Avi to Mp3. Which (free) tool?

[abrogard]

Not sure where's the proper place for this query. Hope this is alright.

I have some video files in .avi format that I want to take the audio from and put into mp3 format and upload to my mp3 player. An old crock of a thing that won't play anything but mp3.

I tried that Boxoft thing and it seemed to work okay but when I played the files it produced they were sped up, they were faster than they should have been.

googling around I just get more confused. Figured it'd be best to come straight to a forum that deals with these things all the time.

Can anyone help me out? What's the best way for me to get the sound out of these little .avi files and into .mp3 format?

Oh, and p.s. - that Boxoft thing made an .mpeg file and I had to rename it to .mp3 before my player would look at it. Does that explain anything? Is there a difference between .mpeg and .mp3 (Boxoft keeps telling you its making .mp3) ?

[hello_hello]

Chances are the audio is already MP3. If not it'll probably be AC3. Either way, open the AVI with VirtualDubMod (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/audio_video/video_editing/virtualdubmod.cfm). From the Streams menu select "streams list". Highlight the audio stream and select "Demux". That'll save the audio track as a separate file. If it's already MP3 you're good to go, or you can edit it as needed with MP3DirectCut (http://mpesch3.de1.cc/mp3dc.html) (no re-encoding required). If the audio is AC3 you'll need to convert it to MP3 (while mixing it down to stereo if it's multichannel). Pretty much any program capable of converting audio will do it. I use foobar2000. It's an audio player but it'll convert as well and includes a DSP for mixing 5.1ch audio to stereo.

[pandy]

ffmpeg

[abrogard]

Thanks for the clues, guys. I have successfully used Vdubmod to get a number of files into my mp3 player so that's the job done, really.

Now I'm downloading foobar2000 and ffmpeg and will learn something about them, to my own benefit I've no doubt. Thanks again. I had no idea they even existed. Look like excellent tools.



:)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

If you often deal with AVI files and just want to demux the audio track, I would recommend to have a look at AVI-Mux GUI:
http://www.alexander-noe.com/video/amg/

Just add the AVI file via drag&drop (upper pane), click the big "generate data source" button, right-click on the audio track (lower pane) and choose "extract binary" :)

[hello_hello]

Now I'm downloading foobar2000 and ffmpeg and will learn something about them, to my own benefit I've no doubt. Thanks again. I had no idea they even existed. Look like excellent tools.

Foobar2000 is my favorite audio player (well it's the only one I use) and it's also great for converting audio. You can save your favorite conversions as presets and just convert with a right click. You'll probably need to download the usual encoders separately (Lame, Aften and Nero for MP3, AC3 and AAC) and there's quite a few plugins on the foobar2000 website you might want to look at (for me the AC3 and DTS decoders are a must).
Maybe it's just me, but it took me a little while to get my head around foobar2000 (setting it up just the way I like it took a bit of experimenting), but I'm glad I persisted as I wouldn't use another audio player now.

[abrogard]

Thanks for the tip about Avi-mux. I've downloaded it and will try it. I was only able to get 1.17.6 - the later version download pages couldn't be found.

That last post about foobar2000 just popped up while I was writing this one... You've got me interested, I'll give it some time, look into it, try to understand it (not often I do that) - I've just been using Audacity for sound and VLC for video.

Now I'm beginning to understand a little bit here and there about different media files - of necessity, had hassles with .asf files, had hassles with conversions, here and there problems driving me into a need to understand more...

So I reckon I'm going to have to get to grips with a good prog and read up some stuff like I was reading there on the avi-mux site.

So, yep, thanks for the tip. I'll get into it...

:)

[tebasuna51]

Well you have a nice collecction of free tools:

VirtualDubMod/AviMuxGUI to extract audio from avi.
ffmpeg to extract/convert from many containers/formats
eac3to to extract/convert from VOB,EVO,m2ts,mkv,...
Audacity to edit audio
Foobar2000 to play/convert audio
BeHappy/MeGUI to convert audio with some AviSynth management.

[Midzuki]

Thanks for the tip about Avi-mux. I've downloaded it and will try it. I was only able to get 1.17.6 - the later version download pages couldn't be found.

You can get the version 1.17.8 from Videohelp:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVIMux-GUI/old-versions#download

I don't recommend 1.17.8.3 though, it has some annoying glitch / design flaw which made me go back to the previous version :sly: