INTERACT FORUM

More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: Rob L on August 27, 2006, 07:00:48 am

Title: Accessing WMA with DRM from a client (UPnP or MC)
Post by: Rob L on August 27, 2006, 07:00:48 am

If you have DRMed WMA files on your server, and you have your client (either UPnP or a MC client) set to convert the files, should that work?

I've got a few WMAs that I've bought, but my UPnP player can't play DRMed content, so I wasn't sure if getting the server to convert should allow them to play. And also, the licence server is so flaky that it's often unavailable, so if the client doesn't need to acquire a licence, that would probably help.

Thanks

(I changed the title since the title I had previously sounded a lot dodgier than it actually is!)

Title: Re: Accessing WMA with DRM from a client (UPnP or MC)
Post by: JimH on August 27, 2006, 07:30:14 am

Quote from: Rob L on August 27, 2006, 07:00:48 am

If you have DRMed WMA files on your server, and you have your client (either UPnP or a MC client) set to convert the files, should that work?

No.  The Microsoft license won't allow MC to convert.

Title: Re: Accessing WMA with DRM from a client (UPnP or MC)
Post by: KingSparta on August 27, 2006, 08:46:10 am

Quote

If you have DRMed WMA files on your server, and you have your client (either UPnP or a MC client) set to convert the files, should that work?

Convert them to MP3

Title: Re: Accessing WMA with DRM from a client (UPnP or MC)
Post by: Rob L on August 27, 2006, 10:14:19 am

Actually, I realised just after I asked.

Still annoying though: I can use Netremote with a pair of bluetooth speakers and achieve pretty much the same thing as a UPnP music player, but the UPnP music player can't play the DRMed stuff.

And yet I'm allowed to burn the files to CD, rip them back to MP3...

Don't quite get why I'm just not allowed to send them to a UPnP player.

Title: Re: Accessing WMA with DRM from a client (UPnP or MC)
Post by: Alex B on August 27, 2006, 04:03:04 pm

If you have only a few DRM files you could burn them to CD-R (or rewritable CD-RW) and rip them in a lossless format. A lossless format makes bigger files, but the audio quality would not further degrade. Each time you transcode from a lossy format to another lossy format you'll lose a bit more of the original audio information.