WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

[Dev Null]

I recently ripped my entire CD collection to WMA lossless format using WMP 11. All's fine and wonderful until I decide to get a PS3. I want to use the the PS3 as a Media Extender, like I already use my Xbox 360 as. Problem is the PS3 does not play WMA lossless.

I began to use dbpoweramp to batch convert the files over to wave format for compatibility amongst all my media extenders. Here comes the problem...

WMA no longer sees many of the files. All files are converted perfectly and in the same album directory structure as they were previously, just now they are wave files. Most files in the albums are missing in my library in WMP. When I examine the before and after files, all the metadata is the same, except, of course, file size. The missing files play perfectly if I go to the directory they are in and directly play them.

I've tried re-reading the directories into my library, but have had no success.

Ideas?

[Spoon]

Re: WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

WMP will only be able to read limited tags from wave files. Is there another lossless format the PS3 can play?

[Dev Null]

Re: WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

From the PS3 online manual for version 2.3:

The following types of files can be played under (Music).

* Memory Stick Audio Format(ATRAC)
* MP3(MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3)
* MP4(MPEG-4 AAC)
* WAVE(Linear PCM)
* WMA

It can be found here:

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/music/filetypes.html

Thanks for your help.

[Dev Null]

Re: WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

Been doing additional troubleshooting:

Manually ripped a CD into WMP as Wave - no issues. All information including Album Art came up as expect. This seems to be an issue with the conversion. The data now missing from the converted files was there to begin with, so one would think it should move over. I'm trying to figure out what tag(s) I might be missing, but really don't see any difference in the metadata as read by a mouseover in Explorer. The converted files seem to have all the same tags as the the original WMA files, but WMP only wants to see *some* of them. *boggle* Of note, it seems that WMP knows the bands' most popular songs as those are the ones it seems to import. For instance on my wife's Evanescence Album it does see the Bring Me to Life song, which was the only one I had ever heard on the radio. This is the case for several other bands... it's like WMP is making a Greatest Hits for each band on its own. *Exorcist needed*

[Dev Null]

Re: WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

WMP will only be able to read limited tags from wave files. Is there another lossless format the PS3 can play?

What is the "limited" aspect you speak of here?

[Dev Null]

Re: WMA (Lossless) to Wave Issue

GOT IT!

Ok here is what you need to do:

1. Run a batch convert. (I took the risk and did a delete after conversion so things wouldn't get messy and time consuming to clean up.)
2. Go to your \Documents and Settings\{your user name}\Local Data\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player directory and delete everything there. You will have to pull up task manager in order to stop some media services in order to get all the files.
3. Open up WMP - immediately it starts rebuilding your library.
4. Voila - it's all there and converted. You will have to manually click your albums and tell it to search for album info in order to restore your album art.

Thanks for the help, I'll be purchasing your product tomorrow.