Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

[Spoon]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

You have to type .aa into the configuration file for DirectShow, reinstall the DS dbpoweramp codec and it is auto shown after install.

[Barry]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Thanks for the help. I finally did figure out how to use this program. It isn't ideal, as I will mention later, but it did the job. For those who would like step by step instructions, here they are:
Start - Programs - dBPowerAMPMusicConverter - Configure DirectShowDecoder (notepad file)
Replace .xyz with .aa (close and save changes)
Start - Programs - dBPowerAMPMusicConverter - dBPowerAMPMusicConverter
Select Music Files to Convert:
Change Files of type to DirectShow (*.aa)
C - Program files - Audible - Programs - Downloads - double click on file to convert
dBPowerAMPMusicConverter
Converting 1 File to Mp3 (Lame)
Click Output to Folder and choose where you want the converted file to go.
Click Convert
It is a good idea to click the left arrow when Section Navigation comes up, even though you may have to redo the last dBPowerAMPMusicConverter steps, as without doing this, it often doesn't start at the beginning (even with doing this you may lose a few seconds at the beginning -- This is the problem I see with dBPowerAMPMusicConverter. It often takes multiple tries to get a clean converted file.). If the converter shows less than 1 hour remaining when it starts, you probably aren't starting at the beginning.
Though dBPowerAMPMusicConverter is an unpredictable nuisance, it does the job.

[Spoon]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

For information the AA directshow codec is very poor, I have seen Windows Media Player do the same, and it was written specifically for that.

[Dilligent]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Ok, here's a guide to using graphedit.
First up you're obviously going to need graphedit. Go to www.videohelp.com and search for it. Download and extract it. Browse to the folder and run register.bat to get the required directshow filters.
Second you need graphedit to be able to understand your audible file. To do this you need Windows Media Player to understand it - they both use the same filters. Go to the Audible homepage and find the download site for your book. Select the format you want (probably the highest) and click stream. Internet Explorer will ask if you want to install the activex controls. (If you have SP2 you may have to click in the information bar). Install these. Click stream again to verify that WMP will open and play the audio.
Now go into graphedit. Go to File --> Render Media File. Find your audible file. It may be stored in C:\Program Files\Audible\Programs\Downloads (I'm assuming you've already downloaded your book!). Now you'll see some grey boxes basically which show what's happening to your file. You'll see the file is passed to the audible codec which then sends it to the directsound device (i.e. your speakers). The idea is to grab that speaker output and redirect it to a file. So click the last grey box and press delete. You now are left with just the two boxes.
Go to Graph --> Insert Filters. In the big list find Directshow Filters and click the + next to it. Now find WAV dest (if it's not there you didn't run register.bat!). Click insert filter. In the same list find File Writer. Click insert filter. Choose a name for your file (like, i dunno, audible.wav) Click close. You'll now see the grey boxes that you've just created. We have to tell graphedit that from the audible codec the sound is fed to WAV dest and then file writer. Find the little box on the right of the audible grey box that says output. Drag from there to the in on wav dest. From the out of wav dest drag to the in of audible.wav (or whatever you called it).
Now it's ready to go. Click play on the toolbar and wait. It won't seem like it's doing much. Open the folder where you are saving your wav. Have a look at it's file size. It's probably a fairly small number. Check it occasionally. When it's big (around 150MB per hour of audio) it's probably done. Click stop inside graphedit. Double click on your wave to open it. You might want to seek to the end and make sure it's all there. Now you can do what you like to your wave like say open it in itunes and convert to mp3 or aac or whatever.

Whew...Ok, finally figured this out. There are several distributions of GraphEdit. Of course the 1st one I downloaded had no mention of "register.bat" You can get GraphEdit with register.bat here

http://www.stokebloke.com/video/download2/graphedit011008.zip

extract and click on register.bat. The screen will turn black for a moment. Not to worry. I think I rebooted to make sure it "took." Reboot may or may not be necessary, I just include it to be dilligent (;0)

Follow the rest of the directions and all should go well.

[vejalink]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Additional notes on using GraphEdit:

This post is for anyone who might be having trouble using GraphEdit and getting the register.bat file to work.

