Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss? (Read 3991 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

 

Hi Hydrogenaudio gang!

First of all - it's been a very, very long time since I've posted.  Back when i was into the audio craze of encoding in various formats I'd be here all the time trying to see what's new.  I remember reading about MPC, MP+, AAC, M4A, Ogg Vorbis, etc etc.

Anyway i have a question to ask.

I am a user who is legally blind.  I have very limited vision and always used an Ipod shuffle since it didn't have a screen and I could navigate it well.

Recently I found  an audio player designed for the visually impaired.  It's called ViPlayer.  It has a large 2.6" inch full color screen and the fonts are in 18pt font - considered large font - I have trouble reading it to some degree - but I can make out enough to read what song titles are.  What I love is that it speaks the menus outloud so when the player starts it will say "main menu" and then "music book" (for playing audio or audible books).  But it also has neat features like  picture viewer (very tiny to see but I can make out the pictures) audible book support, mp3 and wma support.  Has a built in radio and a voice recorder to you can record lists, lectures etc.  It also has a built in radio so you can listen to radio stations through headphones - and what I love is you can record what you're listeing to as well.  Also it has an SD Card reader - so you can add stuff to an SD card so it can read from the card (up to 4gb capacity) or through the 4gb of it's internal memory.  Of course this player was not cheap (a little over $300 dollars shipped) and it came from the UK.  I have found other players that are similar but without a screen and actually cost MORE than this.

Anyway it can be found at www.viplayer.co.uk

I just wanted to post this in case there are users like me who want to find a plery like this - I had been looking for 5 years or so since the ipods came out.

Now on to my first question:

1.  The manual says that the player is an mp-3/mp-4 player.  Would anyone have any ideas on what the mp-4 playback might be?  I thought it meant mp4 audio - so I tried taking my itunes music - they are purchased songs from itunes and are NOT protected (they're recently purchased ones without DRM).  I tried placing the files as is on the player but it doesn't seem them.  I finally tried renaming extensions to mp4 and aac but still no luck.  The player doesn't seem to support video - I see no menu choice for playing videos - so I'm trying to figure out what the mp-4 is?

Now on to my second question:

It looks like I may have to convert the m4a files from itunes to MP3.  Now I realize there is going to be a little quality loss - but I want to try to convert in a way with the least amount of quality loss possible.  Theset itunes songs are 256kpbs m4a files.  From what I understand encoding in mp3 format at a high bitrate should result in very little quality loss since 256kbps is a pretty high quality file - that it's higher quality than say an mp3 at 256kpbs. 

So I'd like your input - what would be the best settings to use to obtain this minimal loss of quality?  I'd hate to transcode but these are songs I purchased and I have no choice

I am currently using MediaMonkey to support my player (it has drag and drop support as well). But I like the management of MediaMonkey and it has an option to search my library by extension type and I can easily convert them to mp3 using LAME.  Mediamonkey supports VBR as well as CBR and HQ encoding. 

So what do you guys suggest?

I apologize for the long post - but I wanted to take this thread to inform people of such a player in existence and I also needed advice.

Oh and one last thing - i never realized how bad the playback quality in the shuffle is (2nd generation).  I played audio files on the ViPlayer that are the same ones that were on the shuffle and I'm hearing stuff in the songs that I never heard on the shuffle - and I'm hard of hearing to boot! 

I always did like the sound of the 1st generation shuffles though.

Anyway thanks for reading and I truly hope someone finds this useful and can help me out as well!

Thank you

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #1 –
I don't know enough about mp4s and the itunes store to offer an explanation of what is the issue with those specific music files.

Quote
So I'd like your input - what would be the best settings to use to obtain this minimal loss of quality? I'd hate to transcode but these are songs I purchased and I have no choice

I am currently using MediaMonkey to support my player (it has drag and drop support as well). But I like the management of MediaMonkey and it has an option to search my library by extension type and I can easily convert them to mp3 using LAME. Mediamonkey supports VBR as well as CBR and HQ encoding.

So what do you guys suggest?


If MediaMonkey is what you are comfortable with, then yes, it can handle the conversion job.  I think you have the right idea regarding minimal quality loss.  My suggestion is to go 256kpbs AAC -> Lame -V0 (230kbps VBR).  I've done this a couple of times myself and never heard a difference in a portable player environment.
foobar 0.9.6.8
FLAC -5
LAME 3.98 -V3

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #2 –
Funk that!  For $300 you need to be screaming at their support department before transcoding.

