WMA playback

kunk · Post by **kunk** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:46 am

I am sorry but I am a complete Linux noob even though I have been using Mint for quite some time now. How can I make it play WMA files? It plays everything else just fine right out of the box, including HD WMV (the video part). The only thing that does not work and I need is WMA. Rythmbox tells me I can search for the Windows Media Audio 9 codec when I try to import WMA files in its library, but then it finds nothing.

Thank you for any help.

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:46 am

kunk wrote:I am sorry but I am a complete Linux noob even though I have been using Mint for quite some time now. How can I make it play WMA files? It plays everything else just fine right out of the box, including HD WMV (the video part). The only thing that does not work and I need is WMA. Rythmbox tells me I can search for the Windows Media Audio 9 codec when I try to import WMA files in its library, but then it finds nothing.

Thank you for any help.

Linux won't play WMA's or AAC's with DRM.

kunk · Post by **kunk** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:55 am

JasonLG wrote:Linux won't play WMA's or AAC's with DRM.

It is DRM-free.

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:23 am

kunk wrote:
JasonLG wrote:Linux won't play WMA's or AAC's with DRM.
It is DRM-free.

Rythmbox sucks for Video, check out VLC.

And make sure w32codecs is installed by entering this into the terminal.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install w32codecs

Edit: I don't have any WMA files laying around so I downloaded a couple test files and found that I can't play them either. I'd say convert them into FLAC files if they are lossless or ogg/mp3's if they are lossy in Windows.

kunk · Post by **kunk** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:33 am

JasonLG wrote: Rythmbox sucks for Video, check out VLC.

I was not trying to make Rythmbox play videos, just WMA music. I use the Totem player that came with Mint for videos.

I have one WMV file with the audio track in WMA format. When I play it in Totem, the same dialog as in Rythbox pops up giving me the option to search for "suitable plugins". It then searches for "Windows Media Audio 9 decoder" but finds nothing. The 1920*1080 video plays very smoothly and crystal-clear on my C2D laptop though, just without sound.

JasonLG wrote: And make sure w32codecs is installed by entering this into the terminal.

I have w64codecs installed. I guess that is the same thing for 64-bit OSes.

Oh well, I guess I can manage to get by without WMA playback. Still like Mint more than Windows. I hope there will not be any more "disappointing" stuff about Mint.

dawgdoc · Post by **dawgdoc** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:37 pm

kunk wrote:I was not trying to make Rythmbox play videos, just WMA music.
I have w64codecs installed. I guess that is the same thing for 64-bit OSes.

yes, the w64codecs is right for you.

Have you tried soundconverter, it is in Synaptic/Package Manager? (not soundconvert) The link is to a tutorial.

This link provides a command line method for doing so.

kunk · Post by **kunk** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:19 am

Thanks dawgdoc, I will check it out.

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:39 am

That's weird. you'd think that if you could transcode wma's you'd be able to play them.

euthypro · Post by **euthypro** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:31 am

Following this thread because I'll be installing Mint on my wife's laptop, and she'll be pretty ticked-off if she can't play her music. I just copied over some WMA audio files from my XP partition. They are playing fine on both Totem and Rhythmbox. I am on Mint 9 Gnome, no codecs added to the original install. Can't say what the problem is on your end. Just letting you know that they should play.

Angel

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:45 pm

euthypro wrote:Following this thread because I'll be installing Mint on my wife's laptop, and she'll be pretty ticked-off if she can't play her music. I just copied over some WMA audio files from my XP partition. They are playing fine on both Totem and Rhythmbox. I am on Mint 9 Gnome, no codecs added to the original install. Can't say what the problem is on your end. Just letting you know that they should play.

Angel

What version of WMA? Each version is a different codec.

Carl · Post by **Carl** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:53 pm

Pretty sure there's a WMV audio codec which doesn't come in the 64bit codecs... can't remember which one but it's really annoying I think I had to compile mplayer from source a few years ago to solve the problem

thx1138 · Post by **thx1138** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:28 pm

kunk wrote:Rythmbox tells me I can search for the Windows Media Audio 9 codec when I try to import WMA files in its library, but then it finds nothing.

I'm having the same problem with audio and video files. So far there seem's to be no solution around to play files that require the Windows Media Audio 9 (Vlc fails too).

Pranaone · Post by **Pranaone** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 11:45 pm

But there are better codecs for audio files,why use WMA?

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 2:40 am

Pranaone wrote:But there are better codecs for audio files,why use WMA?

I have no idea myself. My guess would be that the person used Windows Media player to rip some CD's and didn't know that you could go into the options and set it to rip to MP3 or they bought the tracks from an online store that sold them in WMA format. I doubt WMA was the persons first choice for codecs.

hinny.b · Post by **hinny.b** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:14 am

hi, kunk

have been able to play wma files here on Totem, Gnome etc - am running Helena Main - but have just checked and they are wma 8 and not wma 9 which seems to be the problem.

Did a little research and it would appear that this is not a new problem - have posted a few links of similar questions on ubuntu forum from 2005

.

From reading these posts - problems with 64 bit and possible solutions of having to compile vlc and so on - can only wish you luck as these things are way beyond my capabilities

.

Here are the links, hope they are of some help - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=88920 ... and ...http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... mv+9+amd64

thx1138 · Post by **thx1138** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 8:18 pm

The wma9 codec problem is still very present and unsolved with 32 bit, too

.

BTW: Installing the very new Vlc 1.1 may break your system.

JasonLG · Post by **JasonLG** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:49 pm

thx1138 wrote:The wma9 codec problem is still very present and unsolved with 32 bit, too .

BTW: Installing the very new Vlc 1.1 may break your system.

Didn't hurt mine. If I remember correctly I did get a dependencies error but I solved it by uninstalling the older version completely and then installing 1.1. Conflicting packages happen every once in a while if you use a lot of PPA's.

ashbquick · Post by **ashbquick** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 7:27 pm

I had this problem because I ripped a lot of music from CDs with WMP, and tried quite a few audio players when I switched to Linux. I use 'Exaile' and don't have any problems playing mp3 and wma files, and I like the simple, easy-to-use layout.

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