Re: which package in etch can convert high-quality mp3 to low quality mp3?

[Manon Metten <manon.metten@gmail.com>]

Hi,

On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 3:05 PM, Long Wind <longwind2009@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a cell phone
> it can't play some mp3
> maybe it supports only 128K
> So I want to convert hight quality mp3 to 128K
> Which package in etch?

I would recommend lame; it's in the multimedia repository
(http://www.debian-multimedia.org/).

As the default bitrate is 128k, the command line would be:
  lame --mp3input in.mp3 out.mp3

You might also consider CBR (constant bitrate), as some players cannot
handle VBR (variable bitrate) properly. In that case the command line
would be:

  lame --cbr --mp3input in.mp3 out.mp3

However, when transcoding, there's a caveat: all mp3 tags (ie: album,
song title, artist, etc.) are lost in the process. So maybe you could
write a script that first extracts all tags (mpgtx can read id3v1 &
id3v2 tags) and then uses them in the transcoding process.

  lame --mp3input --add-id3v2 --tt <title> --ta <artist> --tl <album>
--ty <year> in.mp3 out.mp3

Manon.