how to play .wma?

[Georgie-o]

Where do I get the codecs? and is there a program the converts them to ogg or mp3?
Thanks

[Georgie-o]

I guess my first questions should be, does Mint have the w32codecs installed that are needed to play .wma (Windows Media Audio)? Is that correct to play these files? How do I make this work?
Thanks

[clem]

Hi,

I think it does play them. I don't have wma files right here though.. can somebody confirm that?

Clem

[nick]

Audiokonverter, should convert wma to any format you require, http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=12608 It is called soundkonverter in Synaptic
Synaptic/Search/soundkonverter, add

Also if you add xmms you can add xmms-wma plugin to xmms,both in Synaptic, to play wma.(also many more plugins for xmms)
Do not have any wma files so cannot test. but but worked last time I tried them - Nick

[Georgie-o]

Thanks for the help, but I haven't gotten either to option to work. I downloaded Soundconverter and while it looks like it converts the file it just creates a 0bytes file with the right name and a .ogg extension, but it doesn't seem to convert anything.

I also tried xmms, but could not find the xmms-wma extension in Synaptic. So I still can't play .wma.

Any thoughts on either approach?

Thanks

[clem]

Hi,

In Bea, you can just double click the .wma song and it plays automatically. You don't need to add anything.

I'm not sure about Barbara (I don't have it installed right now) but I guess it's the same.

Clem

[Georgie-o]

I tried that initially. It just opens Mplayer, shows the song title and then the time bar (slide control) jumps tot he end and the song doesn't work. I have Bea installed. Any thoughts?

Thanks

[clem]

Can somebody confirm that ? I'm running BETA 025 so I'm not exactly sure about that. It works for me though.

Does your sound work fine? Does mplayer use gstreamer/alsa ? Did you try to play that song in amarok ?

Clem

[Georgie-o]

yes, I can play an audio CD and Movie with sound. I'm not sure how to check what Mplayer uses? And yes, I tried Amarok and doesn't work either.

Thanks for the help.

[nick]

Hi all, I have "found" some wma files, they play fine in Mplayer, and Xmms with xmms-wma installed, They also play in Amarok Noatun and Kaffeine -I have KDE installed, They do Not play in Mplayer if you attemt to play them from external source, i.e.usb flash or usb disc.
I have found this with all Linux distros.

To get xmms-wma you need to have the PLF repositories enabled in Synaptic, Clem did you put them in (the PLF repositories) because I cannot remember adding them?

Also Clem, lame does not seem to be added in the default distro?

Soundkonverter does not seem to work. but
Audiokonverter does, it is added to the right click menu on KDE, so if you right click on file you get choice, "convert to mp3, wave, ogg" etc etc,
From the website:
"It needs oggenc, oggdec, faac, faad, flac, mplayer and lame to work."

Distro Linux Mint Bea - Thanks for the fine work Clem and all

[clem]

Hi,

Also Clem, lame does not seem to be added in the default distro?

Support for MP3 is one thing. A lot of people have been vendor-locked by the Franhaufer Institute and now have all their songs in that format. That doesn't mean we should encourage people encoding in that format though.

I can understand why you need to play MP3 songs, but if you need to encode then I would strongly recommend you use OGG instead.

This is open for discussion of course, but it's the main reason why lame wasn't included.

Clem

[nick]

"Support for MP3 is one thing. A lot of people have been vendor-locked by the Franhaufer Institute and now have all their songs in that format. That doesn't mean we should encourage people encoding in that format though."

Fair point Clem, I agree - Thanks, Nick

[Georgie-o]

I think I may have figured out the problem on my system. The .wma file I have was purchased on my Windows box from Walmart (I know, I feel dirty just mentioning both of those companies in one sentence), and I think they downlaod a program onto your computer that encryps the files so that they can control how and on what computers it's used. After buring them to a CD, I can then rip them to Mint and put them in .ogg format. Thanks for yor help.

[quickstart]

realmedia files (.rmj) play ok on Bea with Movie Player (Totem). I just found an old cd I burned a few years ago.