[Gllug] MP3/Ogg to AAC

[Pete Ryland]

On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 11:34:02PM +0000, Richard Turner wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Can anyone recommend an encoder for converting from either MP3 or Ogg
> Vorbis to AAC? I want to crunch down the size of a track before
> transferring it to my mobile's memory - transfer over Bluetooth take a
> while and, of course, memory on my mobile is at a premium - but it seems
> my Google mojo has deserted my :(
> 
> Failing a quick and painless way to convert from either of these formats
> can anyone recommend a raw encoder instead? I'd prefer not to have to
> rip the tracks again just to convert to AAC but if that's the only
> way...
> 
> If there are plug-ins for common Gnome apps that will do this stuff so
> much the better ;)

Back in November 2002, I corresponded with a few people in Sony UK and Sony
Japan about either helping with a binary-only port or releasing
specifications for the NetMD USB protocol and the ATRAC3 format.  They
declined so I informed them that I would proceed to reverse engineer it, to
which they showed no objection.  Unfortunately, I just haven't had the time
to persue this (nor a Windows machine to reverse engineer on).

Anyway, AFAIK there are no native linux encoders for ATRAC3, but if you are
running x86 hardware you can probably use the Windows codec.  However, IMHO
for the same bitrate, ogg vorbis seems to be a bit better quality in general
- not a big difference, but with good headphones and an otherwise quiet
environment, you can tell the difference.  Also, if you re-encode from one
lossy format to another, you will definitely get a noticable reduction in
sound quality.

Pete
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