DRM protection

[BRibic]

How can I convert .wma files with DRM protection to .mp3 ?

Tnx.

[Wayne]

Re: DRM protection

If the file's copy-protected by DRM, which dbpoweramp can't handle there are two ways you can convert a file to another format...

[1] Use Windows Media Player to burn the file to a CD (handy if you have a CDRW disc to do this then you can wipe the CD when you're finished) and then rip the track from that.

[2] Play the track using Windows Media Player and, using your PC, record it at the same time. This can be accomplished either by connecting the line-out and the line-in on your PC or if your soundcard supports it record "What U hear".

Wayne

P.S. I think this information should be added to the F.A.Q.

[BRibic]

Re: DRM protection

[[1] Use Windows Media Player to burn the file to a CD (handy if you have a CDRW disc to do this then you can wipe the CD when you're finished) and then rip the track from that.

[2] Play the track using Windows Media Player and, using your PC, record it at the same time. This can be accomplished either by connecting the line-out and the line-in on your PC or if your soundcard supports it record "What U hear".

:thumbdown
It doesnt work.
When I try [1] everything goes ok but when I start to burn in WMP "an error occured".
In case [2] WMP wont even play, asking for licence.

I tried everything but it just wont play or encode to mp3.
Funny is tha I encoe this to wma back then when I was on winMe, now its XP.
Maybe OS have something to do with it ?..but I doubt it.

[Wayne]

Re: DRM protection

It sounds like you had the DRM option turned on in Windows Media Player (it was turned on by default) when you originally created these wma files. This would have created licences for the created files on your machine so that you could play them.

I think the conversion problem is caused by the fact that when you transfered the wma files from your WinME to WinXP machine you should have transfered any licences created as well. Unless you can recover the licences you are out of luck.

Wayne

[BRibic]

Re: DRM protection

Nope, I cant recover the licence from winMe, HDD is formatted.
So, there is no way to brake the DRM protection ?..really a bad luck.

[Unregistered]

Re: DRM protection

Try: http://www.theregister.co.uk/media/657.zip

[ChristinaS]

Re: DRM protection

Ok, if I understand correctly you can play the file in Windows Media Player, except you cannot burn it to an audio cd. This is to be expected because burning involves conversion to wav and then to cda. A protected file cannot be converted to an unprotected one so easily.

So, since you can play the file, than you can record it to wav using dMC Auxiliary Input (same idea as What U Hear, but with more features).

After you have captured your audio file to wav you can re-encode it to any format you like. Just make sure you don't use the "protected" field again.

You could also capture directly to mp3, but you have more freedom when you capture to wav first and convert after that. I takes longer though.

[Wayne]

Re: DRM protection

Unfortunately he can not even play the files in WMP as he neglected to back up any licences he had when migrating from Win ME to Win XP.

Wayne

[ChristinaS]

Re: DRM protection

Unfortunately he can not even play the files in WMP as he neglected to back up any licences he had when migrating from Win ME to Win XP.

Wayne

Oh, that's too bad. So much deadwood, might as well delete them. A shame I guess, but some hard lessons to be learnt here.

I wonder if any support could be had at all from the Windows Media Player site. I am sure they hold the key to this, even though they will not provide it to anybody. Perhaps they can at least confirm that the files are indeed locked because of that and they are not simply corrupted in some manner.

I wouldn't hold my breath.