Hey, I\'m using AmaroK with the xine engine, is there a way to make amaroK add my wma files to it\'s collection, it plays them OK but it just doesn\'t want to add them to the collection.

Thanks =)

I\'m sorry but you can\'t - taglib currently doen\'t read WMA tags, and collection browser lists only tagged files.

Ah OK. Do you know if the makers of taglib are planning on putting wma support in?

There is an unofficial patch http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ushankar/taglib-wma/

I can\'t tell more precisely, because I don\'t have WMAs to experiment with.

Here\'s a script you can use to convert your wma files to mp3, if you want:

[code:1]
#!/bin/sh
# name: wma2mp3.sh
# hundfred; June 2004( Edited to actually WORK by Metal1633; Aug 2005)
# converts .wma files in the current directory to .mp3 files
#
# requires lame mp3 encoder and to decode the wma-files;
# mplayer is needed
for i in `ls | sed \'s/ /_123BLANK_/g\' | grep .wma` ; do {
wma=$(echo $i | sed \'s/_123BLANK_/ /g\'); #filenname wmafile
wav=$(echo $wma | sed \'s/.wma/\\.wav/g\'); #filenname wavfile
mp3=$(echo $wma | sed \'s/.wma/\\.mp3/g\'); #filenname mp3
mplayer \"$wma\" -ao pcm:file=\"$wav\" && lame \"$wav\" \"$mp3\" && rm \"$wav\" && rm \"$wma\";
}
[/code:1]

Here\'s a script you can use to convert your wma files to mp3, if you want

Be warry that after the conversion all tags are lost, and you\'ll have to retag all resulting MP3s. Also there will be some quality loss (however, WMA is basically M$\'s ripoff of MP3, so the quality loss will be insignificant). It\'s a price one must pay for getting rid of proprietary formats.

Thanks. there\'s probably a windows app that will convert mp3s to wma without any loss of tags, so I might do that seeing as I dual boot with windows. I don\'t feel like re-tagging all my ex-wmas (I have a lot )


I have to disagree with blaster999 about wma being MS\'s ripoff of mp3. wma is a superior format as far as size vs quality goes. The only downside to wma is that they aren\'t supported by anything other than windows.

wma is a superior format as far as size vs quality goes

Well, WMA is only superior with lower bitrates. At higher bitrates it is actually bigger than MP3. If you need good quality audio with small file size, I would recommend Ogg Vorbis.

Myk Robinson wrote:

Here\'s a script you can use to convert your wma files to mp3, if you want:

[code:1]
#!/bin/sh
# name: wma2mp3.sh
# hundfred; June 2004( Edited to actually WORK by Metal1633; Aug 2005)
# converts .wma files in the current directory to .mp3 files
#
# requires lame mp3 encoder and to decode the wma-files;
# mplayer is needed
for i in `ls | sed \'s/ /_123BLANK_/g\' | grep .wma` ; do {
wma=$(echo $i | sed \'s/_123BLANK_/ /g\'); #filenname wmafile
wav=$(echo $wma | sed \'s/.wma/\\.wav/g\'); #filenname wavfile
mp3=$(echo $wma | sed \'s/.wma/\\.mp3/g\'); #filenname mp3
mplayer "$wma" -ao pcm:file="$wav" && lame "$wav" "$mp3" && rm "$wav" && rm "$wma";
}
[/code:1]

This script is not very good. Sorry, it just makes me cringe, here\'s something better:
[code:1]
#!/bin/bash

find "${1:-.}" -iname \'*.wma\' | while read f; do
(mplayer "$f" -ao pcm:file="${f%%wma}wav"
lame "${f%%wma}wav" "${f%%wma}mp3"
rm "${f%%wma}wav")

code tags got cut off, script got mangled

[code]
#!/bin/bash

find \"${1:-.}\" -iname \'*.wma\' | while read f; do
(mplayer \"$f\" -ao pcm:file=\"${f%%wma}wav\"
lame \"${f%%wma}wav\" \"${f%%wma}mp3\"
rm \"${f%%wma}wav\")