For those out there who have Audible accounts and are using the .aa file formats, and find it a bitch converting them to mp3's, Tunebite is the answer to your dilemma!
http://www.tunebite.com
Believe me I've tried it all, from River Past v5.0; GoldWave, GraphEdit, etc. etc., but none of them worked. The closest I'd come to success was bad or choppy audio, and a lot of system restarts.
You can manually bypass the DRM protection by running the .aa files with iTunes and capturing the audio with any audio capture program, then saving or converting it to mp3. I know it's a lot of work, and because of that most people would rather search for an easier way. The problem with using "old" programs that USED TO seamlessly convert .aa's are the fact that DRM protection will eventually overtake the technology thus rendering the new .aa's unreadable by the older software.
What makes Tunebite work is that it automates the manual way. It takes control of your sound card and iTunes, plays the .aa file, then captures the audio with it's own built-in encoder. Tunebite saves the captures file in the format of your choice, eg. MP3, and then stores it in its own folder, which you can later copy and paste anywhere, or play it with Tunebite or any other audio program.
As of now Tunebite cannot save mp3's below 128 kbps of quality, but maybe in the future lower rated options will be available.
I know this is not the choice for most people, as we usually want faster converting times, but it's the only one that seamlessly works for me. I don't mind the wait because Audible files rarely go above 8 hours, and if I start the conversion before sleeping, I can load the newly converted audio file into my portable device as soon as I get up. I can also leave it running all day and when I get home it's always surely finished with the rest of the files.
For those who screams Pirate! It is not a crime to convert or crack your own copy of an Audible file. In fact, Audible should start supporting other portable hardware or they'll lose customers with other sites out there who does. I believe that Audible excels with their audiobook quality, but they lack hardware support. They're probably the least compatible of the audiobooks along side Sony. If they can't keep up with us, it's like saying that they don't care about us, and then we have no choice but to put the matter into our own hands. 8-)
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
