[!--sizeo:1--][span style=\"font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\"][!--/sizeo--]Known issues:- No multichannel. Currently, foobar2000 writes multichannel WAVs in WAVE_FORMAT_EX (instead of _EXTENSIBLE), so conversion from multichannel sources is not possible now. Reference: [a href=\'index.php?showtopic=49191\']WAVEFORMATEXTENSIBLE, output wav files[/a]
- Windows x64 incompatibility. There were reports about XP x64 and Vista x64 being incompatible with foobar2000. Reference: [a href=\'index.php?showtopic=56979\']Error Flushing File: Object not found, "Convert to..." error[/a]
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1. Download and install Windows Media Encoder. Additionally, to enable the latest available WMA encoder version you need to download and install the latest Windows Media Player. The latest versions of WMA are only available for Windows XP or newer.
2. Choose the codec you want: WMA Standard, WMA Professional or WMA Lossless. Most hardware players support only WMA Standard.
3. Your encoding will be Quality-based VBR. For other WMA codecs/formats see Windows Media Encoder help.
With quality-based VBR encoding, you specify a desired quality level (from 0 to 100). Then, during encoding, the bitrate fluctuates according to the complexity of the stream — a higher bitrate is used for intense detail, and a lower bitrate is used for simpler content. The advantage of quality-based VBR encoding is that quality remains consistent across all streams for which you specify the same quality setting. The disadvantage is that you cannot predict the file size or bandwidth requirements of the encoded content before encoding. Quality-based VBR encoding uses one-pass encoding.
Setup foobar2000 converter as follows:
- go to Preferences -> Converter page
- click Add New
- choose Encoder -> Custom and change all the needed parameters (see below)
- the list of green-colored argument options is based on the latest available (2008-07-20) WMA codec and some options may be not available for your system.
WMA Standard, Quality-based VBR
Encoder: C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\WMCmd.vbs
Extension: wma
Parameters: -silent -a_codec WMA9STD -a_mode 2 -a_setting Q75_44_2 -input %s -output %d
Format is: lossy
Highest BPS mode supported: 24
Encoder name: WMA Standard
Bitrate: <blank>
Settings: VBR quality-based
Change the argument marked with green color according to the table:
Argument Quality Sampling rate Channel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q98_44_2 Q98 44 2
Q98_48_2 Q98 48 2
Q90_44_2 Q90 44 2
Q90_48_2 Q90 48 2
Q75_44_2 Q75 44 2
Q50_44_2 Q50 44 2
Q25_44_2 Q25 44 2
Q10_44_2 Q10 44 2
WMA Professional, Quality-based VBR
Encoder: C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\WMCmd.vbs
Extension: wma
Parameters: -silent -a_codec WMA9PRO -a_mode 2 -a_setting Q75_44_2_24 -input %s -output %d
Format is: lossy
Highest BPS mode supported: 24
Encoder name: WMA Professional
Bitrate: <blank>
Settings: VBR quality-based
Change the argument marked with green color according to the table:
Argument Quality Sampling rate Channel BitsPerSample
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q98_44_2_24 Q98 44 2 24
Q98_44_6_16 Q98 44 6 16
Q98_48_2_24 Q98 48 2 24
Q98_48_6_24 Q98 48 6 24
Q98_88_2_24 Q98 88 2 24
Q98_88_6_24 Q98 88 6 24
Q98_96_2_24 Q98 96 2 24
Q98_96_6_24 Q98 96 6 24
Q90_44_2_24 Q90 44 2 24
Q90_44_6_16 Q90 44 6 16
Q90_48_2_24 Q90 48 2 24
Q90_48_6_24 Q90 48 6 24
Q90_88_2_24 Q90 88 2 24
Q90_88_6_24 Q90 88 6 24
Q90_96_2_24 Q90 96 2 24
Q90_96_6_24 Q90 96 6 24
Q75_44_2_24 Q75 44 2 24
Q75_44_6_16 Q75 44 6 16
Q75_48_2_24 Q75 48 2 24
Q75_48_6_24 Q75 48 6 24
Q75_88_2_24 Q75 88 2 24
Q75_88_6_24 Q75 88 6 24
Q75_96_2_24 Q75 96 2 24
Q75_96_6_24 Q75 96 6 24
Q50_44_2_24 Q50 44 2 24
Q50_44_6_16 Q50 44 6 16
Q50_48_2_24 Q50 48 2 24
Q50_48_6_24 Q50 48 6 24
Q25_44_2_24 Q25 44 2 24
Q25_44_6_16 Q25 44 6 16
Q25_48_2_24 Q25 48 2 24
Q25_48_6_24 Q25 48 6 24
Q10_44_2_24 Q10 44 2 24
Q10_44_6_16 Q10 44 6 16
Q10_48_2_24 Q10 48 2 24
Q10_48_6_24 Q10 48 6 24
WMA Lossless
Encoder: C:\Program Files\Windows Media Components\Encoder\WMCmd.vbs
Extension: wma
Parameters: -silent -a_codec WMA9LSL -a_mode 2 -a_setting Q100_44_2_16 -input %s -output %d
Format is: lossless
Highest BPS mode supported: 24
Encoder name: WMA Lossless
Bitrate: <blank>
Settings: VBR Quality 100
Change the argument marked with green color according to the table:
Argument Quality Sampling rate Channel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q100_44_2_16 Q100 44 2 16
Q100_44_2_24 Q100 44 2 24
Q100_48_2_24 Q100 48 2 24
Q100_48_6_24 Q100 48 6 24
Q100_88_2_24 Q100 88 2 24
Q100_88_6_24 Q100 88 6 24
Q100_96_2_24 Q100 96 2 24
Q100_96_6_24 Q100 96 6 24