Converting Apple Ipod M4P files?

I finally joined the Apple Ipod music service in order to collect on my several free songs from Pepsi caps. Alas the downloaded file format is "m4p" whatever that is and it's not recognized by windows media player or any other media player I have installed in the PC. Thus far the only way I have found to get around it is to use the Itunes software to burn the song as a audio cda file to a cd. Is there a way or any direct conversion tools to get the songs to play on my windows PC? If not for the free music from the bottle caps then I would ditch this service immediately. Thus far the only other online music store I have joined is the one from Best Buy and they use normal wma file format.

its a good codec maybe try dbpoweramp to convert em im not sure if it will work

I use iTunes which seems to play them just fine.

M4P (AKA AAC) is the next generation of MP3, it's like MP4. MP3=Mpeg3 well AAC=MPEG4. It's an open file format so any program that plays AAC files should theoretically play them.

I say theoretically because just like you are forced to use Windows Media Player to play DRM encoded WMV files, you have to use iTunes to play DRM encoded AAC files. However from iTunes you can make your own AAC files which, with no DRM on them, would play on anything that will play an AAC.

In short: The songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store have to be played in...iTunes.

Any other questions? I'll try and keep my answers concise :-D

That's not going to de-DRM the files though.

There's a program called PlayFair floating around that un-DRM's the files. Unfortunately Apple's lawyers stopped the distribution from its central point, but I'm sure there are still copies around.

I can and do use other (non MS) windows media apps to play wmv files. I did try to use the Itunes conversion tool to convert to a AAC file but it refused to do it saying the file is protected.

I personally am not sold on these music pay download services. This is the age of broadband. If I pay for a song, I expect to download it in an uncompressed wav format or something similar.

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Saaby said:
I use iTunes which seems to play them just fine.

M4P (AKA AAC) is the next generation of MP3, it's like MP4. MP3=Mpeg3 well AAC=MPEG4. It's an open file format so any program that plays AAC files should theoretically play them.

I say theoretically because just like you are forced to use Windows Media Player to play DRM encoded WMV files, you have to use iTunes to play DRM encoded AAC files. However from iTunes you can make your own AAC files which, with no DRM on them, would play on anything that will play an AAC.

In short: The songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store have to be played in...iTunes.

Any other questions? I'll try and keep my answers concise :-D

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geepondy said:
I can and do use other (non MS) windows media apps to play wmv files. I did try to use the Itunes conversion tool to convert to a AAC file but it refused to do it saying the file is protected.

I personally am not sold on these music pay download services. This is the age of broadband. If I pay for a song, I expect to download it in an uncompressed wav format or something similar.

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Saaby said:
I use iTunes which seems to play them just fine.

M4P (AKA AAC) is the next generation of MP3, it's like MP4. MP3=Mpeg3 well AAC=MPEG4. It's an open file format so any program that plays AAC files should theoretically play them.

I say theoretically because just like you are forced to use Windows Media Player to play DRM encoded WMV files, you have to use iTunes to play DRM encoded AAC files. However from iTunes you can make your own AAC files which, with no DRM on them, would play on anything that will play an AAC.

In short: The songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store have to be played in...iTunes.

Any other questions? I'll try and keep my answers concise :-D

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wow uncomprsed that would be huge! like 70 megs a song id prefare to download it in a loseless format maybe monkey audio

Or how about a high quality audio codec like AAC, or even WMV...

Even 70 meg would only take about ten minutes or so over a typical broadband connection but of course a lossless format would be more viable if such a thing exists. I am not am expert nor have tried all the formats but generally listening to music with my headphones, it's pretty easy to tell the difference between a reguar cd audio track and a compresssed format such as mp3 even when encoded at higher bit rates. The dynamic range just isn't there.

Sometimes you can find utilities that will convert between two formats that use lossy compression but the results will probably be less than impressive.

When a tune is ripped into a lossy format it uses an algorithym to remove parts of the file that the creators of the format feel your ear will not miss. Since every format has different algorithym(s), different information will be discarded by each format in compressing a given tune.

When you try to convert from one lossy format to another it is almost a certainty that the original ripping will have discarded some of what the new format thinks it needs to do its job. To make matters worse, the new formatting will also discard some of what the original ripper thought was important for you to hear.

The result is that a lossy to lossy conversion can never sound as good as either one of the two formats.

