M4A + Windows Media = ?

[Nitroracer]

I picked up some music from a friend of mine over the weekend and most of it is in m4a format. I know the simple thing would be to just download iTunes but I have a Rio mp3 player, not and Ipod like the rest of the world. I found the 3ivx codec but when I click on a m4a file to play it plays in some ancient version of windows media player. What is my best option here? Find another codec or a good (free) converter?

 

[morningreis]

Indeed M4A + WMP = ?

Media Player Classic and VLC can both play them AFAIK. MuzikCube should too.

Easiest option here though is Foobar or iTunes to convert.

In iTunes, go to your preferences, set youe encoding settings. Drag your M4A file into the library. Right clck on it and hit Convert to... and it will convert that file to whatever settings you specified in. (IE specfy whatever your MP3 player will work with)

 

[Enrickey]

One solution that I have found to that is RealOne. I know some people hate it, but I find that it isn't really that bad. Using RealOne, you can send .m4a files to Rio players, it converts them in the process. After they are on the player, you can use Rio Music Manager to save the files back to your harddrive, and then you have them in a usable format on both your PC and your MP3 player.

 

[BlackFox]

Give a try to jHymn.