[MPlayer-users] mpa audio format - conversion to mp3

[Nick Rout]

I was trying to help someone who wants to convert an mpa file to mp3 so
that he can play it in some portable device. 

I thought it would be easy, but I don't seem to be able to find much on
what an mpa file actually is! wikipedia doesn't tell me, and "every file
format in the world" at whatis.techtarget.com tells me "MPEG-related
file (MIME type 'mpeg')"

Before I go tell him something wrong and feel like an idiot,
would/should  something like this work?

mencoder file.mpa -oac mp3lame -o file.mp3

Cheers.
-- 
Nick Rout <nick at rout.co.nz>