I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.

On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:49:38 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.

Play the file using the Real player and capture the output.

(You do not say what operating system you are using, so it is
difficult to be more specific.)

--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK

"Chris Isbell" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:49:38 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.

Play the file using the Real player and capture the output.

(You do not say what operating system you are using, so it is
difficult to be more specific.)

--


I am using XP SPA. Are you saying the only way to do it is in actual play
time?

I would want to do this regularly with lots of files.

On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 07:46:25 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.


How big is the ra file on your computer.
What does it actually do?
Does it contain actual audio data, or is it an instruction to access
an audio stream from the Internet?

"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 07:46:25 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.


How big is the ra file on your computer.
What does it actually do?
Does it contain actual audio data, or is it an instruction to access
an audio stream from the Internet?

Its a Coldplay concert download from the BeeB and is 14.3 mb

On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 17:13:13 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:


"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 07:46:25 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.


How big is the ra file on your computer.
What does it actually do?
Does it contain actual audio data, or is it an instruction to access
an audio stream from the Internet?

Its a Coldplay concert download from the BeeB and is 14.3 mb


You must mean: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio2/r2_coldplay.ra ;-)

You are likely to be in breach of the terms of the BBC streaming audio
downloads in attempting to make a copy or copies, and could therefore
be liable to prosecution. (Record companies and the PRS seem to be
getting increasingly willing to take individuals to court these days.)

In addition, this stream uses a very high level of compression (32kbps
according to Real Player against 1411.2kbps for a CD). I have taken a
brief listen and the compression artifacts are high audible, even to
my ageing ears. Would it not be simpler and better to buy one of the
band's CDs?

That said, a Google search reveals programs able to perform the
necessary conversion. Whether you wish to run the risk of installing
such 'underground' software onto your machine and the possibility of
being taken to court for breach of copyright after raising the issue
in a public forum, is up to you.

--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK

"Chris Isbell" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 17:13:13 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:


"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
. ..
On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 07:46:25 -0000, "Trevor"
wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity
it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it
to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.


How big is the ra file on your computer.
What does it actually do?
Does it contain actual audio data, or is it an instruction to access
an audio stream from the Internet?

Its a Coldplay concert download from the BeeB and is 14.3 mb


You must mean: rtsp://rmv8.bbc.net.uk/radio2/r2_coldplay.ra ;-)

You are likely to be in breach of the terms of the BBC streaming audio
downloads in attempting to make a copy or copies, and could therefore
be liable to prosecution. (Record companies and the PRS seem to be
getting increasingly willing to take individuals to court these days.)

In addition, this stream uses a very high level of compression (32kbps
according to Real Player against 1411.2kbps for a CD). I have taken a
brief listen and the compression artifacts are high audible, even to
my ageing ears. Would it not be simpler and better to buy one of the
band's CDs?

That said, a Google search reveals programs able to perform the
necessary conversion. Whether you wish to run the risk of installing
such 'underground' software onto your machine and the possibility of
being taken to court for breach of copyright after raising the issue
in a public forum, is up to you.

--
Chris Isbell
Southampton, UK


I didn't realise the implications - the downloading and software is
discussed openly on uk.media.radio.bbc-2.

I have all the Coldpaly albums anyway so wasn't particularly interested from
that point of view. I'm more interested in being able to listen to 'Open
County' and Farming Today when out walking.

"Trevor" wrote:

I have a .ra file that lasts over an hour. When I play it in audacity it
plays the whole thing in 2 seconds. I would really like to convert it to
mp3, which it does but still only a high speed two second sound clip.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help...ma-proprietary

"Audacity cannot import or export files in WMA, AAC, RealAudio, Shorten (SHN), or
most other proprietary formats. Because of licensing and patent restrictions, we are
not allowed to add these formats to Audacity."

Perhaps someone wrote a rogue filter that allows Audacity to handle RealAudio
natively.

Best practice seems to be using the Tara plugins for winAMP and play the RA file int
othe DiskWriter pluging which will leave you with a large file on the harddrive which
you can open in Audacity. If you do not force the written to be 44.1KHz 16bits stereo
or any other common format which Audacity understands then you're stuck with playing
the file to the soundcard WAVE OUT and have Audacity record from WhatYouHear - do set
up Windows to have no system sounds while you are doing this. If your sound card
driver doesn't support WhatYouHear, which is an input composed of all the outputs
that are active, then you have to use a second computer to record the sound off the
first computer.

I once resorted to doing that, but a digital PCM recorder without compression will
sufice, such as a DAT deck or CD-RW recorder.

-Mikkel

On Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:32:28 +0000, Chris Isbell wrote:

...
In addition, this stream uses a very high level of compression (32kbps
according to Real Player against 1411.2kbps for a CD). I have taken a
brief listen and the compression artifacts are high audible, even to
my ageing ears. Would it not be simpler and better to buy one of the
band's CDs?

If there is a version for highbandwidth users then it might sound better if played
onto a tape and sampled back to make a CD.

That said, a Google search reveals programs able to perform the
necessary conversion. Whether you wish to run the risk of installing
such 'underground' software onto your machine and the possibility of
being taken to court for breach of copyright after raising the issue
in a public forum, is up to you.

I seriously doubt that people using the downloaded files for their own private
purposes are goign to be targetted by authorities when selling such would command
greater reason to go after perpetrators. No sense in trying to get money from somen
making cds for his hours spent in transport to and from work, while someone else
makes 500 UKP selling the same on the web. The copyrightholder would get
significantly more money in a court settlement from a rogue seller than a home user
of the same recording.

All he is actually doing is making the recording available on a media that he can
use.

I'd go with making a cassette or search usenet for people who swap concerttapings,
there you would get better quality, and typically such do not charge any money or
accept media in return. Thre is still a huge difference between a comunity
surrounding an artist and that of those trying to profit from them.

-Mikkel