Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

[Fallsroad]

Windows 7 64.
dBpoweramp Music Converter R14.2
Codecs all up to date.

I have multiple files in .ra and .rm (all audio, no video) format that I am trying to convert to .wav so I can edit them in Audacity. They are recordings of some talks a friend gave some years ago and there is a fair amount of noise (AC, sometimes laptop fans, etc) at times in some of them that I can probably fix enough to make the speech intelligible, but Audacity does not handle Real Audio files.

I installed Real Alternative and the Directshow codecs and followed instructions I found elsewhere here about adding these formats and was able to get the dMC right click context menu "Convert To" to appear for .ra and .rm files.

Some of the files successfully convert to .wav, and others do not. All of them play fine through MPC/Real Alternative as .ra files. But for some, when I try to convert them with "same settings" or even changing the Wave quality settings, I get files that are very short and don't actually contain any of the content of the originals. For example, an .ra file that is 4 minutes long will convert, but I wind up with a .wav file that is 11 seconds long and has either no sound or a few clicks.

I did try converting the failed files to other formats but the result was always the same. dMC did not throw any errors or fail to produce a wav or other file, but there was nothing usable in them.

Appreciate any help.

[Spoon]

Re: Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

Try playing the file in Windows Media Player, if the codecs are working right they will play in that.

[Fallsroad]

Re: Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

Try playing the file in Windows Media Player, if the codecs are working right they will play in that.

I don't use WMP and don't have it set up. Haven't used it in many years.

I do have Media Player Classic, and once Real Alternative was installed all of the .ra and .rm files played normally.

But about half of them refuse to convert to any other format using dMC, and I cannot figure out why. The rest convert just fine to .wav and can be played back.

I checked under dMC codec configuration, and for Directshow the right extensions are listed. The dMC context menu now appears when I right click any of those files. That didn't happen before I installed those two things and manually edited the config file for Directshow.

[Fallsroad]

Re: Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

Try playing the file in Windows Media Player, if the codecs are working right they will play in that.

OK, so I set up WMP and all of the files will play normally, start to finish.

Only about 25% of them will successfully convert via dMC to any other format.

In dbpoweramp configuration all of the correct Real Audio file extensions appear next to the Directshow codec entry.

All of the .ra and .rm files will produce .wav files via dMC, but 75% of them contain no content, are far shorter than the original files (usually a few seconds long, just silence) and ti doesn't seem to matter what settings I use in the Wave converter dialog.

[Spoon]

Re: Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

I have no ideas, sorry.

[Fallsroad]

Re: Some Real Audio Conversions Fail

I have no ideas, sorry.

I've had a little more time to mess around with this, and think I may have found at leat part of the problem.

All the RA files will play in both WMP and MPC with Real Alternative installed.

Editing the Directshow filter config got the right click dMC "convert to" options to appear in the context menu. Some files convert successfully, many do not.

When looking at the properties of a file (Properties --> Audio Properties) that did convert to WAV correctly and one that did not, it becomes apparent the properties information is altered or simply incorrect. For files that fail to convert, they report lengths that are different from their playback length (sometimes 25% of the actual length, sometimes 400% of the correct time), and even report incorrect file sizes. There are other discrepancies, though it isn't always clear if the bit rates are too high or too low, but I'm pretty sure they are reporting incorrectly based on actual vs reported files sizes as compared to files that converted correctly.

I'm guessing dMC is choking on this data and producing WAV files with severely truncated lengths and no actual audio data.

So I wonder how all of these files can play correctly if the meta data is so thoroughly screwed.

I also wonder if there is some way to edit the audio properties data directly in an effort to bring it in line with what is actually in the file so I can convert them.