m4a to mp3 -- Having some difficulty

[lakerdonald]

I've got a bunch of m4a files that I downloaded from iTunes awhile back, and now I'd like to burn them to CD/do some other stuff with them. I've tried converting them to other formats (like mp3, ogg, etc) using lame, but I end up with a bunch of songs that are 20 seconds long and have no sound. The command I'm using is:

lame 04\ You\ Know\ What\ They\ Do\ to\ Guys\ Lik.m4p You\ Know\ What\ They.mp3

Any ideas?
Thanks,
-lakerdonald

[bigtomrodney]

Can it be played with mplayer? You could use mplayer to dump it to wav first using mplayer -ao if that's any help. That's how I convert wma's to mp3/oggVorbis.

[techieMoe]

This may or may not help you, but whenever I buy a track off iTunes I immediately burn it to and audio CD and rip it back as MP3... That would require access to iTunes though...

[lakerdonald]

Just realized that .m4p files are encrypted and can't be converted...

[gerhardk]

It's easy to convert anything to anything with ecaconvert (ecasound).
Install it and the other programs to convert to (like ogg-vorbis or flac).
then just do:
$ ecaconvert .ogg *m4a

to convert all m4a files to ogg files.

[lakerdonald]

It's easy to convert anything to anything with ecaconvert (ecasound).
Install it and the other programs to convert to (like ogg-vorbis or flac).
then just do:
$ ecaconvert .ogg *m4a

to convert all m4a files to ogg files.

They are actually encrypted m4p files, so, I doubt that will work, but thanks.

[sysxperts]

Converting from m4a to mp3 on a whole bunch of files recursively

Convert to wav first:
find . -name \*.[Mm]4[Aa] -exec faad {} \;

Convert to mp3:
find . -name \*.[Ww][Aa][Vv] -exec lame {} \;