First of all, you can download GraphEdit at the following sites:
http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/do...hedit_141.html or

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=GraphEdit

The stokebloke site mentioned in some of the forum posts doesn't seem to have this program anymore.

I tried to use the other programs (GoldWave and River Past) suggested on this and other forums for converting .aa files to mp3, but they didn't work for me. With GoldWave I was never able to open my Audible file. It would freeze at 48% every time. I tried everything to find a solution, but nothing worked. Some people say that this method works only on some computers; perhaps this is the case with mine, or perhaps I couldn't get the proper version of either this or Audible Manager. Anyway, I also tried River Past but couldn't even get the program to open on my computer. (I downloaded all of the necessary software that it requires as well.) I was unable to find the older version of River Past anyway; all of the links listed on this forum either went to the new version or didn't work, so perhaps the older versions have been made unavailable. Also, I really didn't want to have to pay for a program to do this since I seldom need this kind of software.

My only hope was to try GraphEdit, which sounded like a little bit of a pain, but it's free, and it's better than playing my audio book for nine hours while capturing the sound. I read the instructions for GraphEdit posted here and on other forums and successfully downloaded and extracted the files. However, I ran into trouble when I tried to run register.bat.

When I double clicked on register.bat, the screen displayed a bunch of bad command error messages. I read a few comments on different forums from people who had this problem, and I couldn't find any solutions. The only suggestion I saw was something about manually typing in the path name for the regsvr32.exe file before each batch command, but it didn't explain how to do this exactly. Not knowing much about this subject, I was just about to give up on it, but I finally figured out a way to get it to work. There might be an easier way, but I don't know much about solving these sorts of problems, and this worked.

You have to find the regsvr32.exe file (probably in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\). Instead of doing a batch registration of the DirectShow filters (which is what register.bat does), you can register the filter files manually by using Windows Explorer and going to the folder where the GraphEdit files are saved. (You will know which files they are if you try to run register.bat and get the error message because the file names are displayed on the screen.) When you try to open one, a window comes up asking which program you would like to use to open it. Browse to the regsvr32.exe location and open with that. There is a box you can check to tell it to always open this file with this program, and when I did this, the icons for all of the other filter files had changed. You have to open each of them to register it. Then you can run GraphEdit, and the appropriate filters will be displayed in the Graph--Insert Filters menu. By the way, the wav file I made was not quite as big as the posted guide for using GraphEdit would indicate; mine was 496 MB for a nine-hour book.

Disclaimer: The reason I wanted to convert .aa files is that I bought an audio book from Audible to give to someone as a gift, and I wanted to burn it to CD. However, my CD burner is not recognized by Audible, so I couldn't do it. I used GraphEdit to convert it to a wav file so that I could then convert it to mp3. My purpose is not to distribute illegal copies but only to transfer what I legitimately purchased to CD once and then to delete the book from my computer. Unfortunately, Audible, by not letting us convert their files to other formats, not letting us burn CDs unless we have an approved CD burner, and pressuring anyone who makes audio converters not to convert their files, has forced those of us who want to follow the rules to find ways to get around them. I didn't want to waste the money that I spent with Audible, so this was my only option.

[gilex]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

if you use itunes on your pc you can burn to disc and then covert to mp3,but you may need a lot of discs!,however, if you download and install the audible windows media player from here:http://download.audible.com/webinsta...ayerFilter.exe and use the db powerAMP method described above ,it seems to make all the difference!,I've found it works fine!

[pauldreed]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

if you use itunes on your pc you can burn to disc and then covert to mp3,but you may need a lot of discs!,however, if you download and install the audible windows media player from here:http://download.audible.com/webinsta...ayerFilter.exe and use the db powerAMP method described above ,it seems to make all the difference!,I've found it works fine!

I cannot find the audible windows media player file, it appears to have been removed from the Audible site, I have PM'd you my email address, can you help please?

[Motoki]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Try here http://www.coolutils.com/Downloads/A...ayerFilter.exe

[pauldreed]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Try here http://www.coolutils.com/Downloads/A...ayerFilter.exe

Thanks Motoki, works a treat!!

[LtData]

Re: Codec to convert from Audible Audio (.aa)

Locked and moved to dMC Wishlist. This is now available in Codec Central for dMC.