globster

http://www.handyarchive.com/free/copy-protected-wma/

does that one program work or is it total bullshit?

im not goiojng to waist money on a music download service when i cant even burn the fucking file to a fucking cd so i can play it in my fucking car.

JMereel007

I have spent several hours trying to convert wma copy protected files to mp3. My school recently signed up for "Ruckus," a download program similar to napster. The files I download cannot be burned to cd, copied to mp3 player, or moved to another computer. Therefore, I tried all of the above mentioned means to convert to mp3. Thus far, the only manner that has worked is Winamp. Using winamp, I can either dual play / encode wma files to wav using the above mentioned method, or using the lame plug in, I can directly copy wma files to mp3. The only drawback is that the encoding happens real time.

Every other attempt has failed (I am not going to waste my time recording the tracks with my computer's recorder as this WILL decrease the audio quailty though this method should work). This includes Virtuosa, Goldwave, Nero, Roxio EZ CD, MusicMatch, and ITunes. While it is possible Ruckus uses more advanced encryption, I believe those of you who posted success stories regarding the above mentioned programs were not actually converting truly encrypted files. One other theory is that, for example, Virtuosa upgraded their software to no longer encode copy protected files, explaining the change in file size neccessary for the crack, but I remain sceptible.

Well I hope this helps some of you, let me know if you have questions.

after-burner

Here's the most definitve guide/information I have been able to find on this topic. It includes a very reliable method of converting your DRM protected files to WAV, MP3 or other formats, assuming you legally own the downloads. If you are unable to play the files using Windows Media Player (due to lack of digital rights), then you will not be able to convert them to any other format either.

http://uk.geocities.com/thetomcatsla...t/DRM/drm.html

josh8790

I used the method described earlier in the forum using to Winamp and the out_stacker plug, and I combined it with an out_MP3 plugin that you can also get from the winamp site. With the Radium MP3 codec, this works wonderfully. I've been listening to both versions at high volume to try and see if I can hear a difference and I can't.

Yes, this is real time encoding so it's not ideal, but it works. You could leave an album playing and watch TV or do it in the background - it ain't that bad!

You could use this method on the protected files you download from Napster for free, although it would be illegal...

homer6969

plz ppl, don't ask me for serials for tunebite... i actually bought a real copy and i'm not gonna give that off for free anyways... i'm sure there are keygens avaialble somewhere but not from me thanks!

if ruckus uses the same encryption as napster or windows media player plays your ruckus songs, i think it might be able to convert your songs using tunebite... if not then i dunno...

msuc5vette

Tunebite works well for me, I am waiting for my order to be processed so I can do more than 30 seconds.

I tried the above link, can you confirm please if this works with Napster $10/month subscription?

I have WMP 10.0, the nero plugin is designed for 9.0, but before I try and go back to 9.0 I would like to make sure that I can do it with my Napster files.

If the linked method works, it shoul be the quickest for making a CD, but I think Tunebite would be easier for MP3 since it keeps the file name and ID3 tags.

msuc5vette

I tried the linked method using WMP 9.0 and Nero plugin on another machine.

The music is from the Napster $10/month membership, Nero tells me I don't have enough license to burn.

msuc5vette

This method also worked for me with Napster files, although it is pretty much the same as tunebite, so according to the tunebite site I would disagree with the previous post, it is not an illegal method.

Tunebite is better IMHO because Tunebite recreates the ID3 tag and file name, where as winamp puts whatever is in the playlist as the file name, and does not make an ID3 tag. Winamp made a few files for me where the name started with [opening] or [license aquired]

mattwatts

Hi,
I have tried using the tune bite software and it does the job, but it leaves off the first half second or so of the track! Is this normal, or is there some setting I haven't seen?

Apologies if I am just being stupid!

k3rr

Although tunebite copies ID3 tag information I think the best choice for converting is still winamp using output stacker and an mp3 output plugin. You may even be able to find an mp3 output plugin that supports copying ID3 information.

If you use winamp you can turn the volume down on winamp while converting and listen to something else in windows media player. Winamp will only record the output from winamp where tunebite records all sounds made by other applications also.

Tunebite also has an automatic feature that I liked but it stopped working for me after a few uses (using registered version).
I also tried most of the other programs listed in this thread and none of them seemed to work on protected wma files. These other programs must have been tested with purchased tracks...

Frontier48

tunebite worked for me. It was so easy to!

littleanimal

Hi, this is what works for me:

Play the song in WinAmp, but instead of sending the audio stream to DirectSound Output, send it to the Nullsoft Discwriter Plugin instead.

