WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

[DaveH]

I have a load of ripped CDs in WMA (lossless) format. I want to convert these to M4A to play on my Nokia N73.

I have no problem converting them using dbpowerAMP.

Viewing the TAGs in dbpowerAMP are OK.

But when I send the M4A to my phone (or view in Nokia Music Manager), some of the TAGS are not seen (e.g. the track TAG). (Music play OK).

Anybody have any ideas where I am going wrong with the TAGS?

[Deano]

Re: WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

a) I have had trouble with .m4a tagging myself (with Foobar2000 specifically), so you are not the only one.

b) Have you tried running the m4a optimiser codec on these files and see if that fixes the issue? (it didn't for me, but that's another story)

[Spoon]

Re: WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

Nokia only support id3v2 (or is it v1) tags in mp4 files, which completely breaks the mp4 standard.

[DaveH]

Re: WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

Spoon,

you mention that "Nokia only support id3v2 (or is it v1) tags in mp4 files, which completely breaks the mp4 standard".

I have since searched elsewhere on the net and it seems you are correct, Nokia M4A only support id3v1.

I am new to all this...I understand the files are tagged with data e.g. album track, author etc...but..

a) what 'TAG standard' should a M4A file be tagged with?
b) is there no way of forcing dbPowerAmp (or anything else) to write the M4A file with id3V1 (despite this breaking the mp4 standard)

and c) why the hell hasn't Nokia complied with the standard ???!!! (I don't expect an answer to this one, just though I'd rant a bit...)

[Spoon]

Re: WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

mp4 or m4a use the iTunes tagging standard.

[DaveH]

Re: WMA to M4A for Nokia (with TAGS)

After much experimentation I have finally managed to convert my WMA files to M4A (with Nokia compliant ID3V1 tags).

Perhaps this is obvious to everyone, but for those who are still struggling, this is waht I did...

1) Using dbPowerAMP, I converted all my files from WMA to M4A (ensure you have the M4A codec installed). This leaves the files 'playable' on a Nokia, but it can't read the TAG.

2) Copy all the files into one directory.

3) Using a different package, MP3Tag (available free at www.mp3tage.de), I loaded all the M4A files in. Ensure that Tools->Options->Tags are set to only write ID3V1 tags.

4) Selected all the files, then right-click and select 'Tag-copy'. Don't close the program.

5) Open a DOS-window (command window). Change to the directory with all the M4A files in, and rename all the filename EXTENSIONS to .MP3 (e.g. rename *.m4a *.mp3)

6) Switch back to MP3Tag, and re-scan the directory. The files should now all have the extension .MP3. Select all the files again, right-click and select 'Tag-paste'. The tags that you copied previously, are now saved in ID3V1 format.

7) Switch back to the DOS-window and rename all the extensions back to .M4A

Theses files are now playable, and TAG readable by Nokia.

This may take a few steps, but it works for me!