«

If hell exists, the evil doers who designed Windows Media Player
should be charter members.

I backed-up a number of audio files from my old computer and they
somehow got assigned *.wma suffixes. How they got railroaded by
Microsoft in the first place is a mystery.

I only discovered this when I attempted to play them using Media
Monkey and it suddenly launched a Microsoft webpage demanding a
license. I've tried converting them (using Audacity and dBPowerAmp)
and error message tell me the files have been encrypted.

On my old computer, Media Player would occasionally over-ride my
default player settings and insinuate itself again as the default. I
suppose that's one way the tracks in this particular album (long gone
to that CD player in the sky) could have been changed from *.wav to
*.wma.

Is there any software that will convert *.wma files to audio files I
can actually use? TIA.

"Donchano" <> wrote in message
news:...
> If hell exists, the evil doers who designed Windows Media Player
> should be charter members.
>
> I backed-up a number of audio files from my old computer and they
> somehow got assigned *.wma suffixes. How they got railroaded by
> Microsoft in the first place is a mystery.
>
> I only discovered this when I attempted to play them using Media
> Monkey and it suddenly launched a Microsoft webpage demanding a
> license. I've tried converting them (using Audacity and dBPowerAmp)
> and error message tell me the files have been encrypted.
>
> On my old computer, Media Player would occasionally over-ride my
> default player settings and insinuate itself again as the default. I
> suppose that's one way the tracks in this particular album (long gone
> to that CD player in the sky) could have been changed from *.wav to
> *.wma.
>
> Is there any software that will convert *.wma files to audio files I
> can actually use? TIA.

Would Lame do it. Audacity had me download this to use a dll file it had so
that audacity could convert a file from it's native format to MP3 but I
think it does other things as well.
http://www.mp3-converter.com/encoders/lame_encoder2.htm

Joy

"Donchano" <> wrote in message
news:...
> If hell exists, the evil doers who designed Windows Media Player
> should be charter members.
>
> I backed-up a number of audio files from my old computer and they
> somehow got assigned *.wma suffixes. How they got railroaded by
> Microsoft in the first place is a mystery.
>
> I only discovered this when I attempted to play them using Media
> Monkey and it suddenly launched a Microsoft webpage demanding a
> license. I've tried converting them (using Audacity and dBPowerAmp)
> and error message tell me the files have been encrypted.
>
> On my old computer, Media Player would occasionally over-ride my
> default player settings and insinuate itself again as the default. I
> suppose that's one way the tracks in this particular album (long gone
> to that CD player in the sky) could have been changed from *.wav to
> *.wma.
>
> Is there any software that will convert *.wma files to audio files I
> can actually use? TIA.
>
Go here
www.phazeddl.com
and search for fairuse4wm

>
> I only discovered this when I attempted to play them using Media
> Monkey and it suddenly launched a Microsoft webpage demanding a
> license. I've tried converting them (using Audacity and dBPowerAmp)
> and error message tell me the files have been encrypted.
>

Umm.. I guess you didn't back up your licences file? WMP will back them up
into My Documents (where all your saved files should really go). Are you
telling
us windows media magiclly encryted the files without your
knowledge/permission?

Nothing will convert the files over (as they are encrypted) with the licence
that you haven't got.

Thanks

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:41:38 +1300, Craig Whitmore wrote:

> Nothing will convert the files over (as they are encrypted) with the licence
> that you haven't got.

This is a classic example of Digital Restrictions Management in action,
and is a good example as to why DRM should be obliterated from the face of
the planet!


Ma Hogany

--
"Even though a peice of code may documented it doesn't make it readable,
understandable or even usable. Especially when said documentation starts with
"I don't know exactly why this was included, what it does, or how it does it
but the system won't work without it" or simply "Sorry about this..."

On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:13:49 +1300, Joy wrote:

> Would Lame do it.

Lame converts uncompressed PCM audio into compressed MPEG layer 3
compressed audio. IT does not decode Micro$oft Media Audio compression.


Ma Hogany

--
"The average user doesn't know what he wants. The average user wants
fries with that, if prompted."

"MaHogany" <> wrote in message
news...
> On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:41:38 +1300, Craig Whitmore wrote:
>
>> Nothing will convert the files over (as they are encrypted) with the
>> licence
>> that you haven't got.
>
> This is a classic example of Digital Restrictions Management in action,
> and is a good example as to why DRM should be obliterated from the face of
> the planet!
>

As someone lost their licence key for the music they have? If they didn't
want to have DRM they shouldn't of converted them to DRM based
files or is he blaming windows for doing it without his permission or
knowledge. Or where they DRM based files in the 1st place and hes
lost his licence?

Thanks

"Craig Whitmore" <> wrote in message
news:45223b42$...
>
> "MaHogany" <> wrote in message
> news...
>> On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 21:41:38 +1300, Craig Whitmore wrote:
>>
>>> Nothing will convert the files over (as they are encrypted) with
>>> the licence
>>> that you haven't got.
>>
>> This is a classic example of Digital Restrictions Management in
>> action,
>> and is a good example as to why DRM should be obliterated from the
>> face of
>> the planet!
>>
>
> As someone lost their licence key for the music they have? If they
> didn't
> want to have DRM they shouldn't of converted them to DRM based
> files or is he blaming windows for doing it without his permission
> or
> knowledge. Or where they DRM based files in the 1st place and hes
> lost his licence?
>
> Thanks
>
>

WMP wouldn't encrypt a plain vanilla WAV file to an encrypted WMA file
would it?

How could it do that and where would the license come from?

If the files were originally WMA files and they had been decrypted to
WAV, then lost (the WAV files) I guess that would explain it.

Confused!

Alan.

--

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On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:45:54 +1300, Alan wrote:

> WMP wouldn't encrypt a plain vanilla WAV file to an encrypted WMA file
> would it?

It *could* do such a thing - entirely dependant on how you've got it set
up.


Ma Hogany

--
"The average user doesn't know what he wants. The average user wants
fries with that, if prompted."

"MaHogany" <> wrote in message
news...
> On Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:45:54 +1300, Alan wrote:
>
>> WMP wouldn't encrypt a plain vanilla WAV file to an encrypted WMA
>> file
>> would it?
>
> It *could* do such a thing - entirely dependant on how you've got it
> set
> up.
>
>
> Ma Hogany
>
> --
> "The average user doesn't know what he wants. The average user
> wants
> fries with that, if prompted."
>

You didn't explain where the license would come from?

--

The views expressed are my own, and not those of my employer or anyone
else associated with me.

My current valid email address is:



This is valid as is. It is not munged, or altered at all.

It will be valid for AT LEAST one month from the date of this post.

If you are trying to contact me after that time,
it MAY still be valid, but may also have been
deactivated due to spam. If so, and you want
to contact me by email, try searching for a
more recent post by me to find my current
email address.

The following is a (probably!) totally unique
and meaningless string of characters that you
can use to find posts by me in a search engine:

ewygchvboocno43vb674b6nq46tvb