# Freeware/Shareware to extract audio portion of a video? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048 "2010-02-22T23:25:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/1 "2010-02-22T23:25:37Z")
I’d like to be able to sample bits of .mov files to use in audio recordings. Roxio Toast’s Spin Doctor won’t open video files, and I can’t get iTunes to convert video to audio. What options are available? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/2 "2010-02-22T23:39:02Z")
What OS? I use ffmpeg to extract audio from videos in Linux. There are builds for [Windows and Mac](http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/), but I don’t know how easy they are to install or use. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/3 "2010-02-22T23:40:15Z")
[virtualdub](http://www.virtualdub.org/) will do this. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/4 "2010-02-22T23:43:42Z")
[Here](http://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=&Submit=Search&convert=MOV+to+WAV&s=&orderby=Name&hits=50)are some that look promising. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/5 "2010-02-22T23:50:34Z")
MPEG Streamclip will do this as well. I just opened the HD trailer for Avatar in .mov format, selected Export Audio…, chose MP3 as the putput format, and it extracted the audio in about 20 seconds on my Mac. It’s available for Windows as well. [http://www.squared5.com/](http://www.squared5.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/6 "2010-02-22T23:53:00Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > [Here](http://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=&Submit=Search&convert=MOV+to+WAV&s=&orderby=Name&hits=50)are some that look promising. Oh man! [Videohelp.com](http://Videohelp.com). I’d forgotten all about that site. Lots of good info. Thanks for reminding me! ---
**Author:** ![fubbleskag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fubbleskag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fubbleskag)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/7 "2010-02-23T00:19:42Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > What OS? I use ffmpeg to extract audio from videos in Linux. There are builds for [Windows and Mac](http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/), but I don’t know how easy they are to install or use. Another vote for ffmpeg - it’s worked fine for me in the past on Windows (not that I’ve put it through any serious exercise). ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/8 "2010-02-23T02:16:12Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > MPEG Streamclip will do this as well. I just opened the HD trailer for Avatar in .mov format, selected Export Audio…, chose MP3 as the putput format, and it extracted the audio in about 20 seconds on my Mac. It’s available for Windows as well. > > [http://www.squared5.com/](http://www.squared5.com/) I’m on a Mac, and this sounds perfect! Thanks, guys ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/9 "2010-02-23T21:45:32Z")
[Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac) works great too. It can record anything your computer plays, whether it is audio from a video, streaming audio from a website, game audio, whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/10 "2010-02-23T22:57:01Z")
[MPlayer is my swiss army chainsaw when it comes to video.](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/news.html) [VLC works very well as well.](http://www.videolan.org/vlc/) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/11 "2010-02-24T03:14:15Z")
If you’re on a Mac and have the files in iTunes, you can open them in GarageBand, erase the video track(it’s a new file so it won’t be erased from the source file), and then edit down the audio track(s) as you like. Very easy. ---
**Author:** ![c\_goat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@c\_goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/c_goat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/12 "2010-02-24T16:56:00Z")
I did this using VLC media player. It’s a good choice because it will play ANYTHING and you don’t need to worry about codecs and such. Although it was a bit tricky to figure out and I don’t remember how to actually do it. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-shareware-to-extract-audio-portion-of-a-video/530048/13 "2010-02-24T22:19:18Z")
> [@11811](#): > > I’d like to be able to sample bits of .mov files to use in audio recordings. Roxio Toast’s Spin Doctor won’t open video files, and I can’t get iTunes to convert video to audio. What options are available? The point of Spin Doctor is that it will capture any audio that is being played to the system output. So, to extract the audio, play your movie with Quicktime and capture the audio with CD Spin Doctor. I’ve done this with audio from a 20 minute video played using DVD Player on my iMac. BTW, Spin Doctor isn’t free/share, so I assume you already own it. Make sure you have the latest version of Spin Doctor if you are using Snow Leopard.