Migrating mp3's from xp

[questio verum]

I made the switch from win xp to linux last weekend. Couldn't be happier. And now my goal for this coming week is to move my digital music collection from the old win xp drive to the drive containing linux, where I would like to clean things up. Which means getting rid of dupes & corrupted files, then converting all files from various flavors of mp3 & a few wma's to a single high-quality lossless codec. Once all that is done, I hope to be able to move the entire collection to an old 30 gig external firewire drive.

My questions are...
-Is there a function contained in or available for Ubuntu linux that will help me identify a number of different duplicate files en masse?
-Any recommendation for a lossless codec that allow me to rip high-quality stereo, or even 5.1 HD, audio? Hardware support is a consideration, but if I can find just a few portable players that would support it, that would be ok. Just one choice would be ok if it were the right one.
-A recommendation for a compatible software player is welcomed as well.

I've definitely enjoyed my newfound freedom this past week. Eight days of trouble-free computing. It's been great to see my old rig fly again, and not have to worry about all the crap associated with windows. I've kept xp on a separate drive though, as I've still got a lot of user files that need to be migrated. There is also an offhand chance I might one day find time to pull out one of my outdated old games. I suppose by years' end I'll have found a better use for that drive.

qv

[bigtomrodney]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

The one thing that stands out to me is why you would want to convert format. Converting mp3s to a lossless format will not make them sound better. The 'lossy' stage already happened and no matter what you do you would not replace the bits you took out. This might be a bit of a fruitless endeavour.

As for lossless codecs - if you do want to use one going forward have a look at ogg-flac. Flac is an excellent codec and should be what you are looking for. In the meantime you can use Amarok to play all of your wma and mp3 files and any retag/deduplication you need to do. It can even sort your files into directories according to the artist and album.

[questio verum]

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here. But thanks, you gave me the answer I was looking for. I learned Ogg-flac supports 5.1, and is supported by enough hardware to make me happy.
Thx!

qv