WMA low bitrate conversion error

[jbattell]

I want to convert WAV files to low bitrate WMA, but get the error "Error converting to Windows Media Audio 10, ....Error Compressing to WMA [clEncoder::OutputThisBlock]"

I am using dbpowerAmp music converter release 12.4 (registered), on Windows Vista Business (32 bit) with the Vista WMA encoder installed. I am converting to Windows Media Audio 10, Windows Media Audio Voice 9 codec, 4kbps, 8kHz, mono.

These settings are in dbPoweramp converter, so there must be something wrong with dbPoweramp or the codecs, since it doesn't work.

I have audio files in WMA at this bitrate, so it IS possible to create them. And, they are smaller and of as good or better quality as the higher bitrates that dbPoweramp can write.

This problem has been reported in this forum, but no real solution given. On
9-3-07, Spoon wrote: "This low setting for WMAVoice is cuasing [causing] issues, use the next one up (higher bit rate)." But, this is not a solution.

I hope that a real solution can be given, which will enable me to write the WMA files at this bitrate.

[Spoon]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

I looked at it and could not see why it was failing.

[LtData]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

What are the specs (frequency, channels, bits) of your WAV files?

[jester747]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

I have been converting .WAV spoken word (i.e. voice) recordings done in Audacity into the WMA 9 Voice CODEC, as well as into LAME MP3, both for over 3 years...

A week ago I got the bright idea of downloading the Multi-Encoder CODEC so that I could encode to MP3 and WMA at the same time... instead of doing the process separately as I had been all this time. Well, this required that I upgrade (paying the difference) to R13 to be able to download the new CODEC... which I did...

Now, I can't encode to WMA voice at all, because of the same error as the OP... I have tried a half dozen different settings in Audacity for the original WAV file that is being recorded. I had always been using 22khz, 16bit, Microsoft 16bit PCM, both stereo and mono... the last thing I tried was changing Audacity to export as AIFF, again in different settings and it still fails when converting to WMA. All of these encode to Lame MP3 just fine. Also, oddly enough, I am able to encode to WMA Voice from MP3, so the issue seems to be from uncompressed formats (wav, aiff) to WMA... but this degrades the final quality a good bit as can be imagined. WMA Voice is so agressive in compressing that converting from a lossy or already compressed format affects final quality a good bit.

I'm placing these WMA voice files on our website and they are accessed from around the world. Having an hour message fit in under 2mb, with decent quality, is vital for what we are doing, and the bandwith of those accessing these files is often very limited.

I tried leaving the Voice CODEC and using a higher bitrate within that same CODEC but it doesn't work either. Going to a regular WMA CODEC yields files 5-6 times bigger...

I am running WinXP Pro SP2... again, ver 11.5 worked just fine, the issue is with R13 for me. If I could revert back to 11.5 I'd settle for that, especially if I could get a multi-encoder codec for it...

[Spoon]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

It could be the 9.1 of WMA which is failling, although once the Microsoft wma codec is installed it is system wide and cannot be uninstalled (microsoft designed it that way).

[jester747]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

It could be the 9.1 of WMA which is failling, although once the Microsoft wma codec is installed it is system wide and cannot be uninstalled (microsoft designed it that way).

I was using 9.0 and 9.1 (for XP) with 11.5... R13 required an upgrade to WMA10... however, the voice CODEC still appears to be the same as in 9.0/9.1... so now what?

Can I just uninstall R13, and get back to using it the way it was under 11.5? Are you able to provide a copy of the Multi-Encoder that worked under 11.5... that would suffice for me right now.

[Spoon]

Re: WMA low bitrate conversion error

In legacy codec central are all the codec for R11.5