Technical Enquiries: help@viplayer.co.uk

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #3 –
I hate to preach, but if you care about minimal loss of quality, getting $100+ headphones would be the route to take.
Getting better headphones makes much more of a discernible improvement in quality as opposed to having high bitrate.
Minimal PERCEPTIBLE quality loss for me would be -V7, so I'd just use LAME -V6 to cram in more music.

Quote
Oh and one last thing - i never realized how bad the playback quality in the shuffle is (2nd generation). I played audio files on the ViPlayer that are the same ones that were on the shuffle and I'm hearing stuff in the songs that I never heard on the shuffle - and I'm hard of hearing to boot!

Sorry, but that sounds like the placebo effect.

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #4 –
Yes I've emailed support but haven't gotten a response yet.  I think it's funny that they say mp-3 and mp-4 support without explaining what the mp-4 is...

I assumed it was the audio mp4 - so I assumed if I changed the extension of m4a to mp4 they'd play fine.

Are mp4 audio the same as apple's itunes m4a?  I know m4p are the protected ones, but these are m4a's.

Besides this mp-4 thing/not being able to play back my itunes purchased songs - I like this player - very simple, easy to use.

I finally have a player with more storage space, a screen and extra features.  I looked all over for something like this - and this was the closest I've found.  I saw a player from the US very similar but with no screen and a couple of more features I didnt need/want and it was actually more expensive.

If anyone has any ideas what the mp-4 reference might be (no options to play video in the menu0 or ideas on transcoding to mp3 let me know, thanks for the replies

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #5 –
Quote
I assumed it was the audio mp4 - so I assumed if I changed the extension of m4a to mp4 they'd play fine.

Are mp4 audio the same as apple's itunes m4a? I know m4p are the protected ones, but these are m4a's.

If your viplayer has mp4 support, then it should be able to play m4a.

To my knowledge, m4a is just an mp4 with the file extension changed to make it easier to distinguish video and audio-only.

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #6 –
You're player come with any software?  I'd say at least try it once to see where and how it names files when it puts them on the player.

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #7 –
Quote from: KevinB52379 on
Yes I've emailed support but haven't gotten a response yet.  I think it's funny that they say mp-3 and mp-4 support without explaining what the mp-4 is...


There are a bunch of Chinese knock-off and el cheapo players that go by the name of mp4 player instead of mp3 player.  The main line of thinking is that it will get people to buy them due to the different name.  After all, mp4 is one more than mp3 so it must be good!

I suggest that you keep contacting customer support or return the product since it obviously isn't doing what you want.  I further suggest staying away from players that are marketed as being "mp4 players" since they are doing nothing more than playing with words and trying to entice customers.  An mp4 player should do just that, play mpeg-4 files.  iTunes AAC files with m4a extensions are AAC files wrapped inside of an mpeg-4 container.  An "mp4 player" should play those back without issues.
 

ViPlayer and M4A to MP3 with minimal quality loss?

Reply #8 –
Thanks for everyone's help and replies.

I understand your thoughts on cheap and knockoff players.

However - I don't think this is one of them.

The reason I say this is because it's from the UK instead of China/Hong Kong.

They developed a player for the visually impaired - large almost 3" screen, 18pt font, audio cues that read back the main menu selections and playback functions - so if I scroll down in the menu it reads the menu choies out loud through it's speakers (or through headphones if I have them connected).  I haven't seen this feature in any cheap knock off players.

Plus from what I can tell doing a search VI electronics seems to be a reputable company - I've emailed them in the past asking about specific functions of the player (how large the font was, etc) and they've always been quick to reply and helpful.

They did send a lot of nice goodies too - 1gb SD card with a holder and string attached so that visually impaired people can better keep track of it, headphones, lanyard, usb cord to connect player to computer/charge.

To answer your question - yes it does come with software.  However the software is designed to transfer books from audible.com to the player.  (The player has full support for audible books).

Oh and it comes with software which appears to transfer what's written in text files into an audio file so that the player can read back what is typed within the text files..

The built in radio, picture viewer and voice recorder are pretty nice too.