Windows 10 - FFmpeg confusion

Audacity 3 Help Forum Windows
1

Hi All.
I’ve been very happily using Audacity for a number of years because it’s excellent, but just downloaded Audacity 2.4.2 onto a new Windows 10 PC & I’m slowly going mad :smiling_face:
I will attach some screenshots, but to explain:
I want to open an mp3 file, (apparently, you don’t need to manually install a lame_enc.dll file anymore, as it is included automatically) File / Import / Audio / (choose a track from my collection) I get an error window:
FFmpeg not found. Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries to download or locate the FFmpeg libraries.
(It goes on to say… Audacity did not recognise this file…Try installing FFmpeg)

When I click on Edit > Preferences > Libraries, I have 2 choices:

  1. FFmpeg Library - Locate. I have searched through all the Windows Audacity folders - nothing there.
  2. FFmpeg Library - Download. This is where the fun really starts - I ended up with about 20 windows open, just going around in circles.

Can anyone please in simple terms, tell me where I’m going wrong, or direct me to a useful link, (not one that sends me in annoying circles).
Thanks in advance.
Nick.
Audacity FFmpeg issue image 4.jpg
Audacity FFmpeg issue image 3.jpg
Audacity FFmpeg issue image 2.jpg
Audacity FFmpeg issue image 1.jpg

2

Download and RUN [u]ffmpeg-win-2.2.2.exe[/u] to install FFmpeg.

want to open an mp3 file,…

…FFmpeg not found.

That means it’s not an MP3 file (at least not a valid MP3 file).

Can you play the file in other applications (Windows Media Player, etc.)?

You can check the format with [u]MediaInfoOnline[/u]. If it’s an MP3 you should see:
MPEG audio
Version 1
Layer 3

3

Thank you very much DVDdoug - you nailed it in one!
The link to the FFmpeg was spot-on, (why can’t it be that simple on the Audacity website?) and you were right about the file format. Although the songs were titled as ‘Song Name Number 1 etc.mp3’ when I checked with MediaInfoOnline, they were actually WMA files - very confused!

Anyway, I’ve managed to convert them, (VLC Media Player is very good) and move on with my project.

Cheers :smiling_face:

4

It’s due to licensing restrictions, if we hosted it directly we would have to pat license fees - and then in turn we would have to charge you :wink:

But I do admit the website that it gets served on for us is a bit messy (we’ve tried to get it changed - it was even worse in the past …)

WC

5

Hi Nick,

I also realized that the click-through from the Website takes you too a preliminary page first and then a further click to get to the page that you need (plus click the link to the external website).

So I updated that to cut out the un-necessary preliminary page.

Sorry that doesn’t help you Nick - but it should make it a bit easier for users in the future.

And thanks Nick for providing the “nudge” for that :slight_smile: :sunglasses:

Peter.