Author Topic: This is me complaining about stuff. (Read 4157 times)

KnowsNothing · « **on:** November 29, 2006, 12:21:06 PM »

I want to make a custom soundtrack for Excite Truck, but most of my music is in wma format because I got them from my brother, who ripped them from CDs he borrowed. I can't convert them to MP3 format because of those god-damned copy-protection doowabs.

DAMMIT

A quick search tells me that there are tons of shareware trial offers on sketchy programs that claim to do this, but I've been down that path a few too many times to try my luck with it again. So I am looking for a confirmed solution, if there even is one. Because I am angry right now.

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2006, 01:22:55 PM »

I'm pretty sure the DRM for WMA files has been cracked.

Bill Aurion · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2006, 02:31:18 PM »

Not knowing anything about the differences in music file types, why don't you try converting to WAV in CDex (free program of pure awesome), and then converting the WAV files to MP3?

Nick DiMola · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2006, 03:28:30 PM »

Well if you are on a mac, I would suggest trying Audion 3. It was recently made shareware by the company and works great for conversion to mp3, and I think other audio formats as well. My whole library was in wma and I ripped it all to mp3 with that program.

nitsu niflheim · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2006, 03:55:29 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: KnowsNothing
Because I am angry right now.

You are a very angry young man, you are in the right place for that! =D

If I have to change all my music files then I'm not going to bother, this is just as bad as the PSP, most of my songs are legally downloaded tracks, and they aren't playable on PSP, so how is the PSP gonna be a Ipod killer?

Arbok · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2006, 03:56:10 PM »

Whatever you do, make sure that the program will not effect the quality of the tracks, as a lot of converters do.

I'd just do a Google search personally and try some of the programs out that might work (there are tons):

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=WMV+mp3+%22quality+loss%22&btnG

BiLdItUp1 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 29, 2006, 04:37:06 PM »

Without even reading that, by definition, there's no way that converting from WMA to MP3 will result in anything other than loss of quality (converting from one lossy format to another). But as you have no choice, good luck...

Arbok · « **Reply #7 on:** November 29, 2006, 05:24:30 PM »

Quote
Originally posted by: BiLdItUp1
Without even reading that, by definition, there's no way that converting from WMA to MP3 will result in anything other than loss of quality (converting from one lossy format to another). But as you have no choice, good luck...

Seems impossible from looking at how MP3 encoding works versus something like OGG, but many do advertise no hit to quality for WMA... if that is false advertising or not I can't say as I'm not well versed in WMA. Chances are pretty good that you are right, though.

segagamer12 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 29, 2006, 06:16:30 PM »

email me the songs yo want converted and I can do it for you I have all kinds of music software that can convert anything into mp3 or wav.

I even have programs that can clean it up and improve the quality if you would like.

vudu · « **Reply #9 on:** November 29, 2006, 11:59:37 PM »

Why don't you pay for the music you listen to? Then you wouldn't be in this mess.

I recommend a combination of EAC (Exact Audio Copy) and LAME--with those you can pretty much do anything you want with minimal sound quality loss.

18 Days · « **Reply #10 on:** November 30, 2006, 02:09:43 AM »

The lesson here is; don't ever encode in WMV.
I still don't understand how tehre are computer users out there, not using iTunes.

Rhoq · « **Reply #11 on:** November 30, 2006, 02:17:38 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: 18 Days
The lesson here is; don't ever encode in WMV.
I still don't understand how tehre are computer users out there, not using iTunes.

iTunes converts WMA to MP3. Mac support for this feature was added with the last update (which I found out the other day accidentally while playing around with a WMA encoded file)

Rhoq · « **Reply #12 on:** November 30, 2006, 02:20:22 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: segagamer12
I even have programs that can clean it up and improve the quality if you would like.

That's a myth. The quality can only be as good as the source. If it's a poorly encoded audio file to begin with, there is nothing that will improve the quality.

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #13 on:** November 30, 2006, 03:34:08 AM »

They might be high quality VBR WMA files. You can potentially convert them to MP3 without any quality loss.

Athrun Zala · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2006, 03:45:50 AM »

there's something I yet do not understand.... how come the tracks your brother RIPPED from CDs have DRM? oO

not one ripping program I know inserts DRM in the ripped tracks....

vudu · « **Reply #15 on:** November 30, 2006, 05:51:46 AM »

Quote
Originally posted by: 18 Days
I still don't understand how tehre are computer users out there, not using iTunes.

LOL. QFH. Quoted for Hilariousness

segagamer12 · « **Reply #16 on:** November 30, 2006, 12:16:25 PM »

I can cleanit up is what I meant. Actualyl Rhog yo could probly do bnetter than me anyways.

BranDonk Kong · « **Reply #17 on:** November 30, 2006, 12:36:59 PM »

Using WMP11 can either copy DRM (from some newer CDs that contain it), or (I'm pretty sure) add it to the WMAs if the person who rips it chooses to do so for some reason. I haven't bought myself a CD in probably 10 years (I...don't listen to music), so I can't really say for sure.

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #18 on:** December 25, 2006, 04:06:34 AM »

oh hay guys, it never even crossed my mind that I wouldn't be able to put these songs on my ipod olololol. This sucks.

Yeah, there are tons of programs out there that convert wma to mp3, but very few can actually crack the drm. Many claim to be able to but...yeah. So, uhh, I guess I'll just load up my pc with hundreds of programs until one works, then wait while it converts almost my entire library into mp3, and then sit back and enjoy the low qaulity audio =D

I think I'll be better off just downloading my entire collection through bittorent. Sure, it'll take a long fucking time but at least I'll be able to listen to them. Jesus christ, drm sucks.

nitsu niflheim · « **Reply #19 on:** December 25, 2006, 06:24:31 AM »

leave it to KN to not come back to his own thread for almost a month. lol

Athrun Zala · « **Reply #20 on:** December 25, 2006, 12:38:37 PM »

did you try FairUse4WM?

in any case, remember that wma sucks so use mp3 or ogg or some other next time....

KnowsNothing · « **Reply #21 on:** December 28, 2006, 02:53:39 AM »

I actually tried that program a few days ago and it didn't seem to work, but I tried again and it seems to have done the job. It added "[NoDRM]" to the beginning of every file, which is lame, but I can live with that.

And for the record I've hated wma since the dawn of mankind

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Author Topic: This is me complaining about stuff. (Read 4157 times)