Subsonic Forum

I'm new to Subsonic but -- wow -- I love it so far.

I do have question, though. I would like to rip some CDs in the lossless WMA format and still be able to stream the files either to a desktop or my Android phone.

I ripped one disc in WMA as a test, and Subsonic would not play it on my computer, nor would it work on my phone. (Works fine when ripped as a 320 mp3.)

I was under the impression that Ss would handle WMAs and stream them as mp3s when appropriate.

How can I make this happen? I haven't touched any of the transcoding defaults -- do I have to change something? I looked in the Ss transcoding folder on my C drive and I see stuff there -- should I download something more?

Bear in mind that I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to stuff like this -- I never even heard the term "transcode" until I downloaded Subsonic. So a really, really basic explanation would be much appreciated.

(And sorry if this has been discussed on the forum previously -- I couldn't find an explanation that I understood.)

Thank you.

According to wiki, this format is "not well supported outside windows PCs"
and on the WMA wiki it says "The FFmpeg project has reverse-engineered and re-implemented the WMA codecs (except WMA Lossless)(...)" (ok thats inacurate wiki info, as we will know after reading this post ffmpeg CAN transcode, just wanted to make a moot point
So just saying support for this format may vanish, keep that in mind when ripping 1000s of CDs
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To make it work, look here:
Last post has apparently the working transcoding steps for subsonic 4.4:
http://forum.subsonic.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=22323#22323
Apparently because I cant test it on any phone and have no WMAL files, but they say it works in 4.4

Enter those transcoding steps in a empty line in the "settings > transcoding" mask after logging in as admin.
After that, activate it on the right side as default and active. now when using an existing user and player to play back, at least when using the web interface you have to activate the transcoding too in the players settings. Not sure about the phones though, I dont use those.

For more info try "how to transcoding" or "transcoding faq" in the search.

It depends of what Software you are using to rip the cd's with.
My experience is not to use Windows Media Player. WMP is forcing a hidden protection/licensed on the songs. Very few players are able to Stream or Play the songs outside WMP. Why not rip them in flac..

I suppose one solution would be to rip two copies of everything, in WMA for home use and another in mp3 for streaming. Storage space isn't an issue, but still, that's not terribly efficient.

Why not rip them in FLAC? Because I didn't really know about it. Reading up on the format now.

Oh you'll like FLAC for sure If space is no issue and quality, open specs of format and robustness is what you need.

You should definitely be able to get WMA lossless to MP3 conversion to work but not with the default settings. No need to store two copies of your music. I use the following transcoding settings with 4.4:

wmadec %s -
lame -b %b -r - -


I haven't used FLAC but I would say your choice of format really comes down to the devices you intend to use. Neither iPods nor Zune/Windows Phone support FLAC. Android probably does. If you use primarily Windows/Microsoft systems & devices then you'll get the most mileage out of WMA lossless. Android & Linux will do better with FLAC.

Also, WMP & Zune both rip unprotected tracks by default (I don't think Zune even has the option to rip protected tracks and hopefully the option will go away in WMP soon as it is totally unneeded).

Finally, in interest of full disclosure, I am a Microsoft employee but not in Windows or Zune/entertainment group. My statements here reflect personal experience unrelated to my employment capacity. I'm just another music enthusiast

Thanks. I'm using Windows and Android, so I'll give your suggestion a whirl the next time I have a chance to sit down and play around with SS.

ameyers wrote:You should definitely be able to get WMA lossless to MP3 conversion to work but not with the default settings. No need to store two copies of your music. I use the following transcoding settings with 4.4:

wmadec %s -
lame -b %b -r - -


I haven't used FLAC but I would say your choice of format really comes down to the devices you intend to use. Neither iPods nor Zune/Windows Phone support FLAC. Android probably does. If you use primarily Windows/Microsoft systems & devices then you'll get the most mileage out of WMA lossless. Android & Linux will do better with FLAC.

Also, WMP & Zune both rip unprotected tracks by default (I don't think Zune even has the option to rip protected tracks and hopefully the option will go away in WMP soon as it is totally unneeded).

Finally, in interest of full disclosure, I am a Microsoft employee but not in Windows or Zune/entertainment group. My statements here reflect personal experience unrelated to my employment capacity. I'm just another music enthusiast

Could you spell exactly what has to appear in each box of the transcoding line? Total novice here. Bits of code are meaningless to me. Thanks.

Sure, no problem.
1. Open Subsonic in your browser.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Go to Transcoding.
4. Find the row with the Name 'wma > mp3', which should have Convert from 'wma' and Convert to 'mp3'.
5. Change the values for Step 1 and Step 2 as follows:

Hmm, looks like the image didn't work =(

Anyway, the values should be:
Step 1: wmadec %s -
Step 2: lame -b %b -r - -

Make sure to get those extra dashes (-) at the end or it won't work.

Here is a link to the image which might work.

ameyers wrote:Hmm, looks like the image didn't work =(

Anyway, the values should be:
Step 1: wmadec %s -
Step 2: lame -b %b -r - -

Make sure to get those extra dashes (-) at the end or it won't work.

Here is a link to the image which might work.

Thank you very much! That worked. Although it's very slow to start playing music. I'm planning to move Ss to a better machine soon anyway (been testing it on an older computer in my home network). Hoping that cures the problem.

Editing to add: Sped up a lot after the first few transcodes. I guess it just had to establish itself or something.

ameyers wrote:Hmm, looks like the image didn't work =(

Anyway, the values should be:
Step 1: wmadec %s -
Step 2: lame -b %b -r - -

Make sure to get those extra dashes (-) at the end or it won't work.

Here is a link to the image which might work.

finaly my wma's play again thx