iTunes/MusicMatch/Napster and Sony minidisc - recipe for disaster?

[whisper]

I'm using the iTunes music store, although I think the following applies to ANY of the online stores such as MusicMatch and Napster:

1. I purchase songs, in my case from iTunes, which unavoidably come as DRM protected audio files. In iTunes they are AAC files and for MusicMatch or Napster they are WMA files.

2. I burn my songs to a CD, which of course converts them to WAV files.

3. These CDs behave like any other CD I own. I can rip the songs into mp3, play those mp3 files using any software of my choice, use them on as many computers as I'd like, and share them on p2p (if I so choose, although to be honest I don't).

4. Why then, if I try to convert these files into ATRAC3 for use on my minidisc, it fails every time. Is DRM somehow preserved even when burning to CD?? And if so, why do the files appear OTHERWISE normal, as described above?

If someone could enlighten me I would be most appreciative. I'm not even looking for a fix, necessarily (although that would be nice too), just to understand. Thankx.

 

[lopoetve]

Originally posted by whisper
I'm using the iTunes music store, although I think the following applies to ANY of the online stores such as MusicMatch and Napster:

1. I purchase songs, in my case from iTunes, which unavoidably come as DRM protected audio files. In iTunes they are AAC files and for MusicMatch or Napster they are WMA files.

2. I burn my songs to a CD, which of course converts them to WAV files.

3. These CDs behave like any other CD I own. I can rip the songs into mp3, play those mp3 files using any software of my choice, use them on as many computers as I'd like, and share them on p2p (if I so choose, although to be honest I don't).

4. Why then, if I try to convert these files into ATRAC3 for use on my minidisc, it fails every time. Is DRM somehow preserved even when burning to CD?? And if so, why do the files appear OTHERWISE normal, as described above?

If someone could enlighten me I would be most appreciative. I'm not even looking for a fix, necessarily (although that would be nice too), just to understand. Thankx.

I would hazard a guess that it has something to do with it reading the original file to create the MD track, unless you are doing it from the MP3's, in which case the DRM is gone... ?

 

[whisper]

I tried doing it directly from the CD that I burned, as well as from mp3 files that I created by ripping the songs on the CD. Either way it doesn't work. I agree that there is some type of problem with reading the WAV or mp3 files, which I can only guess is due to the fact that these songs were originally burdened with DRM protection. But yes, as I said these files appear otherwise DRM free - it's just that they are unreadable by Sony's software to convert to MD format. I don't understand why!