08-30-2004, 12:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Pocket PC/Smartphones and DRM - A Completely Broken Scenario
Janak brought OSUKid7's post to my attention and it was a reminder of something I meant to post on a while back: Pocket PCs and Smartphones, even running the newest Windows Mobile 2003 SE OS, are not compatible with music download service such as Napster, Wal-mart, or any other WMA-based DRM store - at least when we're talking about memory cards. The reason as to why is long and complicated, but there's a reason why no Pocket PC is listed as being "Music Service Friendly". And this isn't related to the Janus DRM either - that's DRM for subscription-based music that will time out. This problem, as far as I understand it (and I'm no expert here) relates to the issue of how memory cards are handled by the Pocket PC. Pocket PCs themselves have unique identifiers for music and eBook DRM security, but memory cards in a Pocket PC or Smartphone are problematic because they don't have these unique identifiers. So if you were allowed to copy your DRM'd music over to a memory card, you could take that memory card out of your Pocket PC and put it in another Pocket PC and play the music on it. Oh the horrors! :roll: This is, of course, exactly what the content providers want to avoid - the easy sharing of content.
I did some testing on my Dell Axim X30 using DRM-protected songs from Puretracks, an online Canadian music store. I could sync and play tracks from both internal RAM, and internal storage. When I performed this test two months ago using Windows Media Player 9, I remember being able to sync to the memory card as well, and that being unusual because people using Napster and Wal-mart couldn't. However, Windows Media Player 10 beta doesn't recognize the memory card on the X30, so I can't perform the test again to confirm that. When I sync the song to internal memory and then cut/paste the track to the memory card, it won't play. I wonder why the DRM license needs to be on the memory card? Why not have the DRM licenses remain in main system RAM from the sync process, the DRM'd songs go to the memory card, and the songs on that memory card would only work in the Pocket PC that was part of the initial sync. That would seem to be the goal Microsoft is going for. There must be a technological reason why this isn't possible, because it would seem to be the shortest way to accomplish the goal of both protecting the content and letting Pocket PC and Smartphone owners buy music online.
At any rate, if you've been wondering why your Napster/Wal-mart DRM'd tracks won't play on your Pocket PC, that's why. Completely broken scenario. :? The only solution is to burn a CD and re-rip the track at the same bitrate that the original file was in - that should minimize audio quality loss. Not ideal, but it's the only solution I'm aware of. I've done this with all my songs from Puretracks because the DRM was such a hassle (check out Digital Media Thoughts tomorrow for a big rant on that subject).
UPDATE: It's been suggested that since the music companies use more sophisticated encoders for their music, when you rip the CD, you should encode it one or two notches higher than that original source file. So if you have a 128 kbps WMA from Napster, burn it to a CD, then rip it at 160 kbps or 192 kbps.
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08-30-2004, 12:12 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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Re: Pocket PC/Smartphones and DRM - A Completely Broken Scenario
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I wonder why the DRM license needs to be on the memory card? Why not have the DRM licenses remain in main system RAM from the sync process, the DRM'd songs go to the memory card, and the songs on that memory card would only work in the Pocket PC that was part of the initial sync. That would seem to be the goal Microsoft is going for. There must be a technological reason why this isn't possible, because it would seem to be the shortest way to accomplish the goal of both protecting the content and letting Pocket PC and Smartphone owners buy music online.
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That sounds like a great solution. Too bad it isn't availble though.
Guess I'll burn and re-rip them. On a side note, is there any way to burn/rip to a virtual CD, therefore not needing a CD-R?
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08-30-2004, 12:14 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Re: Pocket PC/Smartphones and DRM - A Completely Broken Scenario
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Originally Posted by OSUKid7
Guess I'll burn and re-rip them. On a side note, is there any way to burn/rip to a virtual CD, therefore not needing a CD-R?
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It might be possible with some virtual CD mounting software, although I have my doubts that a ripper would see it as a valid music source - that seems like a lot of work to save 20 cents. :-)
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08-30-2004, 12:18 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,725
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Re: Pocket PC/Smartphones and DRM - A Completely Broken Scenario
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
...that seems like a lot of work to save 20 cents. :-)
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lol, yes and no - if I get the hang of it, I would do it that way every time. My car doesn't have a CD player, and I haven't used my portable CD player in years. All of the music I really need to listen to is on my computer and/or iPaq/SD card. It's not the 20 cents I'm thinking about, it's the uselessness of the CD-R after I burn/rip the songs.
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08-30-2004, 12:50 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 53
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yeah. isn't it faster just to create a CD image to hard disk, then mount it using daemon tools. then rip.
faster, easier, and no waste of CDs. better for the environment too!
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08-30-2004, 01:40 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Re: Pocket PC/Smartphones and DRM - A Completely Broken Scenario
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Originally Posted by OSUKid7
It's not the 20 cents I'm thinking about, it's the uselessness of the CD-R after I burn/rip the songs.
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Ah, ok. I hear ya - it is indeed kind of stupid. I usually "save up" my DRM'd tracks for a while then burn a whole CD's worth.
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08-30-2004, 02:10 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 74
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Yeah, there's the dilemma. I just had to do that this weekend. I got some music from Napster and since I'm thinking of going OGG I had to burn them to cd again then copy them back to my hard drive to avoid the DRM issue.
I'm considering doing Real Networks music but I'm not sure what software I can use to convert to wma, ogg, or mp3 from Real Audio (or AAC). They have the highest bitrate for music downloads at 192 Kbs. Music Match does 160 Kbs and Napster does 128 Kbs.
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08-30-2004, 02:49 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 36
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I dont know about this......I just bought 10 songs from Walmart and they play fine off my CF card in my PPC using WM2003. I used Windows Media Player 9 to transfer them there from my computer and it works fine. Is this illegal to do? If so, I wasnt aware of that. It says you can transfer to an unlimited amount of mobile device's.
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08-30-2004, 03:30 AM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by hockeydude
I dont know about this......I just bought 10 songs from Walmart and they play fine off my CF card in my PPC using WM2003. I used Windows Media Player 9 to transfer them there from my computer and it works fine. Is this illegal to do?
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No one's talking about legality here -- burning and ripping are legal, amongst other things. 
I think Jason's point is more that it's an unsupported configuration -- it may work or it may not work. People's reports suggest this. And that's not really a good conclusion. :|
I can't believe I'm saying this, but one "good" thing about Apple's relatively closed music platform is that there's no surprises. The iTunes Music Store is ridiculously easy to use and a joy, especially with iPods. Let's hope Microsoft fixes these issues, because I find Janus, especially, an interesting technology to watch.
--janak
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08-30-2004, 05:26 AM
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Magi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 2,124
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If they want to prevent easy sharing of content, they'll have to stop putting music on CDs entirely. Hey, I can take my CD out of my CD player and put it in my friend's *gasp* the horror!!!
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