converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

[Sossity]

I convert my albums ripped in flac to mp3 to load onto my ipod in itunes, this works fine.

however, when I try to load these same converted to mp3 albums onto my mom's sandisk sansa or other branded mp3 player, the albums do not show up at all. I load the converted mp3 albums using windows explore & drag & drop.

I have set the encoder settings in both mp3 & flac in the advanced configuration in dbpoweramp to ANSI, but this does not seem to work with the sansa mp3 player.

I end up having to rip my my mother's original audio CD's with windows media player if I want the sandisk sansa to see them, it seems the sansa does not like albums converted or ripped with dbpoweramp.

[garym]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

I convert my albums ripped in flac to mp3 to load onto my ipod in itunes, this works fine.

however, when I try to load these same converted to mp3 albums onto my mom's sandisk sansa or other branded mp3 player, the albums do not show up at all. I load the converted mp3 albums using windows explore & drag & drop.

I have set the encoder settings in both mp3 & flac in the advanced configuration in dbpoweramp to ANSI, but this does not seem to work with the sansa mp3 player.

I end up having to rip my my mother's original audio CD's with windows media player if I want the sandisk sansa to see them, it seems the sansa does not like albums converted or ripped with dbpoweramp.

hmmm, that sounds very strange. When you say don't show up, do you mean aren't there at all, or you don't see the metadata (artist, title, etc.). Maybe the player wants ID3v1 tags only. You can set dbpa to use only id3v1 tags or add both id3v1 and id3v2 tags.

[Sossity]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

The albums do not seem to show up at all, on the sansa, I can normally browse by artist, album, song, etc, & I normally browse by artist, & the windows media ripped ones show up, but the dbpoweramp converted ones do not.

I also went into windows explore & looked at the ID tagging on some of those albums ripped with windows media player & did notice that they had Id3 version 2 & v1.

do some older players require older versions of ID tagging?

I do want my files to be the most universal, & I have over 300 plus albums all ripped in flac & converted to mp3 with ID3v2, it would be very tedious to go back & reconvert them all, with ID3v1 & ID3v2.

how do I get the converter to use iD3v1 & 2?

would an ipod accept mp3 albums with ID tags with both ID3v1 & ID3v2?

[Spoon]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

dBpoweramp Configuration >> Codecs >> Advanced Codec Settings there you can set id3 v1 & id3v2

[garym]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

dBpoweramp Configuration >> Codecs >> Advanced Codec Settings there you can set id3 v1 & id3v2

and you should be able to create id3v1 and v2 tags on already ripped files. Not sure how to do this on dbpa (ID TAG update DSP?), but would be a couple of mouse clicks to do it in batch in mp3tag for example.

[Sossity]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

I tired this, found the configuration settings & it worked, thank you.

So would I be better off just sticking with id3v2 for all my converted mp3 files? & then add the older versions in mp3 tag or something if the need comes up rather than going through all my albums & reconverting to try to cover all bases & make them the most compatible?

to me this seems like it might be better as there are different versions of mp3 id3v1, there is 1.0, & 1.1.

also, when I am making/converting mp3 albums for other smaller capacity mp3 players, such as my mother's sandisk sansa which is 4gb, what bit rate would be best? & variable or constant? she has some hearing difficulties but nothing extreme. I normally use 192-320 kpbs for my ipod, but it has a much bigger capacity.

by the way, there have been a couple of viagra posts just above this one that I just posted.

[garym]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

I prefer to have id3v2.3 tags only in my mp3 files so I wouldn't personally do a mass addition of id3v1 tags. I'd convert at lame V4 or V5 for your mom. But frankly, I'd buy her a bit better player that can handle id3v2 tags and avoid the problem altogether.

[Sossity]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

Yes getting her a better one would be nice, but I cant afford this right now, I did not know that lame could handle this, where do I adjust this?

& as she will have to use the one she has now, what would be a good bitrate to use?

do most better mp3 players handle id3v2 tags?

[garym]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

I answered on the bitrate (v4 or v5....this is VBR....a variable bitrate. not sure about v4 or v5, but v2 (what I personally use, has a target "average" bit rate of about 192). In my personal opinion, one reaches transparency on most types of music at -V2, but on a portable with cheap headphones, this is likely overkill. Thus my suggestion of v4 or v5.

Yes, most better mp3 players (heck, practically ANY modern mp3 player) handles id3v2 tags.

Setting up which tags to add to lame conversions to mp3 is something you do with whatever program you use to do the mp3 conversions. I assume you use dbpa to do this. So set the options in dbpa to add both id3v1 and id3v2 tags.

[Sossity]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

What if I use constant bit rate? what rate would you suggest for an ipod? & what rate for my mother's sansa or any other cheaper smaller capacity mp3 player?

[garym]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

What if I use constant bit rate? what rate would you suggest for an ipod? & what rate for my mother's sansa or any other cheaper smaller capacity mp3 player?

I'd use 192 CBR for my ipod. For your mom's sansa, 192 is fine, but you could easily get away with 128 for most popular music. What sort of music for your mother (pop, rock, country? or classical & Jazz....the latter two might be better with 192 CBR). In most cases 256 or 320 is overkill for portable devices. Why not install foobar2000 and the ABX component and do some tests for yourself and mother to see at what level you achieve transparency. You're likely to be very surprised as to how low you can go in bit rate and still have transparency (i.e., not be able to detect the difference between lossless and mp3 file).

[Sossity]

Re: converted flac files to mp3 for camompatability for all mp3 players

she listens to mostly rock, particularly hard rock & classic rock, with a little pop, alternative & reggae.