Free, Non-Trial WMA-MP3 Converter

[cgannon64]

Well, now that I have my iPod, I'm putting on some legally purchased CDs. Anyway since I put them on my computer with WMP they are WMA files, which can't be put on the iPod. I've found a few WMA-MP3 converter programs, but they are all free trials, which won't help me since after 15 days they expire. I could always keep on switching free trials but this would be a pain.

So, does anyone know of a free, non-free trial WMA-MP3 converter program? Or better yet, any way to copy CDs to your HD directly as an mp3?

 

[Fier Canadien]

Originally posted by cgannon64
Or better yet, any way to copy CDs to your HD directly as an mp3?

What about iTunes 4.2? It can encode in MP3 or (way better) AAC. It's free, and it is the one program that works with the iPod.

But, if you want higher quality encoding, go for Quicktime Pro. It encodes in MP3 or AAC but with much higher quality for the same bitrate, tough it isn't free and it is slower to encode.

 

[cgannon64]

iTunes doesn't work with Windows ME.

My crappy OS strikes again...

 

[EzInKy]

Try sourceforge. I've noticed quite a few new windows software projects there.

 

[Sodapop]

Indeed. Personally, I use CDex.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net

 

[Sodapop]

Originally posted by Sodapop
Indeed. Personally, I use CDex.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net

Edit : Oops, read your post again... It can't convert files from WMA to MP3. But it's the best cd-ripper I've ever use, so you might just want to dump WMP. Anyway, converting to WMA and then reconverting to MP3 will probably hurt the quality of your files, so you should just rip them to mp3 instead.

Edit : ARG Another brain fart. This was supposed to be an edit to the previous post... I should get some sleep

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Well Realone player can save CD's to mp3.....

 

[cgannon64]

Someone at iPodlounge reccomended CDex as well. I'm using it and its working pretty good, but I have one problem - its kind of slow. Takes about a minute, two minutes for a song to copy to my HD. WMP is much faster than this, that took about 30 seconds to copy.

Are there any faster programs that copy as mp3s?

 

[Sodapop]

Originally posted by cgannon64
Someone at iPodlounge reccomended CDex as well. I'm using it and its working pretty good, but I have one problem - its kind of slow. Takes about a minute, two minutes for a song to copy to my HD. WMP is much faster than this, that took about 30 seconds to copy.

Are there any faster programs that copy as mp3s?

Frankly, it's the time it should take to compress a mp3. If WMP is that much faster, I'm pretty sure it's because it uses the wma format and probably at a lesser bitrate. Better wait a minute more to get more quality if you ask me.

 

[cgannon64]

Originally posted by Sodapop


Frankly, it's the time it should take to compress a mp3. If WMP is that much faster, I'm pretty sure it's because it uses the wma format and probably at a lesser bitrate. Better wait a minute more to get more quality if you ask me.

I was thinking that. It ends up being faster than WMP and then an MP3 converter, so I guess I can't complain...

 

[bobgote]

cg: I use cdex and it works pretty quickly for an mp3 ripper. anyway for mp3s you should have it at 192 kbps quality at least, and from my experimenting with wma to mp3, you don't get that quality.

and the only reason i would use wma is for copy protected cds.