how to extract MP3 and AAC audio from FLV files losslessly (without re-encoding) using Replay Media Catcher 4

[extract]

i use replay media catcher for capturing flv files. Is there a way to losslessly extract the audio, like flv extract 1.61 does? Thanks for a wonderful product.

[Jeff Lenney]

Good evening Extract

Yes -you can certainly do with. With RMC 4, once you're done RECORDING- simply click on TOOLS, and then CONVERT - and you can choose the file type to convert to (for example, audio mp3)

Let me know if this helps!

[stream-recorder.com]

There are no presets for extracting audio tracks losslessly. And FLVExtract doesn't come with RMC 4.0.12.

However ffmpeg.exe that is used for converting files with RMC 4 allows to extract audio tracks losslessly:

First you can find out what type of audio is used in the video file:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.flv
You will get something like

Stream #0.1: Audio: mp3, 44100 Hz, mono, s16, 128 kb/s
Now you know that MP3 audio is used (or AAC, or Speex, or Wav,...), so use the following command:

ffmpeg -i input.flv -vn -acodec copy output.mp3
This will extract output.mp3 from input.flv.



I tried to edit c:/Users/USERNAME/AppData/Local/Jaksta_Pty_Ltd/armcp.exe_StrongName_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/4.0.12/user.config and added

<Settings><Name><![CDATA[Extract MP3 audio track losslessly]]</Name><ConversionExe>ffmpeg.exe</ConversionExe><CommandLine><![CDATA[-i "{0}" -vn -acodec copy "{1}"]]></CommandLine><OutputFormat><![CDATA[mp3]]></OutputFormat></Settings>
but it doesn't work for me. It was either my mistake when adding a new conversion preset or something needs to be changed in the program.

[stream-recorder.com]

Thanks to the developer of RMC it appeared that everything is much easier than I thought. To extract MP3 audio tracks from any video files just add a new conversion preset:

Go to Tools -> Conversion Settings and clone an MP3 preset. Then edit it and set:

Output format: MP3
Output file extension: MP3
Disable video - checked
Audio codec: copy

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/9936/extractm.png (http://img218.imageshack.us/i/extractm.png/)

[stream-recorder.com]

I tested it with a YouTube video and it didn't work, because the video I downloaded was using an AAC audio track, not an MP3 audio track. So I added a couple of other profiles:

Extract AAC audio track into M4A
Output format: MP4
Output file extension: M4A
Disable video - checked
Audio codec: copy

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2033/extracth.jpg

Extract AAC audio track into M4B
Output format: MP4
Output file extension: M4B
Disable video - checked
Audio codec: copy

Both formats are especially handy for extracting audio tracks to m4a as well as bookmarkable m4b audio files for an iPod, iPhone,...

[stream-recorder.com]

AAC and MP3 extraction presets are available in RMC 4.0.14 by default, so you don't need to add the above mentioned presets manually.

Audio Extraction (Extract AAC to M4A)
http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/3606/replaymediacatcheraudio.jpg

Audio Extraction (Extract MP3 to MP3)
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/8764/replaymediacatcherextra.jpg

[CurtisCee]

These audio extracts don't appear in my list of drop-down options by default. Did you add these yourself earlier and forget that they were there, are they not installed by default in the current 4.1.6.0 that I have installed, is there something else going on? Regardless, I successfully but manually added the profiles per the details above. Extraction seems to work awesomely, but people should be warned that there are some quirks that you might experience initially until you do some tweaking:

1: After the flv audio is extracted as mp3, the original is not deleted. I imagine some may want to keep the original flv while many more others will want to delete the original flv. So go back into Windows and manually delete the original flv from your storage folder because only the extracted mp3 version remains in your RMC list. The option to automatically delete originals upon conversion and/or to see the originals in the RMC list for manual deletion might be good options to add by the developer in the future.

