Attempting to burn m4a files crashes K3B

[mightybrick]

I was attempting to burn an audio cd using k3b. I added some m4a files to the project that k3b "analyzed" successfully. However when I attempted to burn the project, and initiate burning, k3b crashes. I can't figure out why, or how to correct it. The m4a files play fine using kaffiene. I tried other m4a files in k3b, thinking perhaps there was something in the particular m4a files I was attempting to burn, but they crashed k3b as well.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

[exwintech]

Mightybrick - K3b does full-audio CDs as *.wav files. It automatically converts *.mp3 to *.wav while doing so. You could convert the *.m4a to either *.mp3 or *.wav to make your full-audio CDs, for player, in car, etc.

> SoundKonverter (in Synaptic) - will convert *.m4a to *.mp3 or other formats. It has an Easy, and a Detailed, interface. You can select the conversion quality from Very Low to Very High - or by bitrate and level in the Detailed Tab.

> For your *.m4a files (you can do multis, just select in the SoundKonverter window) - select High or Very High on Quality, and convert.

> In K3b select "New Audio CD" and Drag-Drop your files into the window. Check the Progress Bar at the bottom for write-size as you add more files - it does an 80-minute audio CD.

>> Any problems, post back!

Regards, Dave.

[mightybrick]

The .mp3 files and .ogg files I burned did so without a problem. There is some bug in either K3B or FAAD that crashes during burning. I'd prefer to not convert the .m4a files to .mp3 prior to burning, as transcoding degrades the audio quality, but if that's what I have to do, then so be it.

OK, I did a test by transcoding one of my .m4a files to .mp3 using soundkonverter. The resulting .mp3 was completely garbled. *shrug*  Actually, now that I think about it, the error couldn't be in FAAD, or else the .m4a files would be unplayable in kaffiene, amarok, etc, right? The .m4a files I have play flawlessly in kaffiene, amarok, etc.

[exwintech]

Mightybrick - If SoundKonverter "garbled" your *.m4a files you either have an install problem with SoundKonverter or your *.m4a files aren't "standard".

> Some *.m4a files are low-end, for use on small devices, and trying to convert that sort to "High" quality might not work.

> Perhaps you could download some "Free Sample" *.m4a files by Googling, and try those in SoundKonverter to check your install.

> As for "degrading quality" - *.m4a is MPEG4 audio and by itself is a "lossy" format - so you'll lose quality whatever you convert it into.

> Did you extract your *.m4a files from an MPEG4 video?

> If so, and you still have the video(s) - use Avidemux to extract the Audio as *.mp3.

> Open the MPEG4 video in Avidemux. Go Audio > Save, and show it where to save the file to as *.mp3.

> K3b will accept the Avidemux extract-*.mp3s as audio files. You can also use Audacity to edit, "clean-up", normalise, noise-removal, etc, those files, from the Effects Menu.

Regards, Dave.