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No WMA for Mac iTunes 4.5 - Why am I only finding this out now?!

hob

hob

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Oct 4, 2003
2,004
0
London, UK
ARGH! I was pretty excited with this new version of iTunes especially when i read that I could convert WMA - I have a lot of files that get sent to me from buddies etc. that are in WMA (we do music tech! It's legit!).

It was one of those features I made a mental note to try out some day.

That day came today

IT DOESN'T WORK ON OS X!!

At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I checked the Apple site, and at the bottom of a KB article it says "oh, by the way - windows only buster!"

Hmmm, this is an annoyance, guess I'll have to convince some1 to get iTunes and convert from the PC...

Or... anyone know how I can convert on my mac?

Cheers
 
hob said:
ARGH! I was pretty excited with this new version of iTunes especially when i read that I could convert WMA - I have a lot of files that get sent to me from buddies etc. that are in WMA (we do music tech! It's legit!).

It was one of those features I made a mental note to try out some day.

That day came today

IT DOESN'T WORK ON OS X!!

At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I checked the Apple site, and at the bottom of a KB article it says "oh, by the way - windows only buster!"

Hmmm, this is an annoyance, guess I'll have to convince some1 to get iTunes and convert from the PC...

Or... anyone know how I can convert on my mac?

Cheers
Click to expand...

have your friends convert it on thier PCs and then send them over.

tyler
 
Difference being MP3 and AAC.

Might not matter to you, but I don't even rip AAC files anymore, because of the quality. Apple Lossless only.
 
I imagine Apple figures WMA usage is much lower on Macs than it is on Windows machines. I know when I put iTunes on my daughter's PC she loved the program, but was a little disappointed she couldn't listen to the stuff she'd previously ripped on Windows Media Player. This lets her do that (although certainly she could use iTunes and re-rip to AAC if she wanted).

Apple probably isn't as concerned with downloads. I know there are WMA download sites, but MP3 just swamps everything else so the return on investment (putting the capability on the Mac version) is rather low.

It's nice to learn that there are Mac tools for converting WMA though. It's one of those things that might be useful somewhere down the road.
 
EasyWMA

EasyWMA will convert WMA files to either MP3 (at certain bit rates you can pick) or to WAV (uncompressed).
 
cubist said:
FTM, you can get Media Player for Mac.
Click to expand...
You can, but why play the Microsoft game? MP3 has been around for nearly 10 years and it the universal standard for compressed music. WMA didn't even exist before Windows XP and Windows XP does not come with the built-in ablity to rip MP3. It will only do WMA. So the average user, who doesn't know anything technical, might encode his whole CD collection ignorantly in WMA. Then he's owned--locked into Microsoft products.

Sorry for the rant, but Microsoft may well eventually rule the world as a result of making up their own rules. If you see this as a bad thing, don't help them.
 
hob said:
ARGH! I was pretty excited with this new version of iTunes especially when i read that I could convert WMA - I have a lot of files that get sent to me from buddies etc. that are in WMA (we do music tech! It's legit!).

It was one of those features I made a mental note to try out some day.

That day came today

IT DOESN'T WORK ON OS X!!

At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I checked the Apple site, and at the bottom of a KB article it says "oh, by the way - windows only buster!"

Hmmm, this is an annoyance, guess I'll have to convince some1 to get iTunes and convert from the PC...

Or... anyone know how I can convert on my mac?

Cheers
Click to expand...
I have a reason for you. The WMA conversion feature of iTunes depends on some hooks into the Windows Media SDK (Software Development Kit) provided in Windows Media Player. The Mac version of WMP lacks these hooks (since MS forgot to port the SDK to the Mac), so conversion is not possible.
 
jonnyblobby said:
There is an application called EasyWMA that is freeware. This can do batch conversions from unprotected WMA to MP3.

You can find it at version tracker:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23003

I have been using it for a while and it works fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this utility, for some reason, i have never been able to find something of this nature.

Yes, I too was disappointed to find out that the mac iTunes 4.5 didnt have the conversion utility... Seriously, i guess i understand the logic for not "wasting their time" putting it in, but how hard would it be? really?!
 
hob said:
At first I thought I was doing something wrong, but I checked the Apple site, and at the bottom of a KB article it says "oh, by the way - windows only buster!"
Click to expand...

That's really annoying! I am sick and tired of companies treating the Mac as a second class platform and making some features Windows-only! Why do these companies discriminate? I thought it was bad enough before, but now Apple's doing it too! Absolutely shocking! :mad:


And, for those of you who don't get it:
Yes, this is supposed to be humour. I'm well aware that it's Microsoft's fault.
 
True, probably not that many mac users deal with WMA - but why don't they just include it anyway? As one user said - how hard would it be? I realise they use WMP extensions on the PC but they could build something for the mac version... ah well, I guess it's apples way...

I'm gonna get flamed now :'(
 
unfaded said:
Apple's doing it because they think there should be no reason for you to have WMA files anyway ;)
Click to expand...

I have 126 WMAs, which all came from a music site back when I had a Windows PC. I'd love to be able to pull them into iTunes.

And a few days ago I had a friend around, and all his music was in lossless WMA. I convinced him to install iTunes, and he then left iTunes converting the whole lot overnight (took about 7 hours I think).
 
hob said:
True, probably not that many mac users deal with WMA - but why don't they just include it anyway? As one user said - how hard would it be? I realise they use WMP extensions on the PC but they could build something for the mac version... ah well, I guess it's apples way...

I'm gonna get flamed now :'(
Click to expand...

I just noticed the "-1 of 18 Coke Music wins (It's the best the UK has to offer!)" in your signature, I went to the site and it said because I'm on a Mac I won't be able to download, but click Continue if I want to proceed anyway. So I clicked Continue and it just kept giving me the same message over and over again. Clever. :rolleyes:
 
is the reason that they havent included WMA support in itunes on macs because if they used the WMA technology, codecs and stuff to enable playback and ripping etc wouldnt they have to pay micro$oft large amounts of money? apple already has several perfectly good ways to listen and encode music.

i would have thought that the only reason that the windows version of itunes has this feature is because apple already had to talk to or work with micro$oft in order to get itunes for windows to work. it made sense, however itunes for the mac has absolutely nothing to do with bill gates or any of his evil world!
it does kinda suck if you got WMA's though, i have a few from when i switched and just re-ripped them. but if you got loads then that could take some time.
 
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