2: The extracted audio files are not saved to your Storage Folder, but rather in your Conversion folder. So if they are different paths but you want all your files stored in the same folder, be sure to go into Settings and match the path names there.

3: Not sure about this one: But if you don't toggle off the option to "Automatically Identify and Tag Music" in the File Naming Rules, RMC will sometimes rename the extracted mp3 as a "Copy of" the original flv file. I haven't confirmed this yet however. It may just be an anomaly that I experienced, or that I truly had an existing copy.

[stream-recorder.com]

These audio extracts don't appear in my list of drop-down options by default.
It is possible to get the default conversion profiles in RMC 4.1.6:
Go to Tools -> Conversion -> Settings -> and click Defaults.

Note that this will delete all custom profiles you have created.


Did you add these yourself earlier and forget that they were there, are they not installed by default in the current 4.1.6.0 that I have installed, is there something else going on?
No. My audio extraction profiles use different names (I find them better than the ones used in RMC 4 :D ).
Besides I used "Output format: MP4" while the developer of RMC used "Output format: M4B" for AAC extraction presets.


1: After the flv audio is extracted as mp3, the original is not deleted. I imagine some may want to keep the original flv while many more others will want to delete the original flv. So go back into Windows and manually delete the original flv from your storage folder because only the extracted mp3 version remains in your RMC list. The option to automatically delete originals upon conversion and/or to see the originals in the RMC list for manual deletion might be good options to add by the developer in the future.
I prefer to delete the originals manually to avoid deleting files converted improperly.

But you can suggest a new feature in the following forum
https://forum.applian.com/forumdisplay.php?22-Request-New-Features

[Radiograbber]

I've just tried using "Audio Extraction (Extract AAC to M4A)" for the first time, but the resulting files are badly distorted. The original FLVs sound OK however, and if I manually extract the AAC tracks with FLVExtract and create M4A files using MP4Box they sound fine. Clearly there is something not right about the way RMC4 (or rather ffmpeg) creates the M4A file. I've tried version 4.1.1, 4.1.6 and 4.2.1 but they all give the same result.

I've also tried the M4B option but it fails with the error "Unknown input or output format: m4b" (see error log below).

I'm running Windows 7 Pro x64 on a Core i7-920 with 6GB RAM, so computing power is not an issue here! Any suggestions please?


Starting conversion with arguments: -y -i "D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.flv" -ss 0.00 -vn -acodec copy -f m4b "D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.m4b"
Converting - FFmpeg version SVN-r18639, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
Converting - configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --enable-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --disable-ffserver --enable-avisynth --enable-pthreads
Converting - libavutil 50. 3. 0 / 50. 3. 0
Converting - libavcodec 52.27. 0 / 52.27. 0
Converting - libavformat 52.32. 0 / 52.32. 0
Converting - libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
Converting - libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
Converting - libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
Converting - built on Apr 21 2009 13:44:38, gcc: 4.2.4 (TDM-1 for MinGW)
Converting - [flv @ 0x145bae0]skipping flv packet: type 18, size 617, flags 0
Converting - Input #0, flv, from 'D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.flv':
Converting - Duration: 00:21:00.03, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Converting - Stream #0.0: Video: 0x0000, 1k tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Converting - Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
Converting - Unknown input or output format: m4b
Complete with errors. Double click to view. ()

[stream-recorder.com]

I've also tried the M4B option but it fails with the error "Unknown input or output format: m4b" (see error log below).

I'm running Windows 7 Pro x64 on a Core i7-920 with 6GB RAM, so computing power is not an issue here! Any suggestions please?


