Classic British Flight Sim

One note Dave: I discovered what the mirakagi.exe program (part of the FairUse4Wm package) does. It scans your computer looking for the DRM licenses. Clcik on that one first and let it do its thing. Then using FairUse4Wm, I pointed to my music folder and it found several DRM files which it then converted in no time at all. Be sure to specify an output directory (I used the original source directory) so you know where the new files will be. It does not overwrite the original file.

Bottom line is that FairUse4Wm checks that you have a license for the music so it has to be used on the original pc that you downloaded the files to. If it finds the license it will strip the DRM stuff so you can transfer the NODRM file to any other pc or an ipod, or burn to cd.

"I don't know WTF they mean by 'individualisation' Your system has to be individualised for the program to work!" Are you referring to the payware program?

I use WinAmp as my default media player. I find I like it a lot more than Windows media Player, iTunes or Real Player and it works with my iPod and I find it easier to do iPod stuff with WinAmp rather than iTunes.

Nigel²

Hi Nige

No.. that individualisation quote/warning is on the main page at FairUse4Wm mate. I take it you must have ignored it otherwise you'd have been individualised I'm guessing here but I think it might be to make sure your pc doesn't have multiple profiles (eg.. different logins for kids e t c)

On this pc, I CBA to f@rt around with outside progs so am using Media Player as it's already there

ATB

DaveB

Hi Dave

Your right, I did ignore it. I found that description to be very confusing and poorly worded but I went ahead and downloaded it anyway. What I think that description is trying to say is the program will look for the license (personally identifiable information ) to insure your file is legit and not licensed to another user. If somone had given you the file with their license embedded in the file, the program will not strip the DRM information from the file. The desription also mentions parenthetically "description keys" when it clearly should be "decryption keys" which is what the splash screen shows as the correct wording. Probably written by someone whose native tongue is not English - perhaps a Colonial!

Anyway I can assure you that the program has done no harm on my PC - so far at least!

Nigel²

Hiya Nige

Yep.. taken as read. I'd sorta worked that out but didn't feel disposed to try anything where the instructions are less than legible

It makes you wonder why the music industry went for this sort of protection when you can buy a cd, rip the tracks and distribute it at near cd quality to as many folk as you see fit (or alternatively, to your ipod/jukebox/thingy plus a copy for the cd player in your car e t c). I know the industry sanction ripping as the end result isn't to the same quality as a cd but my duff hearing can't really tell the difference.

Never mind.. I'll download both those bits of software (to here first as the AV on my old pc is out of date) and put you out of your misery Regardless of if it works or not, I promise I'll say it did

EDIT..
OK.. it worked great

ATB

DaveB

"EDIT..
OK.. it worked great "

Oh I am so glad it did A little sarcasam?

The only thing that DRM accomplishes is to deprive legitimate owners the flexibility to play their purchases on different PCs, transfer their music to MP3 players or burn them to CD as you have found out. It takes little time for someone wanting to pirate a CD to a find site on the web where that can be done and if the files are FLAC files, they are nearly CD quality. Looks to me like the music industry's efforts are misplaced at best.

Just about all the music files I have on my computer and iPod came from my extensive CD collection and some I managed to record on the PC from vinyl (youngsters can google that term). A few old favourites I did not have so I purchased them online and used Audacity to re-record them so I could have them on my iPod. Most of the time I can't tell the difference between MP3 files and the originals unless it is classical music and I play it through my Stereo and A/B compare it with the original CD - then I can tell. But as you get older....... well the hearing does tend to deteriorate.

Nigel²

From the random knowledge accumulated in my head, MP3s contain ~97% of the information in a WAV (uncompressed) file of the same music. The stuff that gets lost is generally inaudible, there are issues with artifacts being introduced in the encryption process (pre-echo apparently is the main one) but as I don't have a set of £25,000 Waterfall Niagra speakers I can't tell and frankly the convenience of being able to carry 21 days worth of music in a little box anywhere I want outweighs that anyway.

DRM is essentially a sign of the Recording Industry panicking in the face of progress and coming up with a flawed response. I seem to recall in the old days a percentage of the cost of a blank tape went to the record industry to compensate them for the losses they were undoubtedly suffering from home taping, so it's not like they often have brilliant ideas anyway.

Mind you personally I'm regretting starting to re-rip my CD collection at the highest quality settings I can, half way through and there's already 10GB more data than the whole lot took last time...

