i have a total of 8gb's of underground mp3 rap music from local rappers that dont have a recording label or major deal. All of my music has been ripped to my hard drive over a 7 year period and some of the cd's are un-recoverable or misplaced. When i attempt to play my files i get a windows media player error and it wont play. i have also tried to play the files with itunes ,quicktime, wavepad editor,and vlc player. when the file does open it is completely blank and their is no sound at all. Did i get victimized by DRM???? i have been doing quite a bit of research and have not seen herd of anyone Else's files been altered like mine. Does anyone have any input or a possible work around to get my collection up and running again??
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Navigation
Install the app
How to install the app on iOS
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
More options
-
Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
mp3 drama
- Thread starter Bbond919
- Start date
Snowknight26
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 8, 2005
- Messages
- 4,436
Sounds more like a system issue. WMP plays MP3s right out of the box, as does VLC. If those don't work, it seems like you might have bigger issues. Try running the MP3 files through Audacity.
Joe Average
Ad Blocker - Banned
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2008
- Messages
- 15,459
First off:
mp3, meaning the very format itself, does not allow for any possibility of Digital Rights Management in any way, shape, or form. This is how ignorant stupid rumors get started. So, get yourself schooled right here and now: mp3 cannot be "encrypted", the format doesn't allow for such things. AAC, RealMedia, and a few other formats do, but:
- MP3
- FLAC
- Monkey's Audio (APE)
- WAV
- SHN (Shorten)
- WV (WavPack)
- Apple Lossless (ALAC)
and some other formats cannot have DRM applied to them. AAC, the iTunes default format, can. Windows Media Audio, WMA, can as well.
If you have the mp3 files, and they're actual mp3 files and not Windows Media files ripped with Windows Media Player (a possibility since by default people can't see the actual extension in Explorer, .wma) then they should play fine in any media player capable of playing an mp3 file. If you've been listening to them in the past and they played fine, then something has changed, either:
- your media player is screwed up now
- the mp3 codec that allows for playback on your system is screwed up now
- the files themselves are corrupt and screwed up now
or several other possibles. My advice:
Check to make sure - make 100% absolutely sure - that they are indeed mp3 files and not WMA rips. I know hundreds of clients that put in a CD and rip with Windows Media Player not realizing that the default ripping format is WMA. I even had one guy rip over 3,000 CDs (worked for a radio station) and then a month later needed to reformat his machine - he had no idea that he'd ripped every CD to WMA format and they were encrypted because that was the default setting. As soon as he reformatted he lost the ability to play all that music because it was encrypted on the previous installation - and he had to re-rip them again but, because I taught him about it, he did it right the second time around to mp3 format (no DRM capable).
You need to change the options in Explorer so you can actually see the file extensions, makes things much easier. You can right click on any given audio file and choose Properties so you can see if it truly is an mp3 file or not. If not, you've got your answer.
Try using Media Player Classic (get it at www.free-codecs.com - the link will be in the left hand pane) for it, or WinAMP (www.winamp.com) or any other media player you can find.
If the files are WMA encrypted, well, get ready to re-rip 'em if you can. If they're corrupt because of hard drive problems, same thing - you'll need to re-rip them again. Anything else and you're on your own.
Good luck...
ps
Just remembered one other possibility: a virus. There are known viruses that have been around for years that specifically target mp3 and audio files and corrupt them on purpose which effectively destroys them forever. I got hit with it once but only lost a few hundred, easily re-ripped in a few hours. That IS a distinct possibility and the end result is exactly what the OP stated: a file that opens but has no content. It's very possible, and could be the very problem he's got. I hope not, but, even so... get a full AV scan done quick. www.eset.com/onlinescan can test the box (has to use IE for this), or perhaps http://housecall.trendmicro.com or several other online scanners could prove useful.
mp3, meaning the very format itself, does not allow for any possibility of Digital Rights Management in any way, shape, or form. This is how ignorant stupid rumors get started. So, get yourself schooled right here and now: mp3 cannot be "encrypted", the format doesn't allow for such things. AAC, RealMedia, and a few other formats do, but:
- MP3
- FLAC
- Monkey's Audio (APE)
- WAV
- SHN (Shorten)
- WV (WavPack)
- Apple Lossless (ALAC)
and some other formats cannot have DRM applied to them. AAC, the iTunes default format, can. Windows Media Audio, WMA, can as well.
If you have the mp3 files, and they're actual mp3 files and not Windows Media files ripped with Windows Media Player (a possibility since by default people can't see the actual extension in Explorer, .wma) then they should play fine in any media player capable of playing an mp3 file. If you've been listening to them in the past and they played fine, then something has changed, either:
- your media player is screwed up now
- the mp3 codec that allows for playback on your system is screwed up now
- the files themselves are corrupt and screwed up now
or several other possibles. My advice:
Check to make sure - make 100% absolutely sure - that they are indeed mp3 files and not WMA rips. I know hundreds of clients that put in a CD and rip with Windows Media Player not realizing that the default ripping format is WMA. I even had one guy rip over 3,000 CDs (worked for a radio station) and then a month later needed to reformat his machine - he had no idea that he'd ripped every CD to WMA format and they were encrypted because that was the default setting. As soon as he reformatted he lost the ability to play all that music because it was encrypted on the previous installation - and he had to re-rip them again but, because I taught him about it, he did it right the second time around to mp3 format (no DRM capable).
You need to change the options in Explorer so you can actually see the file extensions, makes things much easier. You can right click on any given audio file and choose Properties so you can see if it truly is an mp3 file or not. If not, you've got your answer.
Try using Media Player Classic (get it at www.free-codecs.com - the link will be in the left hand pane) for it, or WinAMP (www.winamp.com) or any other media player you can find.
If the files are WMA encrypted, well, get ready to re-rip 'em if you can. If they're corrupt because of hard drive problems, same thing - you'll need to re-rip them again. Anything else and you're on your own.
Good luck...
ps
Just remembered one other possibility: a virus. There are known viruses that have been around for years that specifically target mp3 and audio files and corrupt them on purpose which effectively destroys them forever. I got hit with it once but only lost a few hundred, easily re-ripped in a few hours. That IS a distinct possibility and the end result is exactly what the OP stated: a file that opens but has no content. It's very possible, and could be the very problem he's got. I hope not, but, even so... get a full AV scan done quick. www.eset.com/onlinescan can test the box (has to use IE for this), or perhaps http://housecall.trendmicro.com or several other online scanners could prove useful.
First off, you need to know exactly what you're dealing with. The file may be named ".MP3", but it doesn't have to be. If you have a hex viewer installed (like the free HxD), open the file and you should see the "ID3" as the first three characters of the file, followed by the MP3 tags, like:
Wordpad/Notepad will work in a pinch. There's a chance that the files are actually ASF or WMA, meaning they could have DRM. Worst case is that you open it up and see nothing or random junk, which could be caused by corruption or viruses.
ID3....08QTDRC.......2007TIT2.......Tribal ConnectionTRCK.......08TPE1.......Gogol BordelloTALB.......Super Taranta!TCON.......PunkAPIC.06;...image/jpeg...ÿØÿà..JFIF
Wordpad/Notepad will work in a pinch. There's a chance that the files are actually ASF or WMA, meaning they could have DRM. Worst case is that you open it up and see nothing or random junk, which could be caused by corruption or viruses.
Demon10000
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 4,502
The above will work for files with newer tags, but if your stuff is old enough and you haven't updated the tags, the ID3 tag will actually be at the end of the file instread of the beginning. So if it's not at the beginning of the file, look at the end before deciding that it isn't an MP3 file.