How to play AMR audio files

[tdn]

I have a lot of AMR audio files that my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson K810i) creates. I would like to be able to play these files in Ubuntu.

I once saw a patch for ffmpeg that enabled support for AMR, but it was rather complicated to get working properly.

Is there a better way of playing AMR audio in Ubuntu?

I would like to be able to convert the AMR files to FLAC, OGG or some other open format. Preferably a lossless one, so FLAC would be best.

[shirilover]

You might try installing libamrnb and libamrwb.
Converting these files to FLAC will just give you a lossless representation of the previous lossy audio files.

[bpny]

Realplayer for Linux will play AMR files.

[tdn]

You might try installing libamrnb and libamrwb.

I do not have those packages.
Which sources do I need to add in order to get them?

When I have these libs installed, whould mpg321, amarok and so on be able to play AMR-files?

How do you recommend that I convert them to FLAC?

Converting these files to FLAC will just give you a lossless representation of the previous lossy audio files.

I am aware that AMR is lossy, but since the AMR files are the *original recordings*, then there does not exist any more data than there is in the AMRs. So I would like to be able to keep as much information as possible from these recordings. Hence the FLAC codec.

[shirilover]

Those packages are available in the Medibuntu repos in the non-free section -> http://www.medibuntu.org/

If amarok is using the xine engine, it should use libxine1-ffmpeg, libxine1-plugins and libxine1-misc-plugins which 'should' play these files.

As for converting, you could try -> http://media-convert.com/

[tdn]

Those packages are available in the Medibuntu repos in the non-free section -> http://www.medibuntu.org/

If amarok is using the xine engine, it should use libxine1-ffmpeg, libxine1-plugins and libxine1-misc-plugins which 'should' play these files.

As for converting, you could try -> http://media-convert.com/

Well, I have installed the lib packages you mention for Amarok. But Amarok will not play the AMR files. When I drag them to the playlist it says "some media could not be loaded(not playable)".

[galileon]

Realplayer for Linux will play AMR files.

thank you

[tdn]

I would like to be able to convert the AMR files to FLAC, OGG or some other open format.

Is this possible?
How?

[FakeOutdoorsman]

Update: This post is now outdated because as andrew.46 notes, "FFmpeg has dropped support for the non-free amr libraries in favour of opencore-amr". See his opencore-amr post for more info.

I would like to be able to convert the AMR files to FLAC, OGG or some other open format.

Is this possible?
How?

You can use ffmpeg. If you're using Ubuntu Hardy you can use ffmpeg from the Medibuntu repository. I believe it has support to decode AMR.

If you're using Ubuntu Intrepid you will have to compile ffmpeg yourself:
HOWTO: Compile the latest ffmpeg and x264 from source

If you follow that guide, you will need some additional steps to use AMR. First download the amr development packages from the Medibuntu repository:

sudo apt-get install libamrnb-dev libamrwb-dev

Then when you configure ffmpeg (step 5 in the guide), you will need to add additional configuration options:

--enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb

The ffmpeg command to convert to flac is relatively simple:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr outputfile.flac

For ogg vorbis you have several choices depending on how you configured ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr -acodec vorbis outputfile.ogg

or:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr -acodec libvorbis outputfile.ogg

[wersdaluv]

Update: This post is now outdated because as andrew.46 notes, "FFmpeg has dropped support for the non-free amr libraries in favour of opencore-amr". See his opencore-amr post for more info.


You can use ffmpeg. If you're using Ubuntu Hardy you can use ffmpeg from the Medibuntu repository. I believe it has support to decode AMR.

If you're using Ubuntu Intrepid you will have to compile ffmpeg yourself:
HOWTO: Compile the latest ffmpeg and x264 from source

If you follow that guide, you will need some additional steps to use AMR. First download the amr development packages from the Medibuntu repository:

sudo apt-get install libamrnb-dev libamrwb-dev

Then when you configure ffmpeg (step 5 in the guide), you will need to add additional configuration options:

--enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb

The ffmpeg command to convert to flac is relatively simple:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr outputfile.flac

For ogg vorbis you have several choices depending on how you configured ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr -acodec vorbis outputfile.ogg

or:

ffmpeg -i inputfile.amr -acodec libvorbis outputfile.ogg

Thanks for the update!