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

[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



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)


Audio Extraction (Extract MP3 to MP3)

[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 ).
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/forumdispl...t-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...0097#post20097