Tinny audio after conversion

[ziggy_tosh]

I'm having some trouble converting the audio to MP3 in an avi file.

I've downloaded a divx avi and it works fine on my PC as it is, but I'm trying to convert it to a format supported by my Archos Multimedia Jukebox so I can plug it into my TV.

The video is 352x240 divx 3 and I'm using SmartResize to make it 352x288 divx 5.0.3 (optimal for the Archos). Looking at the file in GSpot, I see that the audio bitrate in the original file is "64 kb/s (32/ch x 2 ch)", 44100 Hz and the codec is "divx (same as wma) (0x0161) DivX Networks." In order to play on the Archos, it must be an MP3 of some sort. I've tried all sorts of variations of bitrates, number of audio channels, etc. and nothing works as I would like it.

The video conversion is no problem, but when I try to convert the audio, I have one of two unsatisfactory outcomes:

1. In attempting to convert the audio stream directly to MP3, I get no audio in the output file.

2. After extracting the audio as a wav and then reencoding it as an MP3 with the new divx 5 file, there is audio but it sounds extremely tinny and flat.

Now, I'm not going to die if I can't figure this out (it's a subtitled anime video and it's not like I can understand the audio anyway) but still ...

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. I'm still pretty new to all this, so even if you could just point me to an existing guide or Web site that might answer this question, that would be cool.

Thanks, Ziggy

[Asmodian]

Recompressing a 64Kbps wma to mp3 is going to result in horrible audio quality, but what program are you using to do the conversion and what is your destination kbps? I suggest you use besweet to convert the wav to mp3 and at a constant bit-rate of ~256 or 320Kbps (unless space is an issue, then as high as possible). This will minimize the effects of the second lossy compression.

[ziggy_tosh]

Thanks for the reply. I've been using the built-in VirtualDub MP3 encoders and LameMP3 through VirtualDub and VirtualDubMod and I've tried outputs ranging from 32 kbps (on the uninformed guess that would be a good number because it was the original bitrate per channel in WMA) up to 128 (on similarly misguided guesses). But now that I read your post, it makes sense that once I've extracted a wav file, I shouldn't be limited anymore by the original bitrate in WMA (and I have played the wav in Winamp and it sounds much better, so I know the wav is at least acceptable. Anyway, I'll do what you say -- encode it in BeSweet at a much higher bitrate and see how things work out. Thanks again.