Looking for a good (free) utility to convert ogg to MP3

February 24, 2004 8:15 AM

Anyone know a good (free) utility to convert some ogg files to MP3 so I can play them on the iPod?
posted by brettski to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

There's a lot suggested by this google search, but what I do if I want to convert from a wierd format to another (say real audio to mp3) is play while capturing it thru my sound card, saving to wav, then using freebie cdex or any other mp3 encoder to produce the mp3.
posted by Pericles at 8:48 AM on February 24, 2004

You're looking for something called a "transcoder", of which there are quite a few. Most of them will decode Format A into some neutral lossless format like WAV, and re-encode that to Format Y. There is a noticable loss of quality as a result.
posted by majick at 9:34 AM on February 24, 2004

much more loss than just a second encoding pass with the the same encoder.

This is because ogg uses a different scheme than MP3 so a lot more data gets lost by de encoding with one and then rencoding with the other.

If you got it on ogg, try and re acquire it in mp3 [wink] de/re encoding should really be your solution of last resort.
posted by Fupped Duck at 10:41 AM on February 24, 2004

Anyone know a good (free) utility to convert some ogg files to MP3 so I can play them on the iPod?

Steal a Rio Karma.
posted by deadcowdan at 5:20 AM on February 25, 2004