[eddyfrogs]

I have Windows XP and need to convert some MPEG4 files to WMA or MP3 files. Want to transfer them from Itunes to a Yepp Mp3 player. In Windows 98 you can just change the file format after the dot but I can't do that in XP. Help.

[Couriant]

You can if you uncheck the Hide Extensions in Tools > Folder Options while in My Computer.

But check www.download.com www.majorgeeks.com or www.tucows.com for some freeware converters

[cwwozniak]

Not quite sure what you want to do. MPEG-4 is standard for video files with audio. There are commercial and shareware applications available that claim
to extract the audio from, an MPEG-4 video and save the audio as an MP3 or WMA file.

AAC is the audio Codec portion of the MPEG-4 standard ( http://www.apple.com/quicktime/technologies/aac/ ) and is used by iTunes for encoding purchased music files. Purchased music file include Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection and have a .m4p filename extension. iTunes files that do not have DRM have a .m4a filename extension.

There is no legal way to convert m4p files directly to mp3 or wma. iTunes does allow you to legally burn an audio CD from w4p files. You can then rip the audio CD to mp3 or wma files.

There are commercial and shareware applications that will convert m4a file to mp3 and wma formats. As far as I can tell Windows Media Player does not support m4a files and I am not sure if any third party plug-in is available.

You may want to look into the Pro version of Winamp ( http://www.winamp.com/player/ ) for $20. It handles m4a files as well as mp3 and wma types.

Also, as far as I know changing the portion of a filename after the dot (the filename extension) does not change the format of the contents of the file in any version of MS-Windows. If you have a file called MySong.m4a and change the name to MySong.mp3, the contents of the file do not change.

[Couriant]

*shakes head* need to go to bed... how did i miss that....

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by cwwozniak

Also, as far as I know changing the portion of a filename after the dot (the filename extension) does not change the format of the contents of the file in any version of MS-Windows. If you have a file called MySong.m4a and change the name to MySong.mp3, the contents of the file do not change.

Correct, you need to convert it to actually change the contents to the new format. If you chnage the extension an it will still play you application is simply recognizing it for what it is. Prime example of this is you can make an animated .gif and change the extension to .jpg and it will still animate in IE... there is no such thing as a animated .jpg.

[eddyfrogs]

My daughters both have ipods. So the songs we have put from our cd's in to itunes for their ipods are in the mpeg4 format. I have a yepp mp3 player and want to have some of the same songs they have on my mp3 player. I didn't want to have to recopy the cd's for my mp3 player if I didn't have to. Songs like it would be easier to do it that way though.

[cwwozniak]

What is the exact filename extension used for the audio files created by iTunes when you ripped the CDs? If it is .m4p then yes, it would be easier to just re-rip the original audio CDs for your MP3 player

[eddyfrogs]

Oh, I think they are .m4p. I will have to check tonight. Thanks.

[Couriant]

Yeah I'm pretty sure that's the case