Windows WMW files to mp3

Is there any recommendations on a program to change windows media music files to the mp3 format?

Thanks in advance. Bob.

Do you mean WMV files? If so FFMPEG is your friend. It should have no problem convrting to MP3.

The extension is .WMA and it is a collection of song's I have.

I just purchased a GPS which also has the option to run a patch cord from it to the line in on my CD player in my truck. However the GPS will only play mp3 files.

Where might I find this FFMMPEG?

Its either included by default or available through synaptic.

Its a command line utility,incredibly powerfull and useful. For your purpose you need to navigate to the directory where the wma files are and then input

ffmpeg -i yoursong.wma yoursong.mp3

That should be it.

For an introduction and some useful shortcuts try

http://www.catswhocode.com/blog/os/19-ffmpeg-commands-for-all-needs-824

I'll give it a try. Can it do more thatn one song at a time? Say a folder that has all of one albums songs in it?

As its command line I am sure you can process more than one file at a time. Not sure what the command would be though. For 1 album you might be just as quick repeating the command for each conversion.

I the stock version of ffmpeg from the Intrepid repository will not properly encode to mp3. This is a restricted format, but you can get it to work by using the "unstripped" ffmpeg libraries [link to forum post]. These will provide encoding support for restricted formats.

ffmpeg by default will encode to 64 kb/s. You can change the bitrate with "-ab":

ffmpeg -i yoursong.wma -ab 128k yoursong.mp3