SkippyBing wrote:From the random knowledge accumulated in my head, MP3s contain ~97% of the information in a WAV (uncompressed) file of the same music. The stuff that gets lost is generally inaudible, there are issues with artifacts being introduced in the encryption process (pre-echo apparently is the main one) but as I don't have a set of £25,000 Waterfall Niagra speakers I can't tell and frankly the convenience of being able to carry 21 days worth of music in a little box anywhere I want outweighs that anyway.
...

Plus the fact, unless you are listening and pathological levels, you don't eliminate background noise when listening to your portable device, so it makes the 'quality loss' even more subjective!

As a bit of a hi-fi buff, I can say that after the lower middle end of the seperates market, the old diminishing returns kick in big time. You need to pay a lot for a little. Plus, although CDs are supposed to sound the same, they don't. A while back I bought two new copies of a couple of CDs (one was lost and subseuquently found and the other had a serious scratch) - the replacements were pennies anyway - but even then - BOTH the old (purchased around 1989) CDs sound a LOT better than the new versions.

Yo Guy's

Interesting

As for that little DRM removal prog..
I checked my 'individualisation' as requested which sent me off to Microsoft and a file was updated.. no idea which one mind you. I then tried using the first version I'd downloaded and it came up with various errors and told me it was using some dll or other One of the errors reported was that 11.0.6000.6324 wasn't supported in this version (this must have been the IPX they mention) so.. I found a version which supported that IPX and tried again with similar results. As a measure of my desperation, I looked at the readme which was really helpful. Look in X directory for a folder DRM and delete it (no such folder exists!) then it went into some detail telling me to remove MP11 and roll back to MP10. Excellent.. that pc is MP10 already.. I never saw fit to upgrade as I only used Real Player. What I found equally helpful were references to this download and that download and none of the hyperlinks show the equivalent names in the link. All in all, a very well thought out site put together by (I guess) folk who either know what the hell they're talking about or the page was a translation

Bottom line time..
I checked the remaining music files on that pc (the ones I know didn't get ripped off cd's) and the Elbow album appears to be the only one in wma format. I have secured a copy of the album via another method so there's no need for me to take this any further. It's nice to see that recent music downloads are not encumbered by DRM (courtesy of Amazon) and will play on whatever I want to play them on. Case closed

ATB

DaveB

Dave, I am really sorry you had so much trouble with that program! I had no trouble at all - it did not go to Microsoft, complain about any .dll file or any other such nonsense or I would have canned it pronto. I have MP11 and not a squeek about that either. Were you running MP when you ran the program? Anyway, apologies for sending you on what looks to be a wild goose chase. Your system must be a lot different than mine and those differences can make any troublehsooting difficult at best as we all know from FS.

Jim - I agree with you comments regarding hi-fi systems. Actually, the speakers are the most important component as far as I am concerned and they are a matter of personal taste. I have a Haffler amp and preamp that I built for kits and they are now 28 years old and still going strong. Regarding the sound of CD's - the very early ones were horrible because the recording companies used analog tapes designed for mixing vinyl LP's. Later they got it right. I still prefer the sound of a pristine vinayl record to the same recording on CD, but the key word there is pristine - very hard to maintain vinyl in that state and after a few plays the magic is gone as the inevitable pop and click appear.

Nigel²

PS. I am stubborn, as I have said, so I did some googling and found that the DRM licenses are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM . Dave if you did not have that folder, that is why the FairUse4WM.exe did not work. If you do have it DON'T delete it as then you will loose the licenses for any DRM files.

Hi Nige

Stubborn you most certainly are

No.. MP wasn't running when I tried the program

No.. the folder DRM does not exist where FairUse4WM said it was. It is actually in my personal folder rather than All Users (I found while looking) and I've absolutely no idea why. I didn't put it there. That pc is an old system now.. XPHome.. MP10 and it's only running SP2 as again, I saw no good reason to take it to SP3 in it's retirement I checked the file today (the album that is) and it plays just fine in Real Player. However, MP10 won't play it on that pc.. I dare guess because it might be looking in the wrong directory for the DRM folder (wrong for MP10 but right for Real Player)
Anyways.. it's replacement is unDRM'd and alive and well on this pc under MP11 so the old girl won't be flashed up again for a few more months.. or until I can't find something I'm looking for

ATB

DaveB