Starting conversion with arguments: -y -i "D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.flv" -ss 0.00 -vn -acodec copy -f m4b "D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.m4b"
Converting - FFmpeg version SVN-r18639, Copyright (c) 2000-2009 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
Converting - configuration: --enable-memalign-hack --enable-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-libfaac --enable-libfaad --enable-libgsm --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libx264 --enable-libxvid --disable-ffserver --enable-avisynth --enable-pthreads
Converting - libavutil 50. 3. 0 / 50. 3. 0
Converting - libavcodec 52.27. 0 / 52.27. 0
Converting - libavformat 52.32. 0 / 52.32. 0
Converting - libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0
Converting - libswscale 0. 7. 1 / 0. 7. 1
Converting - libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
Converting - built on Apr 21 2009 13:44:38, gcc: 4.2.4 (TDM-1 for MinGW)
Converting - [flv @ 0x145bae0]skipping flv packet: type 18, size 617, flags 0
Converting - Input #0, flv, from 'D:\My Documents\Replay Media Catcher\Copy (4) of BBC iPlayer - Notes from a Small Island Glasgow to the Yorkshire Dales.flv':
Converting - Duration: 00:21:00.03, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Converting - Stream #0.0: Video: 0x0000, 1k tbr, 1k tbn, 1k tbc
Converting - Stream #0.1: Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, stereo, s16
Converting - Unknown input or output format: m4b
Complete with errors. Double click to view. ()
Edit the m4a, m4b convertsion presets (or just clone them and use new ones). Use MP4 as the output format (instead of m4b) as I mentioned above:
https://forum.applian.com/showthread.php?5784-how-to-extract-MP3-and-AAC-audio-from-FLV-files-losslessly-(without-re-encoding)-using-Replay-Media-Catcher-4&p=20097#post20097

[Radiograbber]

Edit the m4a, m4b convertsion presets (or just clone them and use new ones). Use MP4 as the output format (instead of m4b) as I mentioned above:
https://forum.applian.com/showthread.php?5784-how-to-extract-MP3-and-AAC-audio-from-FLV-files-losslessly-(without-re-encoding)-using-Replay-Media-Catcher-4&p=20097#post20097

Oops, I can't believe I failed to check that before posting, sorry! :o Having made the change I can now convert to M4B without any errors, thanks. However, this is where things get really weird...

I currently have Winamp as my default music player, so am using it to check the files before loading them into iTunes. Even after changing the preset, the M4As produced by RMC sound distorted but the ones I create manually sound OK. Winamp won't even play the M4Bs so I tried them in Windows Media Player and they sound OK.... and so did the M4As when I tried them as well! Goodness knows whether the problem is in the creation or the playback of these files but it looks like it's time to ditch Winamp and conform to the almighty will of Microsoft.

[stream-recorder.com]

I currently have Winamp as my default music player, so am using it to check the files before loading them into iTunes. Even after changing the preset, the M4As produced by RMC sound distorted but the ones I create manually sound OK. Winamp won't even play the M4Bs so I tried them in Windows Media Player and they sound OK.... and so did the M4As when I tried them as well! Goodness knows whether the problem is in the creation or the playback of these files but it looks like it's time to ditch Winamp and conform to the almighty will of Microsoft.
I can't play it with winamp as well. But I can play these M4A and M4B files in AIMP, VLC and KMPlayer. Don't really know whether I did something wrong or it is related to winamp only.

Do you have any problem playing these M4A or M4B files in iTunes or on an iPod/iPhone?

[Radiograbber]

Ah, well I didn't actually get that far. In the end I deleted the offending files and went back to manually extracting the AAC stream and making the M4A files myself as I felt happier doing it this way. In fact, I've even reverted to using RMC3 as I noticed some distortion in the FLV files created by RM4. Just haven't found time to test this properly and post here about it.

[Radiograbber]

Hmm, I may have imagined the distortion, as the files I've just downloaded (and manually made into M4A) while experimenting with the rtmp plugin sound fine.

[stream-recorder.com]

Hmm, I may have imagined the distortion, as the files I've just downloaded (and manually made into M4A) while experimenting with the rtmp plugin sound fine.
Thank you for letting me know. Hope to see more feedback from other users to make sure my suggestion was correct :)