August 31, 2004

Audible.com should support iRiver players

I subscribe to Audible.com and can download 2 audio books each month. It’s an excellent service but I REALLY wish Audible would support my iRiver mp3 player. The Audible files are in .aa format. These won’t play on my iRiver.

None of my audio software would open .aa files, so initially, I was downloading the files, burning the audio books to CD in .cda format, then ripping the CDs to mp3 format. The whole process took several hours for a long, unabridged book such as DNA: The Secret of Life. Just to burn and label the 15 CDs for that book took ages. And when I made mp3 files from the CDs, I had to keep track which file came from which disc because I had 15 different files named “track001” which could make it tricky to put all the files together in the correct sequence.

I made the mistake of creating my first few audio books as large mp3 files with no cue points. When I accidentally hit a wrong button on my player while jogging, I would lose my place and had to start back at the beginning of the book. I can now recite the first half hour of my first three audio books.

The burning to CD process was taking too much time so I purchased a shareware audio editing program called Goldwave which does indeed open .aa files directly; no more burning to 15 discs. Goldwave can also insert automatic cue points at intervals which you designate (like every 5 minutes or 10 minutes) and it can split a file with cue points into multiple smaller files with the beginning and end of these smaller files based on the cue points. Much easier to navigate through on an mp3 player. I’ve also learned to lock my mp3 player buttons down when I run with it to avoid accidental navigation.

Although the process is quicker, it still took me an hour to get a new book onto my player this morning. But I’m not yet giving in and purchasing an iPod, which will support .aa files.