Ubuntu – converting aac to mp3 via command line

aaccommand linemp3

Original Question

Is there some cli tool to convert aac files from the iTunes Store (no DRM) to mp3?

Update 1

MP3 to MP3

I installed libavcodec-unstripped-52 and get a little further.

When I try to encode MP3 files with it:
It says [mp3 @ 0x997cde0]Header missing.

lame also had problems since the tags are ID3v2, is it possible that the libmp3lame does not support that either?

Should I convert the tags or what can I do to get this working?

AAC to MP3

This went through, but there are no headers in the resulting MP3 file. How can I get the headers in there?

Best Answer

The most appropriate command line tool is the ffmpeg utility available to be installed via the software center/synaptic manager.

A command line example would be something like this for Constant Bitrate Mode (CBR):

ffmpeg -i inputfile.m4a -c:a libmp3lame -ac 2 -b:a 190k outputfile.mp3

Or even better for Variable Bitrate Mode (VBR):

ffmpeg -i inputfile.m4a -c:a libmp3lame -ac 2 -q:a 2 outputfile.mp3

More information on mp3 encoding with FFmpeg can be seen here:

FFmpeg MP3 Encoding Guide

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Is there now any way to convert mp3 files to m4a or aac 192kbit

I think I found the solution right here:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/format-junkie-convert-your-media-files-to-all-the-popular-formats.html

It's called format junkie and it converts to 192kbit m4a (aac) without problems. Check it out - it's a bit flashy but a really simple and yet powerful media converter for images, audios, videos and even iso-files!

Sorry for answering my own question, but for me I consider it solved. :-)

thx for reading, piedro

Ubuntu – bulk/batch convert mp3 files to ogg via command line

Searching for packages matching ogg, I found dir2ogg which seems to be exactly what you want. Just

sudo apt-get install dir2ogg
dir2ogg -r /path/to/mp3s/

And it recursively finds and converts all mp3 files under /path/to/mp3s/ to ogg (assuming I read the manual correctly).