Classic British Flight Sim

Hi Guy's..

I downloaded an LP off Woolies (good choice) a while back.. Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow. Found it loafing on the download pc and thought I'd copy it to the pc I use now. Unfortunately, Media Player is reporting that it can't play any of the tracks then it goes online to Windows Help and explains that I need a non-Microsoft bit of kit to remove the IDTags from the tracks. With me so far?? No.. I'm lost too

Any pointers most welcome

EDIT:
I've been clever and downloaded a free file converter. However, it won't convert the files because they're protected by DRM Is it possible to remove the DRM or do I just give up and chalk it up to experience. No Woolies to go back to (they exist online but no longer sell music for download)

ATB

DaveB

Dave - this a real kludge but should work. Download the freeware Audacity (if you don't already have it)) to your download PC. Set the recording paramater to "What U Hear". Start the Audacity record function. Start playing the track you are interested in with Media Player. When finished, you can edit the track with Audacity to remove the silence before Media Player started and after the recording ended. You can then export the file in the format of your choice. If you want .mp3 format, you will need a Lame plugin. See the preferences menu -libraries to download that.

There is a learning curve with Audacity so make backups and use a lot of patience. Once your familiar with Audacity you can do a lot of fun stuff with it - bring out the closet audio engineer inside you.

You will need to pay attention to recording peak levels to prevent clipping, and may need several "takes" but once you have found the right levels it should get easier. The instructions above are abridged so if you want to pursue this and need more help just ask! I managed to remove the DRM from a .wma file using this method.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ tthe link for Audacity

Nigel²

PS. Forgot to mention - all of the above assumes you can play the music on the download PC of course. You might also be able to burn a CD from the .wma files and use that, or try ripping the resulting CD files to .mp3 format on the PC.

Hi Nige

I knew we had a sound expert here somewhere

I managed to progress a little further. There are some tasty bits of software out there.. one in particular I liked the look of so I downloaded it. It does everything it says on the box.. right up until the moment you want to convert the file and remove the DRM when another box opens and it says.. files are limited to 1 minute. For full conversions, pay $25. Don't ya just love it when vendors do that.. pretend to be freeware until you can see the whites of your enemies eyes then leave you surrounded by the enemy with nothing more than a white flag for comfort B@st@rds! The only prog I can think of that has spent less time on my pc is IE8!

I have found another one but for this to work, it has to be installed on the original download pc so it can read the license then trash it. Unfortunately, work got in the way and I haven't got that far yet but it does look promising. Thanks for the help thus far but please.. don't waste any more time on it. Let's call it 'Case Closed'

ATB

DaveB

Google "remove DRM" and there are hundreds of links - as you state, many are payware masquarading as freeware. I got tired of that nonsense and used Audacity when I wanted a DRM protected song on my iPod. To do a whole album would be time consuming to be sure. Why not just burn a CD if you can?

Ok I will say no more!

Nigel²

Ok, I lied when I said I will say no more. Go to http://www.videohelp.com/tools/FairUse4WM and download the file. I would unzip it to the same directory as the .wma DRM files that need unprotecting. Open the program and drag one of your ,wma files into the window. It will create an unprotected .wma file named [NODRM]original file name.wma. You can also drag .wma files directly on top of the .exe file and it should work. I am not sure what the mirakagi.exe does but FairUse4Wm.exe works like a charm. Looks like it was developed for video files but I tested it on one of my DRM .wma music files and it worked. If you want .mp3 files, there are many converters available like MediaCoder Audio Edition (freeware) that will do that once the file you want to convert is free of DRM.

It is only 429kb (both files) and the best part is it is really free!

Nigel²

Why not just burn a CD if you can?

I tried that mate using Real Player (where the original went to) but I got a window saying something like 'The license doesn't permit me to copy'.. or words to that effect. I actually have Audacity somewhere.. probably on the same pc as the offending music is sitting on. I'll have a look at that prog you mention as disturbingly, I'm pretty sure I downloaded more than one LP off Woolworths but for the life of me, I can't remember what that might have been. I guess that if I copy the lot and Media Player starts throwing up errors.. I'll know which ones they were!

ATB

DaveB

DaveB wrote: I tried that mate using Real Player ....

DaveB

Real Player? Are those Woolworth files .wma files or .rm /.ra files? I know Real Player will handle .wma files but the program I found probably can't handle .rm / .ra files.

If they are .wma files, that program I mentioned is the best bet because you can do batch conversions by dragging multiple files into the window. Had I known about FairUse4Wm when I did my conversions I would have used that rather than Audacity because the files it creates are exact duplicates without DRM. Using Audacity, you have to set sound levels and specify bit rates and all that, a lot of fun if your into that but not if your in a hurry or have a lot of files to convert.

In case you had not noticed, I am rather a persistant blighter when it comes to solving problems. I never know when to give up because I keep thinking there has to be a way so I waste ages solving some problem that, in a hundred years time, will not have made one iota of difference in the grand scheme of things. It does drive some people crazy so I am not sure I would call it an attribute.



Nigel²

Hi Nige

To cut a long story short.. the 'offending' pc (an old XP2400) was my main pc some time ago. Back in those days, I had a pc for flightsim and a pc for everything else.. this became the everything else. I've never liked Media Player (I still don't) and Real Player was an obvious option. At one point, I paid for it but let the license drop after 12months. It 'did' do much more than Media Player ever did and paying the annual subscription opens yet more goodies for those that like that sort of thing. Out of the box, it played WMA files though the majority of my files were ripped as MP3. Woolies never gave an option.. wma or nowt for their downloads. I suppose an easy thing to do is check all the other albums on the old pc and any that are wma are likely to be Woolies downloads. There won't be many so it won't take long I'll certainly try FairUse4Wm

ATB

DaveB

Or just buy the CD and rip it. ;-)
I never buy download music, I feel cheated if I dont have the CD, once I get it its ripped to wma pro and added to my cd collection. No shitty itunes either, i'm a Zune man :-)

Hi Ben

In the grand scale of things, over 99% of all my tracks are ripped off cd's so this problem hasn't been a problem until now. I can't be arsed to drag stuff of one pc to another.. it's just as easy to rip a new copy off the cd Having had a quick look at that FairUse4Wm prog, it was the next one I was going to try after being duped into trying another which turned out to be payware. I don't know WTF they mean by 'individualisation' Your system has to be individualised for the program to work! Whatever that means, I'm not keen on it

ATB

DaveB