Convert .m4b to .mp3 using bash.

A couple days ago my dad downloaded some audio books and they were all .m4b .. So he was like: what is this? We have tried to find some converters but they were not really working very well. After trying a couple windows programs I finally found a freeware one for windows — click HERE!

This one worked pretty good. But I was not satisfied yet, I searched the web for a .m4b to .mp3 converter in SSH/Terminal and I found one. Here some steps.

1. First you need to download and install the “Faad” package and the “Lame” package on your server. (Easy to find @ google.com)

2. Make sure you have “python” on your server. (if not — yum install python)

3. Now, download the plugin to your server — wget http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/22008/scripts/m4b2mp3.py

4. Start the script and it will convert your .m4b files to .mp3.

How to use the script?
#python m4b2mp3.py
– Decodes m4b files in current directory and sub directories and consequently encodes the output to mp3.

#python m4b2mp3.py -d /media/audiobook/Bourne\ Supremacy
– Decodes m4b files in supplied directory and sub directories and encodes the output to mp3.

Need help? Just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you!

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Comments

  1. 1

    Hey Bob,

    I’m getting an unsupported audio format error, with two m4b files, anything else I can do to debug more?

    G


    gareth
    Oct 07th, 2010
  2. 2

    I’m not quite sure what you should do, It seems odd to me that two of your .m4b files won’t convert. Maybe you should try to convert these two throughout a online converter such as: http://media-convert.com


    Bob
    Oct 07th, 2010