The only way to change a tune's format without shooting yourself in the foot is if you have retained either the full sized CDA, WAV or RAW files and reformat from those. I archive audio in the open source FLAC format which will often reduce the size of the file to less than half the size of the originals. Because it is a lossless format I can re-inflate the FLAC files back to bit for bit copies of the originals with all of the information intact -- and then convert them to any format I need.

If you only have the tunes in a lossy format you would be better off trying to find a player that can handle the format on Win boxes.

This might be what you're looking for. Here's more.

If you do convert lossy to lossy be sure to archive your originals.

EDIT: Added 2nd URL

I thought that real player would play mp4 files? Otherwise iTunes certainly will play it and that is what you must have used to download the thing, so just use that to play it as well /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The problem with other players is not the format, but the DRM. Apple's is different than MS's and so they don't recognize each other.

The mp4 format is far better at the same bitrate than MP3. I have no problem using it for really good music. Listening side by side you can tell the difference between a CD and the mp4, but far far less than an mp3. What you need to do (I think) is not convert to mp3 or wmv which would give you the same lossy problems as Sub_Umbra mentioned, but rather to remove the DRM. You can't do this with any utility yet, there are some that can capture the data stream while it's playing and save it to a file, but they don't result in a regular file yet.

Best way is to burn to a regular audio CD and then re-rip back to mp4 (aac) again. This way you're converting digitally to aiff (the cd) which is not a lossy format (and you're getting a music backup cd of the music that you've paid for (or won) at the same time which you need to do anyway right?) and then re-rip to the same format. This will rip it back in without the DRM and allow you to play it on any player that you like that supports mp4 format. Which I think most of them do. (or just continue to use iTunes and forget about it)

Bu re-ripping into the same lossy format that they were in to begin with I have found the loss to be negligible. It's only when you rip to a different lossy format that it causes more loss.

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James S:
The problem with other players is not the format, but the DRM. Apple's is different than MS's and so they don't recognize each other.

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Emphasis mine

The folks at VLC say it will handle the itunes DRM for:

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... all GNU/Linux flavours, all BSD flavours, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS, Solaris, QNX, Familiar Linux...A Mac OS 9 version is now available as well...

With the new version (April 1, 04) VLC will now be able to play all Real and Windows Media Video 3...(on above platforms)

(sumarizing from their site)

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The links are in my previous post.

i still like atrac encoded at sp.sounds very good to my ears there are so many codecs for audio and video it is hard to choose but looks like for video the new xvid verion that will be released in a few days or so will rock

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raggie33:
...there are so many codecs for audio and video it is hard to choose but looks like for video the new xvid verion that will be released in a few days or so will rock

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raggie,
I bought a SONY zs-x3cp boombox that does a real good job of playing mp3s in a wide range of kbs -- if you don't mind that it looks like it fell off an airplane. I'm waiting for a boombox that plays CDs in OGG. When one comes out I will be really close to dropping mp3 all together.

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Saaby said:
M4P (AKA AAC) is the next generation of MP3, it's like MP4. MP3=Mpeg3 well AAC=MPEG4. It's an open file format so any program that plays AAC files should theoretically play them.

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Uh, I think MP3 is actually MPEG-1 Layer 3... whatever that means... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif

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paulr said:
There's a program called PlayFair floating around that un-DRM's the files. Unfortunately Apple's lawyers stopped the distribution from its central point, but I'm sure there are still copies around.

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Used to be on SourceForge I think, then shifted to an Indian version of that called Sarovar.org, but it seems that too has been taken down.

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geepondy said:I personally am not sold on these music pay download services. This is the age of broadband. If I pay for a song, I expect to download it in an uncompressed wav format or something similar.

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Try http://www.allofmp3.com

You can't convert your existing files here, but you can download them.

It's a legal download service. It's in Russia. Their music is all licensed, royalties are paid, etc., but it's much cheaper due to differences in copyright terms in different countries. Cost is one penny per megabyte (i.e., most songs cost about 5 cents) No DRM. You pick your format (MP3, WMA7, WMA8, WMA9, AAC/MPEG-4, OGG Vorbis, MPC, or lossless - WAV, WMA_ lossless, FLAC, OptimFROG, Mokeys_Audio). You pick your bitrate (up to 320kbps). Constant or variable (LAME alt-preset standard, etc.) You even pick the codec for MP3 files (LAME or BLADE) Files are then encoded in real time. It only takes a few seconds. You have to go to advanced mode to get at these options. There is a basic mode if you just want to download something and forget about it (defaults to something, but what?)