@17 (mike): Out of curiosity, what program do you use to track system changes by the software? Is it some software virtualization?

I have tested that audio converter, install and launch successfully, with it, i could extract audio mp3 from video like youtube video, yahoo video and google video. But to conversion, i usually use a professional total video converter from www.mac-videoconverter.com (free trial version), not only including windows version but also mac version. This mediAvatar Audio Converter Pro also helps me convert one video to another more or less. Thx GOTD!

Having just seen the top most voted for bit of feedback regarding the graphing of CPU useage, I don't think I'll be bothering. Surely such a graph would be pretty redundant for a program that is primarily supposed to convert audio, not monitor system useage, there's even gadgets for that, never mind programs!

"This app contains a very old Adobe flash player version 10.0.12.36 and many other 3rd party components like Ffmpeg, Quicktime, and Real.
This could conflict with current versions of these application."
Could do, might do, have you actually experieced any issues? I'm running the latest versions of all the above applications (and many more) and I've had no conflicts, you'll find they are all backwards compatible. Stop suggesting non-existent problems.

"Need more skins. Only 1 supplied"
Why do you "need" more skins? Skins are like choice of colour on a car, nice to have but it functions exactly the same regardless.

"I use http://www.easy-video-converter.com which is free"

So is this. Have you tried this, how does it compare? Give us some useful feedback instead of just plugging a rival.

Why this demand for CPU %, when blocking the internet-connection for the program ? It feels like it demand constant internet-connection for it to work.

Tried to do a simple CD rip, it makes the directory, but puts no files in it. Should be simple, no time to be frustrated with a non-working program. Not today, GATD.

There was a video convertor on GOTD on the 19th that I wasn't thrilled with -- take away the video profiles/formats & in a nutshell you've got mediAvatar Audio Converter Pro. In general using video-oriented code like ffmpeg does work for audio, & if you use a video-based app you can often extract [demux] audio tracks from video files/formats -- OTOH the app is bigger because of that video-based code, & IMHO it doesn't do the audio end of things as well as software designed for audio from the start... I don't think that last part is something critical to most folks, but if/when you're into audio quality it can matter -- if you use higher quality speakers, headphones, or ear-buds you can probably tell the difference. Note especially that if you want to convert the audio on many [most?] DVDs &/or digital broadcast recordings you'll often run into multi-channel AC3, or with Blu-Ray, DTS -- with multi-channel if you're after any sort of original quality IMHO don't use ffmpeg, but try to limit your use of video apps to extracting the audio stream as-is, from that point on using audio software.

Using mediAvatar Audio Converter Pro is easy, as long as you avoid following the directions displayed in the center of the re-sizable program window. Import your file(s) or folders, select an output format, customize it as you wish, select a place [folder] to put the results, & click the convert button to start the process. Clicking one of the menu buttons lets you trim your audio, while the other lets you apply a handful of effects like fade in/out & normalization.

Installation is a bit higher impact, mainly because of the forced install of one of the Microsoft C++ runtimes, but also because of the size of the program's folder itself, with 1,268 files, 65 folders, & ~80 MB -- that's without adding the optional Real support during install, & many of those files are skin [appearance] related. The C++ runtime adds files & folders to Windows\ WinSxS, Windows\ Installer, & Windows' Common Files, plus it accounts for most of the nearly 600 new registry entries recorded. New folders were also added to both All User & User App/Application Data, & while the "mediAvatar" folder does contain files like an older version of Flash, none of those were registered with Windows, so as far as Windows or other software goes, that stuff doesn't exist. As with the video converter on the 16th, Process Explorer shows some networking processes that are in my experience a bit unusual, particularly for a video/audio app, but I didn't see anything mis-behaving, & if you Google/Bing you'll find some reports of problems related to the included immdevice.exe, so today's earlier comment about it isn't alone.

All in all I don't think audiophiles or advanced video folk will be interested in today's GOTD, though if you don't mind the installation issues [i.e. the C++ runtime or somewhat large footprint on your hard drive], mediAvatar Audio Converter Pro should be OK for quick conversions where quality isn't as important. Myself, FWIW, when choosing which audio app to use I start with the output format required, try to find the best [or one of the best] encoders, find out what input it'll accept, & if/as needed convert the original audio to an intermediate format using other software, usually to lossless .wav or wave64 [for 5.1] [There is a multi-channel .wav format, but with the same file size limits as regular .wav files, normally 2 GB].

