Question:
i have a heap of cds stored in itunes. they show as m4a files in folders on my computer. i now have a non ipod mp3 player. is it possible to covert these m4a files to wma or mp3 so they will work on my mp3 player? windows media player says it cant play them :S
Answers:
I'm not a big ITunes user, so if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me -
Are they songs you bought from ITunes or just songs you've ripped from CD's?
Bought songs will be harder to do as they'll be DRM protected. You'd have to save them to a disc and then rip them as MP3's.
If they're just songs you've ripped from your own CD's, you should be able to highlight them in ITunes, click on Advanced and then click on Convert to MP3.
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they are ripped songs, well the majority of them.
i shall try that, thank you
edit: hmm that only gives me the option to convert to aac, which wmp still doesnt want to find and which i cant find as a separate thingy on my pc.
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they are ripped songs, well the majority of them.
If you have the time to spare - and WMP or - you can rip them again. All you need to do beforehand is select Tools>Options> and change the format to MP3.
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If you have the time to spare - and WMP or - you can rip them again. All you need to do beforehand is select Tools>Options> and change the format to MP3.
will it rip them from itunes to wmp though? i really really dont want to fish out all my cds all over again lol
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You could from one format to the other, but this would lead to a loss of audio quality.
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You might have to wait until someone with more ITunes knowledge comes along, sorry.
If you go in to Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Importing and change it to MP3, does that change the selection in Advanced to MP3?
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k that lets me make mp3's thank you. lets see if i can now get them into wmp.
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k that lets me make mp3's thank you. lets see if i can now get them into wmp.
You won't have any problems with WMP and MP3.
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Maybe give a whirl on a free 15 day trial I found no loss of quality also.
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if i was doing it i would probably use a shell script and mplayer but i realise this isn't helpful since its dubious your a linux bod. it does however vindicat my decision to spend 70quid more on my iaudio m3 than an ipod not even counting i can get a replace ment battery for 15 quid vs some rediculus amount from apple.
anyway enough of being a smug git and trying to be helpfull, depending upon the itunes version it is also possible to break the drm on any purchased itunes cant remember the program i used but its possible
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i think transcoding is beyond me, i have read that wikki article 3 times and am still no clearer to exactly what it is lol. thanks though.
j davies, does that deffinitly convert form m4a (itunes) to wma or mp3 as i cant see on their conversion table that it does? thanks though.
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Apparently, files with the .m4a extension are just MP4 files .
The existence of two different file extensions for naming audio-only MP4 files has been a source of confusion among users and multimedia playback software. Since MPEG-4 is a container format, MP4 files may contain any number of audio, video, and even subtitle streams, making it impossible to guess what type of streams are present in a MP4 file based on its filename extension alone. In response, Apple Computer started using and popularizing the .m4a file extension. Software capable of audio/video playback should recognize files with either .m4a or .mp4 file extensions, as would be expected, as there are no file format differences between the two. Most software capable of creating MPEG-4 audio will allow the user to choose the filename extension of the created MPEG-4 files.
So, supposedly you could use something like to convert them into MP3 files...
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i think transcoding is beyond me, i have read that wikki article 3 times and am still no clearer to exactly what it is lol. thanks though.
j davies, does that deffinitly convert form m4a (itunes) to wma or mp3 as i cant see on their conversion table that it does? thanks though.
In short, transcoding is the process of making audio quality more s**t whilst changing from lossy (i.e. MP3, WMA, MP4) formats and therefore should be avoided unless you have cloth ears.
Semi technical explanation: -
MP3, WMA and MP4 are lossy formats. This means that when you rip from the CD (PCM audio; i.e. the original sounding audio with everything in) parts of the original audio get chucked away to make the file smaller (hence the name). Converting between lossy formats (i.e. changing MP4s to MP3s in your case) will result in more audio quality being chucked away.
Crap analogy time. Let's say you drive your car down a narrow lane and there's some prickly bushes by the road that scrape the paint off your car at the sides. The paint is your audio and bushes are the MP3 convertor. You exit the narrow lane with the bushes in - some bits of the paint are still there, but the quality is not what it once was. That's like what MP3s do to the original CD quality audio.
Transcoding is the act of taking your already bashed up car and driving it down another different narrow lane of a different name with a different set of bushes that still scrape whatever paint is left on the car. When you exit this lane, the paint will be gone even further and so will the quality of your audio.
Moral of the story. Avoid transcoding and if you want to change to a different format, always start by ripping afresh from the CDs (i.e. get your car resprayed and drag it through the different lane with bushes ).
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thanks people
but i am no nearer to understanding any of this or being able to get things converted to mp3. my media burning software program cant find the itunes files, despite the fact that they are stored on my harddrive as well as in itunes. i can convert them to mp3 susposedly in itunes, but when i do that i cant do anything with it and i dont know how to find out which is the mp3 version and which the ordinary version.
i need a itunes for complete dummys guide.
i guess tomorrow ill attempt making mp3 cds from itunes the reload them all onto the computer through wmp unless anyone can come up with a simple way to get the same result or can point me to a step by step for technophobes guide lol
will that mediacoder take them out of itunes to convert them? i really dont want to download yet more stuff i wont understand how to use if i dont have to and i dont want to download stuff unless i am sure it will work. (i havent got recovery discs yet)
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i am no nearer to understanding any of this or being able to get things converted to mp3. my media burning software program cant find the itunes files, despite the fact that they are stored on my harddrive as well as in itunes. i can convert them to mp3 susposedly in itunes, but when i do that i cant do anything with it and i dont know how to find out which is the mp3 version and which the ordinary version.
The converted tracks should be in here somewhere -
C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
The symbols beside each track should tell you what they are. If you right click the folder and Arrange icons by type theyshould all be listed together. Right click on a music file and click Properties to see what type of music file it is.
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I use dbPowerAmp converter with all of its many plugins. It converts nearly every type of audio file and also does batches. Can't recommend it highly enough, and a must for every audiophile.
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thanks for all the help everyone, i sorte dit by burniong them to mp3 data dvd and then playing in wmp.