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Windows Forum / Windows Media / General Topics / April 2007M4A to what format?
I goofed and did not think in advance of what I was doing and used iTunes to rip 80 CD's or so of Jazz CD's that I own, I beleive that all files were ripped as M4A format. Later on iTunes did something to start causing me to have multiple Blue Screens of Death... so I refuse to put it back on my development machine (that I just resigned myself to re-imaging and haven't slept in 4 days)..... Ok so now I have 4 GB of music that I can not listen to..... What is the most reasonable course of action to correct this mess, balancing Sound Quality most important with Storage Size 2nd most important 3rd most import what kind of devices can I play the tunes in later... I envision having a portable device for playing all this music through my 1) current stereo 2) Car stereos 3) headphones.... I don't even have an iPod, what was I thinking? doooobbbbbttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please Help, Rick Hi Rick, Strange as this will sound, the Microsoft Zune (http://www.zune.net) player (and you don't need to have a Zune device to use it) will actually play M4A tracks natively. Additionally I understand there are some M4A to MP3 converters, I even found one that's free (AltoMP3 Gold 5.0) but I don't know how well it works or what comes with it. Good luck with whatever you decide!  SignatureThanks! Mike Poz [MSFT] > I goofed and did not think in advance of what I was doing and used iTunes to > rip 80 CD's or so of Jazz CD's that I own, I beleive that all files were [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Rick Hey thanks Mike, So I guess I do not have do anything in the way of conversion, to play what I've already ripped that is, and since this Zune thing is a Microsoft App it won't mess me up in other ways, (well it depends....right) .... ok ,,, So anything new like the other remaining 120 CD's or so I should then use WMP to rip, try afew samples and determine what the best Sound Quality is at the lowest File size, I'm guessing. Thanks for steering me in the right direction, Rick > Hi Rick, > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > > > Rick Rick, If you install Zune software, you can use that to rip your remaining CDs to WMA or MP3 format, it's very similar to WMP in ripping functionality and formats to which you can rip. SignatureThanks! Mike Poz [MSFT] -------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. > Hey thanks Mike, > [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > > > > > > Rick Yes of course, thanks donwloading Zune to VMC now and uploading ISO of iTunes to give it a whirl, any idea if it can play well with W2K3 R2 SP2? Thanks you are a tremendous help, I may have music again shortly.... Rick > Rick, > [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > > > > > > > > Rick Hi Rick, Unfortunately neither WMP 11 nor Zune will install on Windows Server 2k3. You'll have to use XP or Vista. SignatureThanks! Mike Poz [MSFT] -------------------- This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. > Yes of course, thanks donwloading Zune to VMC now and uploading ISO of iTunes > to give it a whirl, any idea if it can play well with W2K3 R2 SP2? [quoted text clipped - 49 lines] > > > > > > > > > > Rick > Hi Rick, > > Unfortunately neither WMP 11 nor Zune will install on Windows Server 2k3. > You'll have to use XP or Vista. You could try the Real Player. I believe it also reads M4A. Corentin Signature--- Mac:MS MVP (Francophone) http://www.cortig.net/wordpress/ --- http://www.mvps.org - http://mvp.support.microsoft.com MVPs are not MS employees - Les MVP ne travaillent pas pour MS Remove "NoSpam" to e-mail me - Retirez "NoSpam" pour m'écrire But iTunes works well on W2K3. Dale SignatureDale Preston MCAD C# MCSE, MCDBA > Hi Rick, > [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] > > > > > > > > > > > > Rick Almost for sure, iTunes was not causing your blue screens. blue screens are virtually always the result of hardware failures or defective or corrupted hardware drivers. In any case, whether ripping using iTunes or Media Player, I suggest ripping to MP3 for the ultimate in compatability. Every MP3 player plays MP3s. Not every MP3 player plays WMA. Not every MP3 player plays AAC. Nothing says "MP3" like, well, MP3s. The only exception is if you are ripping to a lossless format - either AAC with iTunes or WMA with Media Player - because then you can do a conversion by burning a CD and then ripping to any format you want. As it is, if you convert from any lossy format to any other lossy format, the quality degredation increases logorithmically. Dale SignatureDale Preston MCAD C# MCSE, MCDBA > I goofed and did not think in advance of what I was doing and used iTunes to > rip 80 CD's or so of Jazz CD's that I own, I beleive that all files were [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Rick On 28/4/07 02:10, in article 4C92CBE9-9191-4A73-BA92-D610C1513314@microsoft.com, "Dale" <dale0973@nospam.nospam> wrote: > ... The only exception is if you are ripping to a lossless format - either AAC > with iTunes or WMA with Media Player - because then you can do a conversion [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Dale Dale, AAC is a lossey format, you mean Apple Lossless also known as ALAC which is as its name suggests is lossless. >I goofed and did not think in advance of what I was doing and used iTunes to >rip 80 CD's or so of Jazz CD's that I own, I beleive that all files were >ripped as M4A format. <snip> > Ok so now I have 4 GB of music that I can not listen to..... Install the Orban plugin http://www.orban.com/plugin/ and your M4A tracks will play just fine. I've not tried the plugin on WS2003 but there's no obvious reason it wouldn't work on that platform. Note that WS2003 isn't intended to be operated as a client platform, however. HTH Cheers - Neil ------------------------------------------------ Digital Media MVP : 2004-2007 http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/mvpfaqs On 27/4/07 18:20, in article F3D52289-FE8F-427C-9CF5-6D9E5E9813A4@microsoft.com, "Rick Humphrey" <RickHumphrey@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I goofed and did not think in advance of what I was doing and used iTunes to > rip 80 CD's or so of Jazz CD's that I own, I beleive that all files were [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Rick Depending on what version of iTunes you were trying and what version of Windows you are running it might be worth updating iTunes (latest version is 7.1.1). However currently it is not 100% compatible with Vista (it causes me no problems in XP Pro). Regard M4A, in this case this refers to AAC encoded music which is the default format used by iTunes (it could also refer to Apple Lossless but that is not the default and therefore unlikely to be the case here). There are plenty of AAC directshow filters you can add to Windows Media Player which along with the WMPTSE plugin will let you add all the AAC files and play them in WMP. For example http://www.orban.com/plugin For WMPTSE see http://wmptagext.sourceforge.net/ As I mentioned there is a much less likely possibility that your music is in Apple Lossless. This is a different codec to AAC (AAC is lossey) but uses the same M4A file format and tag format. While there are several AAC directshow filters there is only ONE Apple Lossless directshow filter. You will also need to use WMPTSE again (to let WMP read the meta tags). For Apple Lossless directshow filter go here http://dsp-worx.de/ and follow the January 8th 2007 entry. As you can see, it is based on my idea. Note: the above Apple Lossless filter also supports AAC as well and ALAC stands for Apple Lossless Audio Codec (i.e. it is the same thing as Apple Lossless). |
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