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Topic: Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning (Read 1908 times) previous topic - next topic
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Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Hello

When I try to convert audio from lossy format to lossless foobar2000 gives me an error message but gives me an option to continue.

The messagebox should give me warning instead of error...

Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Reply #1 –
Quote from: Jarzka on
When I try to convert audio from lossy format to lossless foobar2000 gives me an error message but gives me an option to continue.

The messagebox should give me warning instead of error...

Actually Foobar shouldn't even let you do this because it's totally useless.
Once music has been encoded to a lossy codec, there is no going back. Transcoding mp3 to flac or any other lossy -> lossless conversion will only increase the size of your file. You won't gain any quality.
If you have the original CD, rip it again in Lossless. If you bought digital mp3, you're just out of luck.

Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Reply #2 –
Not totally useless. You might have a good copy in an incompatible format for another device which does support lossless, such as an iPad my friend's group uses for their backing tracks with my help. Then converting to ALAC would make sense to allow the iPad to play it in the highest quality remaining, especially where there are only about a hundred backing tracks, which easily fit on the iPad in ALAC format. I've kept generational losses (transcoding) at bay when doing destructive edits to AAC-LC or MP3 sourced materials, and used fb2k to decode to FLAC with ReplayGain reduction to avoid clipping and sometimes some correctional EQ before editing in Audacity, then saved to ALAC to import to the iPad.
Dynamic – the artist formerly known as DickD

Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Jarzka on
foobar2000 gives me an error message but gives me an option to continue.

The messagebox should give me warning instead of error...
I took this to refer to UI design/aesthetics more than anything else: the dialog reports an error via an icon or text, whereas (in my interpretation) Jarzka feels that it should be a warning, I presume because the process is allowed to continue, rather than being aborted as one might fairly expect after a supposed error.

Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Reply #4 –
As much as the mere thought of transcoding lossies makes me reach for my silver bullets, the artist formerly known as DickD is of course right. Remember in old days when some artists put out their demos on the www in Real Audio? Who wants to hunt down a portable player for its .ra support, or choose cellphone on the basis of such? Nah.

There is a similar thread here on transcoding Musepack, and where I proposed to use not only tags, but also filenames, to distinguish the transcoded files -- like, .ra.alac or .ra.mp3 . Then you know where they are from. Of course you keep the original lossies as backup.


However, if the codec is supported but the file format itself isn't, then you can reencapsulate. For example, if you encounter some .ra file which carries an AAC audio stream, then ffmpeg can copy the audio stream over to an mp4 containter losslessly. (Has anyone ever seen such .ra files? The format was more or less dead already?)
 

Lossy-lossless conversion message box says error; it should be warning

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Jarzka on
When I try to convert audio from lossy format to lossless foobar2000 gives me an error message but gives me an option to continue.

The messagebox should give me warning instead of error...

You're referring the the icon of the messagebox, the big white X on a round red shield, right? As far as I know warnings in Windows should rather use the yellow triangle with exclamation mark, so you're right. Since the title of the message is actually "Transcode warning", and it does let you continue transcoding if you click "Yes", it behaves like a warning, too. You can also disable transcoding warnings by unticking the box in Preferences->Advanced->Tools->Converter->[ ] Show transcoding warnings.
It's only audiophile if it's inconvenient.