Protected WMA to Mp3 format?

[Mr Bob]

Anyone know of a quick way to convert your protected wma files to mp3? I do have license rights to the wma, so that might help somewhere..

I found this tool, but I am not sure if it will work or not: http://www.mediatwins.com/products/aedtools-download.htm

Just looking for suggestions.

 

[Czar]

play the wma file and then record it using some sound editor and then convert that wave file to mp3

 

[highwayxingfrog]

Or you can burn the wma to a disc using Windows Media Player, then rip it with your choice of program.

I recommend using a CDRW if you have lotsa songs.

 

[Mr Bob]

I only have 6,000 songs worth of 20GB of space. I should be able to burn it to a DVD, right?

Btw, what happens after it is set to expire? Can I still burn it to a cd to remove the protection? Or am I out of luck?

 

[Mr Bob]

Btw, do I need to burn it using WMP? I also have Nero 6

 

[fisheye]

For the burning method, you'd need to burn the WMAs to an audio CD to get rid of protection (as in, a regular CD-audio format (80min), not a data CD with WMAs on it) and then re-rip the audio CD into mp3 (or whatever) format.

I never had to do this, but is it possible to "burn" to an image file, and then mount the image as a drive (using daemon tools, etc) and then rip from the disc image, without having to burn actual discs?

It will take a LONG time to convert 6,000 files that way. (As in, not really feasible)

The other method mentioned, play the file and capture the audio with a sound recorder, also would take a very long time, as it's a real-time method.

 

[Gurck]

Going from one lossy format to another will result in a file that sounds worse than either.

 

[MrBond]

There's a Winamp plugin that works for the napster WMA's - I remember reading about it when they offered their unlimited download trial. The plugin was removed from Nullsoft's site though, although the site hosting the instructions had mirrored it.

Search the Hot Deals forum for the thread titled "Napster - Round Two" or something similar, someone linked it there.

 

[Mr Bob]

You mean this? http://techsupp.musicmatch.com/techtools/wma.inp.mmz

 

[MrBond]

Originally posted by: Mr Bob
You mean this? http://techsupp.musicmatch.com/techtools/wma.inp.mmz

This is what I saw:

http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips832.html

According to that site, the loophole has since been closed. Apparently there's discussion there on other methods that might work.

 

[Mr Bob]

Damn, stopped working, only got 30% of the 8k songs changed... :/