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Topic: Corrupt WMA files - any ideas? (Read 3652 times) previous topic - next topic
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Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Hi All,

First post - please be gentle! 

I ripped a couple of my CD's yesterday to 128bit WMA using Easy CD-DA Extractor.  I ran them back on my PC, fine.

I moved them to my wife's laptop and they suddenly developed skips (like a stuck record, if anyone can remember what those are like!).  I checked back on my PC, same places - fine.

They are both XP, both fully patched WMP 9 - the only thing I did was run some maintenance while I had got hold of the laptop - disk clean up, defrag, AV scan.  Her machine is not a high spec; a Tosh Satellite A10, 2.5Ghz Celeron, 256MB RAM, but enough to playback music - surely?

All I did was copy them over the network to - a 100Mb LAN.

Anyone got any suggestions why this might happen?

Thanks,
Dilldog

Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Reply #1 –
1) is your machine overclocked at all or have you run memtest86 recently?  Perhaps there's a hardware issues that borked the encoding but doesn't show on your pc, but on others

2) my first thought was the copy protection crap in WMA, but I'm not really sure how that works.
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Reply #2 –
Quote
1) is your machine overclocked at all or have you run memtest86 recently?  Perhaps there's a hardware issues that borked the encoding but doesn't show on your pc, but on others

2) my first thought was the copy protection crap in WMA, but I'm not really sure how that works.
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Thanks Dreamliner77.

Your first point is interesting - I wouldn't have thought that could be the case but as you have raised it I will definitely look into it. 

I have also considered this - I have two drives (DVD ROM and -R/RW) and the ROM is now getting on a bit.  I did have to resort to using the newer drive to rip some of the copy protected disks as the old one couldn't do it.  Maybe that older drive has left something in the file that my machine deals with and my wife's does not; I guess I should rip the offending material again with the newer drive.

I'm pretty sure it's not down to WMA copy protection - as far as I understand - it only applies to digitally marked WMA files that you pay for.  Stuff you rip yourself is effectively free of DRM protection.

I only chose WMA because I read in a PC mag that it was now probably better than MP3 at certain bit rates.  I'm sure someone can advise me otherwise... 

Thanks again,
Dilldog

Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Reply #3 –
Quote
I only chose WMA because I read in a PC mag that it was now probably better than MP3 at certain bit rates.  I'm sure someone can advise me otherwise...  

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[a href="http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html]http://www.rjamorim.com/test/multiformat128/results.html[/url]

Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Reply #4 –
Not quite true about the copy protection, At one point it was on by default and any music encoded (ripped) with wma had DRM, this of course pissed a lot of people because as soon as you put it on another computer (even if it was on your own network) the DRM wouldn't let you play it.

I would try ripping it into mp3 and try that on the laptop.
 

Corrupt WMA files - any ideas?

Reply #5 –
Quote
Not quite true about the copy protection, At one point it was on by default and any music encoded (ripped) with wma had DRM, this of course pissed a lot of people because as soon as you put it on another computer (even if it was on your own network) the DRM wouldn't let you play it.

I would try ripping it into mp3 and try that on the laptop.
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Out of the 9 CDs ripped, all play using WMP9.  Only a about three show any 'stuck record' issues, and not on all tracks. I don't think DRM is the issue.

I guess it's back to the ripping stage and trying a few more things.  Thanks for the advice everone.

BTW - like the data on preferences.  I guess I'll learn as I go along...