Hey guys, I have some files of seminars (not music) I want to watch that were passed to me. I clicked to open with WMP. I can here everything but I cannot see anything. These are learning materials showing you how to do certain administrative processes. Do I need to convert them? I have never played with these before. I never had a need to until now. Thanks.
If the extension of the files is .mp3 then these are audio only files, as an mp3 container cannot contain a video stream.
@Brian K Yes. @Raza0007 I thought that they were audio only and this is what threw me for a loop. Why would they put learning material (something you visually need to see) as a mp3? I wonder if I can convert this some how? Any idea's please share. Thanks
You can convert these files between different audio formats, but you will still not get a video feed, because the video was not recorded when they were initially made. These must be just the audio recordings of the seminar. Ask the person you got these from if they have the original recording of the seminar available with them. Maybe the person converted the original files to mp3 format, and that is what removed the video stream from these files.
Perhaps your friend only decided to download the audio of the seminars, rather than videos. Plenty of educational institutions are setup to provide both audio an videos of lecture presentations, regardless of if a mere audio file would make sense in a particular case. Perhaps there was printed material that the audio refers to. Unless the mp3 files are huge (i.e. larger than you'd expect for the duration), then I'd expect that they're really just mp3/audio files. You could ask your friend to check the download page again in case video files are also provided.
RJK3, regardless of the size, an mp3 file cannot contain a video stream. Mp3 is strictly an audio only container.
Believe it or not, I've seen people simply rename extensions when they wanted to convert things. From the confused OP then it's more than possible. You can rename an MP4 to an MP3 for instance and it'll still load in some programs. OTOH players like MPC-HC or VLC will still show the video, and not just the audio - I've no idea what dedicated audio players would do, but I assume it'll depend on the audio codecs.
RJK3, you are absolutely right. However, if you notice the OP mentioned that they tried to open the file in WMP and can only hear the audio. WMP would have been able to play an .avi or a .mp4 with video, even if the extension was changed to mp3.
Rilla927, If you are in doubt you can always use MediaInfo to scan your mp3 files to find out what exactly they contain, and their encoding parameters etc.
I think the point has already been well made that it's likely not constructive for the OP to look for a video stream in the files he's been given. As for the rest of this line of enquiry: yes I read that, but since I don't use WMP then I can't account for its behaviour and didn't try.
