Format Music to Play on the Nintendo DSi

The Nintendo DSi has the ability to play music and sound files that are loaded on an SD card,[1] as well as those recorded from its internal microphone. However, it doesn't support the most common sound format, .MP3. Instead it requires your music to be in MP4-encoded .AAC format. Most music is not distributed in this format, so those files will need to be converted.

Steps

  1. In case you haven't done so already, make sure you have your SD card and music files ready.
  2. Because we don't want to change any of the files we are converting from, we'll need to Create a folder that will hold the DSi-formatted songs we'll be converting to. This folder could either be on the SD card or on your desktop.
  3. Get a copy of the fre:ac Audio Encoder from their website.[2]
  4. Install and run fre:ac.
  5. Before we load the songs, we need to set the program up so that it will convert to the format the DSi reads:
    1. Open the settings window by selecting "General Settings" from the Options menu on the menu bar.
    2. Select "FAAC MP4/AAC Encoder..." from the Encoder drop-down menu.
    3. Un-check "Use input file directory if possible" and browse for the folder you set up in step 2.
    4. Change the File name pattern to "<filename>" to be sure that no songs get overwritten when the converter runs.
    5. Click the "Configure encoder" button.
    6. Click the "Bitrate per channel" radio button and use the slider to set the quality you want.
      • Note: In most situations, it's best to leave it at 64 kbps. The larger the bitrate, the larger the file. The smaller the bitrate, the lower the quality.[3]
    7. Select the "Format" tab and select the "MP4" file format radio button.
    8. Click both "OK" buttons to close the settings windows.
  6. Now that the settings are right for the DSi, you're going to have to give BonkEnc the files to convert, this is done by filling the job list. You could use the songs you have on your computer, or you could use an audio CD that is inserted into your computer.
    • Method 1 - Use the menu-bar: To pull songs from your computer, go to "File | Add | Audio file(s)..." and select the songs you want. Repeat this step for different folders. To pull songs from a CD, go to "File | Add | Audio CD contents.
    • Method 2 - Use the toolbar icons: To pull songs from your computer, click the icon on the far left that looks like a piece of paper with a musical note and a plus sign (it is marked red in the figure), and select the songs you want. Repeat for different folders. To pull songs from a CD, click the icon next to the file one that looks like a CD with a music note and plus sign (marked blue in the figure).
  7. Once your job list is ready, click the round play button to start formatting your music, or you could use "Encode | Start encoding" from the menu bar.
  8. Wait for your music to convert. It may take a few minutes or a few hours depending on the length of your songs and job list.
  9. Copy the converted music folder to SD card if you didn't convert it directly to the SD card


In this video, BonkEnc is the previous name for fre:ac.

Tips

  • If any songs have copy protection such as DRM (Windows Media and RealAudio files bought from online music stores), they will not convert without extra work.
  • Your SD card needs to be compatible with the DSi.[4]
  • Consider getting the portable version of fre:ac[5], which you can store on the SD card itself, or a flash drive, and convert audio on the go (e.g. your friend has an .MP3 you want).

Warnings

  • To avoid the possibility of having your original music files erased, do not use "Use input file directory if possible" in the options.
  • If you use any other naming pattern than <filename>, you could end up with two converted songs with the same file name, which will cause one of them to be overwritten.

Things You'll Need

  • Nintendo DSi
  • SD Card (or MicroSD with an SD adapter)
  • The fre:ac Audio Converter program

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  • ↑ Nintendo Customer Service, Nintendo DSi - SD cards; What the Nintendo DSi can do with SD Cards
  • ↑ fre:ac official site. Pick up your copy here.
  • ↑ The real bitrate of the file would be the "kbps number" mulitiplied by two.
  • ↑ Nintendo Customer Service Nintendo DSi - SD cards; Compatible SD Card types
  • ↑ fre:ac Portable
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