Digital Rights Management Problems

a) 2.0b3 won't import my wma files ... haven't looked yet to see if this is known or even supported yet.

b) i went to parents this week and ripped a bunch of their cds to my laptop. i only had the new windows media player, so i was only able to rip in WMA for some reason ...

c) I accidentally left that digital rights managment thing on while ripping.

d) I can't seem to convert these WMAs to MP3 to put on the empeg because all these files are encoded with DRM-1 now (protected).

e) Is there something I can do to turn off this security thing so I can convert my danged files? I'd just rerip from the sources, but those sources are about 9 hours away ...

Greg

WMA support is disbaled in the current beta.

The new Media Player (at least for XP) by default only handles encoding WMA - MP3 needs 3rd party support (codec, etc.)

To convert, just intercept the digital stream before it goes to your sound device and save it to a WAV. To do this, grab "Total Recorder" - just search google for it (many places to download). Then just encode with your favourite MP3 encoder (LAME 3.90 suggested).

Bruno

Total Recorder looks like it only supports a few seconds of recording in the free version ... is this incorrect?

Greg

Probably the easiest fix is to use Total Recorder. See the thread about extracting audio from a DVD. There is a hack available for version 2 of the Microsoft DRM software (http://www.nunce.org/ms-drm.htm).

Doing a quick web search, I can't seem to find an unlocking tool for the version 1 DRM software, although there's some good documentation at the avifile page.

If you don't like paying $12 for Total Recorder, there are a bunch of other tools out there. Worst case, run the digital-out of your sound card back in again (assuming you have SP/DIF in and out from your soundcard).

One URL you may find helpful:

http://www.billssoftwarepicks.com/software/audio/recorders/

As always, be aware that converting from one lossy compression format to another will result in poorer quality than going from the original.

You're a Dapper Dan Man, too? You know the Pleezant Odor is half the point!

If you can find an older version of MusicMatch (6.10.0221 or earlier, I believe), it can convert protected WMAs to unprotected WMAs. You just do a convert to the same bitrate. When Microsoft found this out, we got a nasty letter telling us to remove it or else.

e) Is there something I can do to turn off this security thing so I can convert my danged files? I'd just rerip from the sources, but those sources are about 9 hours away ...

At the risk of sounding "holier-than-thou"... you shouldn't be putting that music into your empeg unless you are the owner of those sources that are "...about 9 hours away", in which case the sources wouldn't be 9 hours away.

This sort of behavior is exactly the reason that RIAA and others are doing their best to make our lives difficult.

tanstaafl.

..We got..

Are your working with MM???
Anyway I think MM is a great program.

TommyE

Yeah...love it at MM. It's nice to go to work and have it not feel like work. I bet the empeg guys are like that. I bet they love doing what they're doing. At least, that's the impression I get.

Glad to hear ya like MM. It's pretty cool to work at a company people have actually heard of and like. Just tonight I was chatting with this girl I met and she knew who we were. Always helps.

Aha, a MusicMatch dood!

I don't suppose you'd care to share the format of your VBRI headers would you?

Rob

Yeah, this might alleviate my (and a number of others) problems with lots of my VBR tunes showing as Fixed rate 32 Kb/s on my player. This is really annoying because it screws up the timings of tracks & playlists (not that you need to be told that). I actually thought that this was going to be fixed in this (2.0b7) latest beta release but it appears not. Must have got my wires crossed somewhere.

So what do you do at MM??

TommyE

If it makes you feel any better, I purchased these albums for my father for christmas years ago. He never listens to them. I love the music, but I can't take the albums back, wouldn't be proper.

So in a sense, I do own them. And only one person is listening to that music at a time.

Greg

I don't suppose you'd care to share the format of your VBRI headers would you?

I don't know offhand, but I could probably find out for you guys pretty easily.

I'd initially want to say that they're the standard format...but I probably know better. We do a few funky things with ID3v2 tags and whatnot. I've noticed that quite a number of VBR files don't work in the empeg.

Anyways, I'll ask around and see what I can scrounge up.

I do QA testing. What I test varies, although I focus on anything web related. I'm sole tester for the website, the MM Guide, and the MM Radio. On free time, I test the actual product. I'm also sole QA tester for the Mac product.

They're specifically not the standard format. There are some partial reverse engineering attempts on the net, but not a complete one that we can find. The header also differs for small and large tracks.

I suspect we (SONICblue) have already been given the format for use in our portables, but since those guys aren't back in the office til next week I thought I'd ask you on the off chance :)

VBR files created by just about anything other than MM work fine - MM files playback OK but FF/Rew/Pause is broken. This is also true for a number of Windows MP3 players.

At least that's my understanding of it. We like MM and lots of our customers use it, so it's a priority to solve this problem.

Rob

> They're specifically not the standard format.

Actually I should qualify that.. I believe VBRI is Fraunhoffer's suggested standard, but it's use isn't very widespread. It doesn't seem to be published anywhere that I can find.

Rob

I talked to one of the programmers here and he said that the Fraunhoffer encoder handles all the VBRI stuff, and we don't do anything with it. If you can't find out the info, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the programmer. He said he'd then get you in touch with someone at Fraunhoffer who could help you.