WMAs won't play

[terryw]

I'm running a standard issue XP home addition with Windows Media Player installed and playing .wma files fine.  When I try running one in XMPlay, a red line is drawn through the filename; and nothing plays.  I've tried placing the xmpwma.dll file in the same directory as the executable, in \Windows, in \System, and in \System32.  I get no errors when starting XMPlay, and I have seven wmv dll files in \System32.  Do I still need to run WMFADIST.EXE?  If I already have the files I need, is there any chance running this will screw up WMP?  XMPlay runs .wav and .mp3 files just great.

[Brightguy]

Well, you do need WMFADIST.EXE, but since it comes with Windows Media Player, you should be alright there.

More likely your problem is the copy protection in WMA files; it requires a license to play.  To get around this, I still have the in_wm plugin installed.  I don't think it's still available on the support site, so I could e-mail it to you if you wanted.

[terryw]

Yes, please send me the plugin.  I'd very much appreciate it.

[Brightguy]

Okay, check your inbox.

Hope it helps.

[terryw]

Thanks very much!  That took care of the problem.  I'm surprised no one else runs into this.

[Ralesk]

I soooooooo don't listen to wma

[terryw]

I know.  When I was younger and stupider (about a year ago) I copied a few (ok, a bunch) of albums in this format, before I knew the hassles I was going to run into.  No more, but I do want to burn a couple of them, so XMplay looks like the ideal solution.  

[Torkell]

I started off with files in WMA, but quickly ran into the ground when a couple albums refused to play (copy protection - at least it appears to work ). I have since converted everything to OGG. I use RealOne Player generate .WAV, then use XMPlay & OGGENC to convert that to ogg files. I then use another copy of XMPlay and Nullsoft's in_vorbis plugin to add tags to the files. This is often happening with a third copy of XMPlay playing some music in the background. Works well, gives great music out the other end, and is rather fast comparing to doing everything for each CD once.
I'm toying with the idea of using both drives at the same time (two copies of RealOne Player encoding, two copies of XMPlay converting, one copy of XMPlay generating tags and playlists, and a fourth copy to play music and add the playlists to my master playlist), but the might just be a little bit OTT

[terryw]

Does RealOne work better than XMplay to generate the .wav files?

[Torkell]

I didn't have any CD plugins for XMPlay at the time, and RealPlayer worked very well (digital extraction without EEC).

[Pike84]

Have to say, that all Real-software I've gotten around is something to avoid..

I installed RealOne player once and the next thing I noticed, it started to assign itself to different file types as it pleased.. I don't know why it did that, but now after reinstalling the player (because I have a couple of .rm files) it doesn't do that anymore.

It also runs some processes in startup without asking the user (it's something about the stupid messaging system, ads and stuff) , but I got around this by removing the .exes completely in the player's sub dirs. I know you can manage the processes that are run in startup, but I really don't know why I would need that sh*t on my machine .

Now, after all this, I have a half decent RealOne player, that doesn't bugger me in every turn, but I really wouldn't recommend RealOne player, or any other Real-crap to anyone

[Torkell]

Have to say, that all Real-software I've gotten around is something to avoid..

I installed RealOne player once and the next thing I noticed, it started to assign itself to different file types as it pleased.. I don't know why it did that, but now after reinstalling the player (because I have a couple of .rm files) it doesn't do that anymore.

Never did that with me. Was perfectly happy leaving some type for WMP to deal with when fisrt installed, and was perfectly happy about letting XMPlay have control over some other formats when I reinstalled it.

It also runs some processes in startup without asking the user (it's something about the stupid messaging system, ads and stuff) , but I got around this by removing the .exes completely in the player's sub dirs. I know you can manage the processes that are run in startup, but I really don't know why I would need that sh*t on my machine .

Let me guess... the processes are "NewsUpd.exe" (that one appears as an application), "NiLaunch.exe" and "RealShed.exe" (the last two don't appear as applications, just as processes so they don't span any windows).

Now, after all this, I have a half decent RealOne player, that doesn't bugger me in every turn, but I really wouldn't recommend RealOne player, or any other Real-crap to anyone

Ignoring the stuff it runs behind your back, it is the best program I have found (note: "best I have found", not "best there is") for ripping CDs (XMPlay you need to fiddle with CDex or something, WMP only does WMA, and I've never had anything to do with WinAmp or Sonique). The method I use works rather well, and gives good quality OGGs at the end.

[terryw]

CDex is actually a nice little free program that does a very good job ripping CDs. It rips to a variety of formats, and provides access to OCCB.  It also converts, but doesn't deal with .wma format.  It's at
www.cdex.n3.net.  It's probably not the fastest in the world, but the results are excellent.  I used to use Nero, but the interface gave me fits, and if I remember correctly, it didn't handle damaged CDs as well.

[Pike84]

Yea, I use CDex too. It lets you choose from 15 different encoders (LAME being the default), and there are enough other settings for everyone too .