need help on Windows media player

[Hugh R]

I've loaded music into iTunes, mostly using CDs. I have a new Sony wireless system that sees windows media player 11. I'm running Vista. I've got some stuff on hugh>music and hugh>music>itunes>itunes music. I've told windows media player to find those, but it doesn't seem to add them. Should I copy everything to one place? If so, do I just cut and paste?

[Zeke]

Using the search "windows media player load itunes" the first 3 hits look to answer the problem.

The problem I'm having is the same as I suspect you are. iTunes hides the music files on your hard drive pretty well. But, they are there. As the tutorials say, Media Player and iTunes are just programs, not storage folders.

[lane912]

the trick is to go into itunes and right click on a song, in the drop down you will have the option to "view in explorer"
that will show you the itunes hideyhole-

[Hugh R]

Lane, thanks, I'll try that. What seems to be the problem as I look closer is Windows Media Player 11 can't "see" m4a extensions. Any suggestions on a virus-free conversion program? There seem to be lots of them.

[Eric Coffey]

If you are not absolutely tied to WMP, you might consider ditching it and going with something like Foobar (free).

[rcecale]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Any suggestions on a virus-free conversion program? There seem to be lots of them.

Hugh,

I've been using SUPER for the past few years and it's worked very well. You can download and it from here.

It's basically a 3 step process:

1. Select the "Output" container...in my case, I make everything an MP3.


2. Open Windows Explorer to the folder where your music is and then drag the files to this field...


3. Press the "Encode" button...



If you have any questions about this app, lemme know. I can help you with more details, if need be.

Randy

[imcarthur]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Any suggestions on a virus-free conversion program? There seem to be lots of them.

You can create a wav version of any m4a song from the iTunes Advanced menu.

Ian

[Hugh R]

Randy, thanks, that worked great. I have to use WMP with the Sony speaker that I bought. Apparently with a MAC you don't have these problems, as it uses iTunes directly. Kind of funky, but at least I can play my 2700+ songs throughout the house and backyard.

[Scott R]

It's not a MAC or Windows issue, it's a "DRM" issue which goes back to the rights owner. Each Itunes download (well the ones you pay for) are protected with DRM; the music the movies all of it.

In 2011 a few really good DRM "rippers" came out but the industry quickly shut the software down and sued the authors who would not decease. So today you actually have to "capture" the output of Itunes content to make it multi-platform available.

With video you actually play it out of Itunes and record it on another app real time. with audio the best way is to "burn your playlist to cd" inside of Itunes then RIP the cd back into something common like media player.

[intakexhaust]

With these three: Real Player SP (free), Apple iTunes (free from Apple site) download for Win and 123 Media Max Platnium (buy on Amazon or ebay for $10), you can convert anything DRM or not. Any vid on the net can be pulled, converted to any other format or even pull the soundtrack and convert to whatever you wish. Even BluRay stuff compressed to an MP4, Apple format, phone junk, etc or copy any DVD (incl dual layer), B-Ray to another same disc. You might have a learning curve and take some time to figure it all out but nothing is sacred these days. Sort of funny, but even those old DRM protected VHS tapes can be played on an old machine by connecting to an input patch cable to the PC and convert it. My old race tapes collection are safe. This software is available because the DRM law is still gray and hotley debated but the main issue is as long as its for you only and as a back-up, its yours.