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Unable to Download to MP3 player

Printed From: FSI Language Courses
Category: Community
Forum Name: Problem Reports
Forum Discription: Report problems with language courses or web links.
URL: http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=325
Printed Date: 16 January 2009 at 2:53am


Topic: Unable to Download to MP3 player
Posted By: jehmd
Subject: Unable to Download to MP3 player
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 7:31am
I recently tried to play  the first two  FSI lessons from my mp3 player and it didn't work.  The MP3 player was not able to open the file.  I am using a Sansa made by SanDisk.

Is this a problem with incompatible mp3 formats or is it a problem in general with downloading to portable mp3 devices?  The files play fine on my laptop.


-------------
Jo Ellen



Replies:
Posted By: DemiPuppet
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 9:12am
There's a couple of possibilities.  The player may not support the low 32Kbit/s data bit rate.

More likely it's the 22.05 KHz sampling rate.  As far as I know, 32 KHz is the lowest "official" MP3-1 sampling rate.  Try up-coding to a different rate.  The audio will not change, but the file size will increase.


Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 11:16am

Which language was it for?

The files that I loaded to a Sansa M250 from this site worked fine. Maybe I just got lucky and got languages whose files were coded at the acceptable sampling rate.


Posted By: gdfellows
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 12:37pm
To my knowledge, I've encoded all files at 32k.  If there are some at 22k, let me know.  I've not had any trouble with my iPod and Sandisk players.


Posted By: jehmd
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 2:18pm
 

-------------
Jo Ellen


Posted By: jehmd
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 2:21pm
Thanks for the prompt reply.  What kind of software  do I need to use to change the rate?  In other words, how do I do what you suggest?

-------------
Jo Ellen


Posted By: jehmd
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 2:23pm
The language was Hebrew.  I don't know how to tell what the rate is on an mp3 file.

-------------
Jo Ellen


Posted By: DemiPuppet
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 3:30pm
Assuming you're on a Windows XP machine:

  1. Right Click on the file in a file manager (such as Windows Explorer)
  2. Select "Properties"
  3. Select "Summary" tag
  4. Scroll to bottom

The Unit 1 Hebrew course has:

  1. Duration 0:16:01
  2. Bit rate 32kbps
  3. Channels 1(mono)
  4. Audio sample rate 22 kHz
You player may not like either item 2 or item 4.

You could download the popular LAME command-line encoder to re-encode.

ex: Change from 32kbps, 22kHz -> 48 kbps, 32kHz

lame -b 48 --resample 32  infile.mp3 outfile.mp3

I'm not sure if LAME will retain the ID3 tags. You may need to get a tag editor and re-add them.  You may want to try other encoders or LAME with a graphical front-end. I"m only familiar with command-line LAME.
 



Posted By: emptysilo
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 4:45pm
If you are using itunes, the process is easy. Just right click on the file and convert to MP3. It works on mp3 too. It will convert the mp3 file to the format specified in the in the advanced/importing options in preferences. Default is probably 128kb stereo and 64kb mono.

Most of these fsi course tapes are stereo but with identical left and right audios. In that case, I would recommend recording them under mono to make it more efficient. This is, because I think, 64kb mono is better than 64kb stereo. I could be wrong. Does any one know it for sure?


Posted By: Chung
Date Posted: 24 February 2007 at 5:28pm
Originally posted by emptysilo

If you are using itunes, the process is easy. Just right click on the file and convert to MP3. It works on mp3 too. It will convert the mp3 file to the format specified in the in the advanced/importing options in preferences. Default is probably 128kb stereo and 64kb mono.

Most of these fsi course tapes are stereo but with identical left and right audios. In that case, I would recommend recording them under mono to make it more efficient. This is, because I think, 64kb mono is better than 64kb stereo. I could be wrong. Does any one know it for sure?
 
See Demipuppet's posts in this thread.
 
http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=75 - http://fsi-language-courses.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=75


Posted By: emptysilo
Date Posted: 25 February 2007 at 3:05am
That posting is more about converting from other types to mp3. If you want to convert files already in mp3 to higher bit rates, there is much simpler ways to do it then using audacity. Windows media player might do it like itunes does, I haven't tried it.



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