can't install dbpoweramp

[smithsgj]

I tried installing it. It doesn't actually say it installed successfully, just takes me to a tutorial webpage.

I can see the application in the taskbar. I can open it and see all the options. I can select different numbers of tracks. I can even test the recording level. But when I click Record, it says the converter is not installed!

Windows XP home, Chinese version.

Any help appreciated.

[ChristinaS]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

You are trying to use dMC Auxiliary Input to record audio from your sound card?

Or are you trying to use dMC Audio CD Input to rip tracks from an audio cd?

Or are you trying to convert an audio file already on your pc to some other format using dBpowerAMP Music Converter by itself?

These are the 3 main programs that come in the dBpowerAMP Music Converter package.

When you download dBpowerAMP Music Converter you get an executable file which you must execute in order to extract and install the package to your pc.

You can after that configure a few parameters in the utility program dMC Configuration which starts automatically upon installation, as will a help file. Therafter you can find the various programs and the help files in the dBpowerAMP group of your Programs in Start.

[smithsgj]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

Thanks very much Christina.

I'm trying to convert M4P files to MP3 so I can play them on a portable player.

I've removed dbpoweramp and reinstalled from a different source, download.com. The configuration prompts you mention did this time appear.

Once the installation was complete, I found I couldn't select the M4P files: dbpoweramp can't see them. So, I purchased the powerpack/ mp3 conversion license... but I still can't see the files!

There was a message about converting M4P to MP3 next to the powerpack key download details... I think this was what made me think that it had this functionality. Looking back at the same page, I see now that it refers to a different product!

I think I may have wasted my money... I doubt if I'm going to be able to get it back, and I'm still no nearer to a solution.

I know I can copy my iTunes songs to a CD and then copy them back in MP3 format, but that seems incredibly convoluted. Honestly, having downloaded paid-for music from the internet, do you really need to be a computer genius to play the wretched songs on an MP3 player?? You'd think Apple would have this all documented and sorted out really... I mean surely that's what everyone wants to do, isn't it? I think it's a conspiracy to get people to buy iPods.

[ChristinaS]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

Well, that's just it. m4p files are encrypted and can only be played on the pc where they were downloaded. You can burn an audio cd maybe and then rip it to whatever non-encrypted format you need, using dMC or any other cd ripper program.

dMC however allows a multitude of conversion types. It annot however perform miracles: encrypted files are encrypted, it cannot decrypt them. You didn't waste yoru moeny at all, believe me.

You are probably wasting more of your money buying from iTunes

The registered version of dMC allows you to convert unencrypted audio files to mp3, otherwise you cannot do it past the 30-day trial period.

There are various methdos you can use to try to get rid of DRM from you m4p files, take a look at the DRM forum. The main requirement is that you do it on the computer where the file was first downlaoded to, so the license is there.

One many users have reported success with is a program called jHymn to convert the encrypted .m4p to .m4a and after that dMC (with the proper decoding and encoding codecs) to convert .m4a to whatever other format is needed.

[LtData]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

Do note that if the songs are purchased using iTunes 6, you can only use dMC's Auxiliary Input to remove encryption from your files by recording them as you play them.

[xoas]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

A few things.

dBpowerAMP Music Converter is not set up to read m4p files (which have Digital Rights Management/DRM measures applied to them ). For information on trying to handle these files you might want to refer to the sticky thread in the DRM/CD Copy Protection section of the forum here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=7423

There has been for some time an ongoing battle between Apple and iTunes on the one hand and efforts to defeat Apple iTunes' DRM measures to make legitimate copies of their purchased m4p files. With each new version of iTunes, Aplle introdices new measures designed to interfere with existing programs designed to remove Apple's DRM measures. Currently, it appears that measures to overcome the DRM measures introduced in iTunes 6 have not yet appeared. New versions of iTunes have sometimes managed to reapply DRM measures to m4p files that were previously unlocked.

Apple's DRM measures are actually par for the course for all or nearly all clearly legal pay-for-download sites. It has less to do with selling iPods than it does with restricting potentially illegal distribution of music files. Illegal copying and distribution of music files is virtually indistinguishable from legal copying and distribution. The current legal climate (at least in the United States) is to err on the side of preventing illegal copying and distribution. This atmosphere is not friendly to the user who wants to do more with a downloadded file than simply listen to it in the designated player or a designated portable device.

The other thing to be aware of with repect to dBpowerAMP Music Converter is that it is not unicode compatible. This may or may not be a problem for you.

Best wishes,
Bill

[ChristinaS]

Re: can't install dbpoweramp

There was a message about converting M4P to MP3 next to the powerpack key download details... I think this was what made me think that it had this functionality. Looking back at the same page, I see now that it refers to a different product!

Yes, what it says there is:

Convert between audio formats whilst preserving ID Tags. Practically every audio type is supported: mp3, mp4, m4a, Windows Media Audio (WMA), Ogg Vorbis, AAC, Monkeys Audio, FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC) and many others from Codec Central,

.m4p is an encrypted version of .mp4 and/or .m4a - so even if the format is essentially the same, dMC cannot convert m4p to anyhting until the encryption is removed and the file is turned into an unencrypted version ( .m4a or .mp4 ) - which often is not possible. So this is where all the acrobatics involving various other programs like Hymn and jHymn come in, with various levels of success: trying to bypass or undo the encryption.