I converted some Ape/Cue files to wav and then to lossless m4a in Itunes. Winamp 5.5 won't play them, although other players like VLC will. I found this (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t15158.html) old thread but the links for plugins in it are dead - in any case though, I thought Winamp was supposed to have m4a support so I don't know what's up. Any ideas?
Your files aren't lossless m4a, they are actually Apple lossless (ALAC) files. I don't know if WinAmp supports the decoding (playback) of ALAC files. I know that VLC can as it uses a custom decoder, the same thing with both dBpowerAMP and foobar2000.
I don't see ALAC in the supported file types list (http://www.winamp.com/player/features), so I assume a plug-in is your only option. You may have some luck with this (http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/150126).
Included in Winamp Essentials 5.55 are: Ogg Vorbis Encoder,Apple Lossless (alac) Decoder...
I created an account specifically to answer this particular post.
First of all THANK YOU Ron, for posting the link to this plugin.
It DOES work.
I tried to play the damn m4a's here thinking they were some corrupted mpeg4 files, but instead found out they were this Apple codec.
Also tried a kinda big number of other plugins to try and play those damn thingys... The only one i found out that works is this one.
The Winamp Essentials pack DOES solve the problem. I don't care if it's just some part of it or whatever.
It's playing good lossless music now, and thats 'nuff.
Spread the word!