wma files downloaded do not bring license with them-how to convert to mp3

[urologyhealth]

I downloaded some songs from walmart.com and was able to burn CD. I transferred them to my i-mate storage card and it gave me license could not be found. I called walmart and they said they don't support pocketpc. How can I convert to mp3 and then drag and drop to my storage card??

Thank you

[Kacey Green]

when transfering DRM protected .wma files you need to do it through activesync via Windows Media Player's "copy to cd or device" tab then it will include the lisence.
Hope that helps

[Steven Cedrone]

I downloaded some songs from walmart.com and was able to burn CD. I transferred them to my i-mate storage card and it gave me license could not be found. I called walmart and they said they don't support pocketpc. How can I convert to mp3 and then drag and drop to my storage card??

Thank you

Now that you have them on CD, rip 'em (Google for the software (http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=mp3+rip)) and then copy them to your Pocket PC...

Steve

[urologyhealth]

I did that and it did not work--it said license not found??

[Steven Cedrone]

I did that and it did not work--it said license not found??

You ripped the CD that you burned and you still get the error? Can you play this music you purchased at all, anywhere?

Steve

[Kacey Green]

make sure you burn it as an audio cd, then rip back
don't forget to visit www.digitalmediathoughts.com

[Kacey Green]

look here too
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=40293

[Janak Parekh]

Just to be precise: Don't burn the WMA files to CD, burn them to CD as an audio CD that you could listen to in a CD player.

You can then rerip that audio CD using any MP3 ripping tool. One such tool is CDex (http://cdexos.sourceforge.net).

--janak

[Kacey Green]

you could also use windows media player, just make sure that it isn't copy protecting files, or you will be right back where you started

[Janak Parekh]

you could also use windows media player, just make sure that it isn't copy protecting files, or you will be right back where you started
Yes, although WMP won't do decent MP3 rips unless you get an add-on pack. You could rerip into unprotected WMA, which is what I guess what you're suggesting.

--janak

[urologyhealth]

CDEX did the trip. It converted my CD files to mp3. Thanks for all the help.

I had downloaded to windows media player and played them within that to get license and then couldn't transfer to my PocketPC--kept getting error or license not found on PPC.

Then I tried to convert within my desktop and that didn't work.

[Steven Cedrone]

CDEX did the trip. It converted my CD files to mp3. Thanks for all the help.

Glad to hear you have it sorted out! It's fun dealing with DRM, isn't it? :wink:

Steve

[urologyhealth]

No--it's stupid--if you pay for the material either ebooks or music - you should be able to play it on any device you own. I've stopped getting microsoft reader books for that reason and either use Peanut Press or AUDIBLE.COM

Thanks again

[Kacey Green]

it was exactly what I was suggesting, unprotected WMA that way you arnt transcoding assuming they rip at the same rate as the original file

[Janak Parekh]

No--it's stupid--if you pay for the material either ebooks or music - you should be able to play it on any device you own. I've stopped getting microsoft reader books for that reason and either use Peanut Press or AUDIBLE.COM
Steve was being sarcastic. ;)

it was exactly what I was suggesting, unprotected WMA that way you arnt transcoding assuming they rip at the same rate as the original file
Actually, it is still transcoding. By staying in the same format, you will minimize the amount of quality loss, but it'll still be there. If you burn a WMA file to CD and rerip it, and repeat the same process 10 times, the result will be terrible at the end. It's the same problem as taking a JPEG file and recompressing it -- artifacts slowly seep in.

--janak

[Steven Cedrone]

Actually, it is still transcoding. By staying in the same format, you will minimize the amount of quality loss, but it'll still be there. If you burn a WMA file to CD and rerip it, and repeat the same process 10 times, the result will be terrible at the end.

If it sounds bad, I just play it louder! :wink:

Steve

[Kacey Green]

it was exactly what I was suggesting, unprotected WMA that way you arnt transcoding assuming they rip at the same rate as the original file
Actually, it is still transcoding. By staying in the same format, you will minimize the amount of quality loss, but it'll still be there. If you burn a WMA file to CD and rerip it, and repeat the same process 10 times, the result will be terrible at the end. It's the same problem as taking a JPEG file and recompressing it -- artifacts slowly seep in.

--janak
But if you only have to do it once will anyone really notice, I'm sure most people would notice after the 9th generation copy. I notice after the second or third in a series.

[Janak Parekh]

But if you only have to do it once will anyone really notice, I'm sure most people would notice after the 9th generation copy. I notice after the second or third in a series.
I know -- and that's why quite a few people I know do it. Nevertheless, I was just pointing out that it is still a transcode.

--janak

[Kacey Green]

oh, it is Digital to digital back to Digital right? = 2 transcodes right?

[Janak Parekh]

oh, it is Digital to digital back to Digital right? = 2 transcodes right?
Sort of. You're not losing any information when you convert from WMA to PCM (i.e., uncompressed wave audio as encoded on an RedBook audio CD) -- only from PCM to WMA. One might technically call the former reencoding, but PCM basically just lays the bits out (at 44KHz/16-bit for CDs).

--janak

[Kacey Green]

thanks janak, I thought that all digital to digital conversions were transcodes, but now i know its only if there is potential to lose info.

[Janak Parekh]

but now i know its only if there is potential to lose info.
Now, wait. I didn't say that. ;) If you convert from a lossy codec to a non-lossy, yet compressed codec, that's still transcoding. For example, an MP3 => FLAC (http://flac.sourceforge.net/) converter would be a transcoder, even though you're not losing any information.

--janak

[Kacey Green]

:? now I'm confused again

[k_kirk]

You can also use Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft to re-encode to MP3

[Kati Compton]

:? now I'm confused again
Lossy->lossy is the problem. You've lost some bits on the first lossy. When you play the file, it "guesses" the lost bits. When you reencode to the other lossy, you may lose the "guessed" bits, but you might lose *real* bits. So your 2nd file may have some lossy "guessed" bits presumed to be real, when in fact you've lost that data. Do it over and over, and even though your file size won't be shrinking (presuming the same bitrate of encoding), and you lose more and more of the "real" bits, and have more "guessed" bits in the file.

lossy->nonlossy means that you guess the bits from the first compression, so have a mix of real and guessed bits, but then ALL of those are kept in the non-lossy. So you don't lose anything more than you already lost.

[Kacey Green]

so if you rip back in WMA lossless and tell WMP to manage the filesize for mobile devices you will be better off and still not have drm, assuming you have that setting off in WMP?

[Kati Compton]

so if you rip back in WMA lossless and tell WMP to manage the filesize for mobile devices you will be better off and still not have drm, assuming you have that setting off in WMP?
So, I haven't done this. BUT: My guess is "manage filesize" (if that is in fact an option) controls how lossy the protocol is. If you're using lossless compression, you can't control the filesize directly, because you can't "give up" anything. There's small tuning things you can do, and MAYBE it'll try those and just give you the best file size.

But with lossless, there's no size tradeoff to be made.

[Kacey Green]

I don't hear any difference after a couple of generations, which is a good thing!


So, in summary: burn your DRM file, then rip as lossless and the least info is lost, but if you need to take it with you (portable non lossless file), you will incur another small quality hit from the conversion.