[MPlayer-users] Using mencoder to convert to mp3

[JD]

Dar all,
I tried to use mencoder to convert ape and flac files to mp3, and it 
fails as follows:

$ mencoder file.ape -o file.mp3
MEncoder UNKNOWN-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team

WARNING: OUTPUT FILE FORMAT IS _AVI_. See -of help.
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x42d306
libavformat file format detected.
[lavf] Audio stream found, -aid 0
Video stream is mandatory!

Exiting...

-------------------------------


I am getting the same output when trying to convert flac files.
Since mencoder options and config files and profile files
are indeed complex, and I know nothing about audio encoding.
Could someone show me how to convert flac and ape audio files
to mp3 at high bitrates, like 310k or 512k?

Cheers,

JD