alternative.

[xoas]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

I am afraid I only have some more questions, which I will offer in the hope that they might help you pinpoint the source of your problem with this file.

I guess we can assume that this RA file is not copy-protected or that it has any type of DRM attached to it. I am assuming that this file is audio only.

I assume that you have no DSP effects selected for this conversion. If you do, try without any DSP effects.

Can you attempt a conversion (of any type), click on the arrow on the bottom left corner of the window that displays the progress of your conversion, and check your conversion priority setting? If it is not set to Below Normal, set your conversion priority to Below Normal and see if that makes any difference. Does it change anything if you reset your mp3 encoding setting to Normal?

Can you convert other RA files? If this is your only one, can you create some to test?
Can you convert other files ok? Do you have any other very large files that you can attempt a conversion with (to rule out file size and system capacity as variables)?

Can you re-download this RA file (on the off-chance that the download has a corruption that interferes with conversion but is not sufficient to interfere with playing the file)?

With r11.5 of Music Converter and earlier, there were two Real Audio codecs. The better and quicker one was the DirectShow Decoder, the older slower one operated only in real time, required Real Player r8 and would not show conversion progress during the conversion. There were some RealAudio files that both codecs could decode, some that only one of these decoders could encode, and some that neither could encode. I do not know whether the r12 version of the RealAudio DirectShow is better than the earlier version at reading some of the files that the older real time codec could handle but that the earlier versions of the DirectShow Decoder could not handle. If you are really wanting to try to convert this file and are confident that your r12.2 version of Music Converter and the DirectShow codec will work for other RealAudio files, you might try downloading r11.5 of Music Converter from here: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/legacy-compatibility.htm (make sure you install to a different folder than your r12.2 version of Music Converter) and the original Real Audio Input decoder codec (from Legacy Codec Central here: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/legacy/codec-central-ra.htm ) and RealPlayer r8 (you may also have to uninstall RealAlternative for this to work), and give this a try (remember that if it does work the conversion will take over 2 hours, 2 minutes and you will see not progress displayed on the conversion until it is finished).

I hope this will prove helpful. Do keep us posted on how you make out.

Best wishes,
Bill

[asdf]

Re: .RA to .MP3 conversion not working

Actually, I was able to convert the RA to MP3 with no problems whatsoever using Total Video Converter. Go figure.