Instead of hearing the song, it will appear as a WAV file on your drive, with which you can do what you like. It will stop recording at the end of the song for you, so no cropping silences or faffing around is required.

WinAmp still has to connect to the net for the license, but you only have to do it once.

littleanimal

Oh it's already been mentioned, sorry!

written

The Answer:

Napster has a 14 day free trial. You can download and ^listen^ to as many of the 1,000,000+ songs in their databse for as long as you please during the trial. Of course, as we all know, the music isn't burnable.

But it is-

The person who mentioned virtuosa in the beginning had the right idea. Unfortunately, he neglected to mention (or didn't know) that at high or variable bitrate encoding, it doesn't work. I expiremented with it (and tunebite, and WMA/MP3 recorders, and lame encoding) for a while this afternoon and found that, indeed, at 128-b encoding, Virtuosa is MONEY.

In closing: f@ck DMR, WMA, and all other proprietary-business-MSFT bull$hit (whatever that means).

homer6969

you probably are right... for me i downloaded the updated installtion file and installed that, so it didn't have the drm installed on my computer and hense i couldn't experiement with virtuosa when i installed the older working installation file... i tried it at 128 and it worked but idnd't bother with any other ones... thanks for the info!

NoDRM

Just add key -nodrm to aedtools (mediatwins)

As i do:

c:\program files\Mediatwins software\AEDTools\aedtools.exe -nodrm



or if you found version 1.062d - this version can decode drm without any problems.

chesspupil

Is there a requirement that the wma going to wav be sent to a CD as part of this process....


I am looking to do this on a fast paced scale.... I do not want to listen to the whole thing to do it at analog speeds.


Has anyone tried a virtual CD drive of a size that in the GBs?

In other words say you have an audio book wma that is 12hrs long.... that is going to be a huge wav when it gets done... too big for a cd for sure!

chesspupil

Alos BTW is directly says it does not support copy of DRM 7/8/9

chesspupil

(I treid editing the short cut but windows wont let me do it. How wo I add the "-nodrm" switch?

NoDRM

"c:\program files\Mediatwins software\AEDTools\aedtools.exe" -nodrm

of corse

dhorrocks

I have been reading this thread for months, I have tried the virtuosa but seem to have no luck, anybody with any luck could they spread some light and show us less able people how?

dhorrocks

Ignore my last post, I've worked it out, thanks for the help

Mr. Belvedere

music files? search for the unfuck.exe tool, that's all i can type

__________________
I might be evil.

Want to make dvd movie backups? Take the 5-step or the 2-step process. Fun, fast and free!

catbus

I found this link and works so well to transfer to other formats <cd, mp3>

http://news.dmusic.com/print/15869.



^_^

The catbus

ZeroSignal

catbus: that info is from earlier in this thread!
--
There is someone useful information in this thread, but also a lot of misunderstandings and bad advice. Here's my experience.

I signed with Napster To Go. I'm using the UK version, but I'm sure this would work for other Napster countries.

I use Windows 2000, so I have Windows Media Player 9 installed.

I installed the latest version of Winamp (5.08), which seems to be of the few media players which support DRM WMAs (dbPowerAmp doesn't). You need the 'Full' Winamp, the 'Lite' version doesn't support WMA.

I downloaded a few tracks from Napster. I was able to play these in Winamp, although often I got an error saying 'Opening failed'. If I keep trying it works eventually.

The first thing I tried was to use Winamp's built-in diskwriter plug-in. But when I tried to play the tracks, Winamp just said 'Opening failed' for every one of them.

I read a tip which said to use to use Winamp's Directsound output plug-in instead of the waveOut plug-in, but this did not work.

I then tried using Dietmar's Output Stacker as described above.

Winamp -> Output Stacker - waveOut plug-in + diskwriter plug-in

It worked! However, the WAV files aren't really very practical so I wanted to have MP3s instead.

I then though... do I really need Output Stacker? I replaced it with LAME MP3 encoder plug-in (http://out-lame.sourceforge.net/).

It worked!

Conclusion: Winamp makes a basic attempt to stop you capturing the audio stream to disk. However it only watches for the diskwriter plug-in. If you use any other plug-in, it send the audio stream directly to it. No-one has cracked the DRM for the WMA files used by Napster (yet). By re-encoding the the WMA to MP3 or another format, there will be a slightly loss in quality. It really is quite suprising that Microsoft licensed DRM playback to Nullsoft, since Winamp is a very 'hacker-oriented' player.