Posted by peter on 11/05/05 08:59

Paul Hill wrote:

> I'm not sure if Winamp plays DRM encoded WMA's but if it does you might be
> able to use the Diskwriter output plugin that sends the data to a .wav file,
> instead of to the sound card.
>
> I don't have any DRM files to try it though, sorry.
>
> "Malcolm H" <noone@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:fn76f.7292$65.5146@newsfe6-win.ntli.net...
>
>>I have downloaded (and paid for) music tracks from the MSN music store
>
> .The
>
>>downloaded tracks are in .wma format protected by DRM (Digital Rights
>>Management).
>>
>>My media player (Squeezebox http://www.slimdevices.com/) will not play
>
> these
>
>>files - so I wish to convert them to unprotected mp3.
>>
>>Using Windows Media player I have successfully burned the downloaded .wma
>>files to a CD and then ripped the files from the CD to mp3 format. These
>>files can then be played by my Squeezebox.
>>
>>Thus I have achieved my objective, but my question is - why is it
>
> necessary
>
>>to burn a CD to achieve this result? Surely there must be a way of
>>achieving this conversion directly without going via a CD??
>>
>>Answers will be awaited with interest.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
The problem here is the squeezebox. An up to date media player should
handle DRM! There used to be downloadable utilities that would unprotect
DRM files, but they seem to have been suppressed. The only options left
seem to be either the CD route, with the downside of recompressing an
already compressed file. NB expanding to WAV/CDA shouldn't downgrade the
tracks any more but recoding to mp3 will. What about a different
compression like Ogg?, or recoding in real time. I've tried both
techniques to convert WMA to mp3 with acceptable results. However I'm
not looking for concert hall quality.

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