[If it's useful to anyone I use the following .avs script with AviSynth to turn multi-channel AC3 or DTS into multi-channel wave64 (.w64) that can be opened & worked with in many audio apps. I'm posting it because it took a fair amount of research to come up with it in the 1st place, so maybe it'll help someone. I think it's useful for example when working with 5.1 AC3 audio in saved digital broadcast video (OTA/QAM), it requires AviSynth, the NicAudio plug-in, I use VirtualDub to run the script, you can swap "DTS" & "AC3" depending on file type, & you can adjust or eliminate the "Amplify" entry, which is sometimes necessary to avoid clipping yet maintain dynamic range (if your peaks are too low, raise the # or delete that line -- if they're cut off lower the #). The resulting .w64 channel order is L, R, C, LFE, LR, RR -- depending on the software you open it in, you might see stereo pairs or 6 mono wav files. It usually takes me about 3 minutes to convert a 2 hour AC3/DTS to .w64. ]

[
LoadPlugin("C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins\NicAudio.dll")
NicAC3Source("YourFileName.ac3", DRC=1)
Amplify(0.85)
Soundout()
]

After reading comments left here, I think I'll stick with my AVS Audio Editor. It has never let me down for extracting the audio portion of a video. In fact, I use the entire AVS suite which includes an audio converter. For the price of today's GOTD, I was able to download over a dozen AVS products, & I am happy with all!

Looks like my comment about the sites this program tries to access got thrown in the spam bin, so I'll cut it short. There's no reason why this program should access the internet, so don't allow it. Also, it tries to go on Xilisoft's site, so now we know who actually made the program.

@11: While it doesn't have a lot of options for quality control (4 total), foobar2000 may work for you. You'll need a copy of LAME to use it (I think I got mine from http://www.rarewares.org/mp3-lame-bundle.php).

#7: "Does it convert from the Asian .ACT audio format??"

Maybe, but you'd have to try it... ACT files vary depending on the device that recorded them, while there was experimental ffmpeg support, I don't know if it was fully incorporated in the release versions, & that ACT format might be called something else, as the ffmpeg developers tried to include/combine support for several of those sorts of devices, with/without video etc.

Wikipedia [ http://goo.gl/vbEFD ] says to use the mp3 player utilities -- in my experience with video for the cheaper mp3/video players, mileage varies a LOT depending on which version of that utility app you use, so you may have to try several. Again based on experience, Backup 1st or at least set a Restore Point to help avoid problems going from one version to another.

Since playing is often easier than converting, if nothing else works you could try different players [like the free VLC] to see if they'd handle it as-is, renamed to .wav etc. Then if you wanted you could try to record it [to .wav, mp3 etc.] while it was playing.

* * *

#11: "Any suggestions on a simple program to convert FLAC to mp3? Audio quality is important to me but I need mp3 for my portable. Would like to have control over ripping quality, etc."

If you didn't want to or couldn't use mediAvatar Audio Converter Pro you could always try fre:ac [BonkEnc] at freac.org or in the portableapps.com format at that site.

I use http://www.easy-video-converter.com which is free.

Any suggestions on a simple program to convert FLAC to mp3? Audio quality is important to me but I need mp3 for my portable. Would like to have control over ripping quality, etc.

The program failed to retrieve CDDB information for three of my CDs. Compatative programs had no problems with same CDs. So I am removing this program.

Hi well it installed on win7 ultimate 64 bit but as it starts up I get a error:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: immdevice.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4d788c2a
Fault Module Name: immdevice.exe
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4d788c2a
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00089612
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 3081
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

hope this help the developer!

Loaded, Ad-Watch Live reported blocking of cdrecord.exe(8444) from starting. The process has been identified as FraudTool.Win32.InternetProtection.ekla (v).
Install went well, and program appeared to perform normally even though there was a blocked process (above). This appears to be a good program for those that are not control freaks about their audio.. most controls are easy to change, and displayed clearly for a novice to understand. Overall, I think this is a very good offering. Thanks MediAvatar...

Does it convert from the Asian .ACT audio format??

I have one of those recorder/radio/storage devices, the .act recordings were more compressed than win audio. But I can't replay them now.

Installs quickly. I like the interface; very intuitive and easy to use. It does exactly what it is advertised to do plus basic edit functions. Just what I need now. Thanks to GAOTD and MediAvatar Software!

Beware! This app contains a very old Adobe flash player version 10.0.12.36 and many other 3rd party components like Ffmpeg, Quicktime, and Real.
This could conflict with current versions of these application.

Absolutely BEAUTIFUL interface. Your GUI guys/gals are very talented.

Converting to MP3 using CBR (Constant Bit Rate) works as expected. But, using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) is significantly slower than 3 competitors.

Aimersoft's interface? Coincidence? Rebranding?

I chose to use CPU #2 of my dual core but the graphing feature showed CPU #1 was being used.