How can I get an audiobook bought from Audible to play on my iriver H10?

May 15, 2006 5:30 PM

How can I get an audiobook bought from Audible to play on my iriver H10?

I know I should have checked beforehand, but they support all kinds of obscure players, so I just assumed mine would be ok as it's a fairly 'mainstream' device.

The downloaded file's extension is .aa, is there any way to get it on to the iriver without messing about with DRM stripping?

I suspect not, so if the only way is to strip the DRM then what program would do it? A quick googling reveals this issue to be a real minefield, and any programs I can find have long since ceased to have any real functionality.

If anyone can help but wants to keep it 'on the down low' then let me know and I'll make myself emailable.

Thanks in advance =)

posted by chrissyboy to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Best answer: The easiest way that I can think of would be to burn it to CD and then re-rip the CD as an MP3.

*If* the file lets you burn it to a CD, that is.

(According to the site, the iRiver H10 only plays WMA and MP3, so de-DRMing this file wouldn't make a difference...)
posted by unixrat at 6:14 PM on May 15, 2006

This used to be possible with old versions of Goldwave, but that functionality was later removed.

See discussion here.

The other alternative is to play the file and record the output... slow but it will work. iRecordMusic will do this easily on a Mac.
posted by cwhitfcd at 7:02 PM on May 15, 2006

You can still find old versions of Goldwave. 5.06 is definetly one of the versions with this functionality. :)
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 7:44 PM on May 15, 2006

Response by poster: The .aa file can be burnt to audio.... re-ripping the burnt audio cd had occurred to me but i was reluctant to decode then re-encode it as the audio quality is already quite poor (lots of artefacts and fft stuff going on), so the idea of re-recording the output as you play the file appeals...

...but then again, are you really going to gain that much in quality doing that instead of re-rippping the cd?

And can anyone recommend a PC equivalent of the irecordmusic app cwhitfcd linked to?

thanks for the responses so far =)
posted by chrissyboy at 10:12 PM on May 15, 2006

dbPowerAmp can also convert to mp3
posted by Gary at 11:17 AM on May 16, 2006

Best answer: Re-ripping the CD will produce higher quality than recording during playback. Both options require decoding and re-encoding. The second option involves an additional digital-analog-digital conversion (with most sound cards).
posted by mbrubeck at 12:43 PM on May 16, 2006

Response by poster: The second option involves an additional digital-analog-digital conversion (with most sound cards).

True, but does that stay the same if you're using a 'virtual audio cable' app like the one suggested?

I suppose I was assuming that you'd get better quality by capturing the stream to WAV and re-encoding to a high (say a 160 or above) bitrate than the decoding that occurs when you burn an mp3 to audio, but as you point out, decoding is decoding either way.
posted by chrissyboy at 5:52 PM on May 16, 2006

Response by poster: Also - neither Goldwave or dbPowerAmp seem to work in this context anymore - the Goldwave v5.06 trick given above seems to be one of those things that works for some and not for others.

Maybe audible have changed their copy protection on more recent titles to defeat it?
posted by chrissyboy at 5:54 PM on May 16, 2006