Sound Converter wma to mp3 conversion fails

I might as well convert this "bug" into a question, since I doubt it's not really a bug after all, but an expectable compatibility problem with WMA files. So maybe the question is: is SoundConverter supposed to be able to handle WMA to MP3 conversions without problems? Maybe I am missing some extra codecs package which would solve the issue?

Play mp3 and dvd under Ubuntu

First please install https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats

You need to have extra repositories enabled...

Please first enable the multiverse repository:

Open System → Administration → Software sources → [ Tab Ubuntu software ]
enable "Software restrictecd by copyright or legal issue ( multiverse )"
Close and confirm the repository reload.

Type the following command in a terminal (applications → accessories → terminal)

sudo aptitude install vlc

To get better dvd playback first you need to add the medibuntu http://www.medibuntu.org/ repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
here howto add https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu here the medibuntu available software list http://packages.medibuntu.org/

Then to install:

sudo update
sudo aptitude install libdvdread3 libdvdnav4 libdvdcss2

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Then read:

http://adventuresinubuntu.blogspot.com/2008/01/sound-converter.html

Hope this helps

Thanks for your kind reply!

I'm afraid your advice does not really address the issue at hand, however. I do have ubuntu-restricted-extras installed, etc., and (as I already indicated) I am able to convert wav files to mp3, for example, and I can indeed play wma files as well as all the other formats I have tried (I even posted a thread on the Ubuntu Forums on how to convert Shorten Audio files to other formats). It is only that the conversion process does not behave as it should when I try to convert WMA to either OGG or MP3. This is actually just a minor inconvenience, because usually I try to avoid WMA files in the first place.

I must say that I have been very satisfied with Sound Converter, except for this slight issue (well, I will be avoiding WMA even more persistently after this).

Dear marcobra or anyone,

this is the error message I get, trying to convert (certain?) .wma files to .ogg:

Error
Failed to install plugins: <enum GST_INSTALL_PLUGINS_NOT_FOUND of type GstInstallPluginsReturn>

Here is the output of trying the conversion in the Terminal:

pprasane@ubuntu-desktop:~$ soundconverter /home/pprasane/Music/Charles_Lloyd/Soundtrack-Charles_Lloyd_in_the_Soviet_Union/*.wma
SoundConverter 1.3.2
  using Gstreamer version: 0.10.21, Python binding version: 0.10.13
  using gio
  using 1 thread(s)
no application found
Queue done in 1s
Queue done in 1s
no application found
no application found
no application found
no application found
no application found
no application found
Queue done in 3s

I have tried also OggConvert. Correspondingly, this is the error output of trying OggConvert:

The file "01-Sombrero_Sam.wma" cannot be converted
The file format "video/x-ms-asf" is not supported.

Terminal:

pprasane@ubuntu-desktop:~$ oggconvert -ui /home/pprasane/Music/Charles_Lloyd/Soundtrack-Charles_Lloyd_in_the_Soviet_Union/*.wma
Schrödinger encoder found, using

This is not urgent, of course, but I decided to press the "I still need an Answer button", since the behavior is unexpected after all (or at least I'm confused about this).

My way to solve the problem was, after all, to search the repos for a text-only audio converter. I found dir2ogg and it works really smooth and fast, having a nice and informative verbose output, too. Thanks for reading this.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.