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Converting Protected files to MP3?

1852 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  winwintoo, 
R
I have bought and download a lot of audio tapes that i was listening to on my Ipod. Now i have a cell phone that plays MP3's. the format that the books came in plays in ITunes and an IPOD but is protected and doesn't convert to an MP3 format. I own the books and just want to listen to them on a new device, is there a way to re-format them?
They are in .aa format now, if that means anything to you...

thanks
ryanB

PS: Audible.com is great if anyone is interested in audiobooks!
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G
You have to burn the files to Audio CD, then re-rip them.
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dona83
I guess the only problem is that audiobooks can be hours and hours long. :) I wonder if you can burn to DVD...
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M
More specifically:

iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Burning > make sure "Disc Format:" is set to Audio CD.

Burn the files you want to convert to CD and eject the CD.

Then, under the Importing tab of the iTunes Advanced preference pane, make sure "Import Using:" is set to "MP3 encoder".

Finally, import the CD you just burned back into iTunes. This process strips the DRM from the file, though you will lose some audio quality.
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dona83 said:
I guess the only problem is that audiobooks can be hours and hours long. :) I wonder if you can burn to DVD...
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No, you can't burn them to DVD, but the book is usually seperated into chapters. Yes, it's a pain, but unfortunately, it's the only current work-around.
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RyanB said:
I have bought and download a lot of audio tapes that i was listening to on my Ipod. Now i have a cell phone that plays MP3's. the format that the books came in plays in ITunes and an IPOD but is protected and doesn't convert to an MP3 format. I own the books and just want to listen to them on a new device, is there a way to re-format them?
They are in .aa format now, if that means anything to you...

thanks
ryanB

PS: Audible.com is great if anyone is interested in audiobooks!
Click to expand...
Have you looked at the "devices" section at Audible.com? It looks like you might be able to download the books directly to your phone.

HTH, Margaret
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R
great -
thanks for the advice-
sounds like it should work.
ryan
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winwintoo said:
Have you looked at the "devices" section at Audible.com? It looks like you might be able to download the books directly to your phone.

HTH, Margaret
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Yes burning to CD is a bit of a pain but it also provides a hard back-up for those files that you paid for;) As always pick a good quality CD and burn at lower speeds.
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W
I've been a member of Audible.com for years and have a number of different accounts with them. You can always go back and download the files again even if you've closed the account.

The hassle of burning a huge book to CD loses it's appeal when you realize that #1 even though you've "paid" for the book, chances that you will ever listen to it again are next to nil and #2 the cost of "high quality" CDs in sufficient quantities to burn the book, a place to safely store the CDs (2 copies to make sure at least one copy will be secure) and so on is more than just buying the book again if you reeeeeeaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy want to listen to it again.

Not to mention the time involved.

But what do I know.

Margaret
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winwintoo said:
... the cost of "high quality" CDs in sufficient quantities to burn the book, a place to safely store the CDs (2 copies to make sure at least one copy will be secure) and so on is more than just buying the book again if you reeeeeeaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy want to listen to it again.

Not to mention the time involved.

But what do I know.

Margaret
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I was not suggestion using Kodak Gold here. Just avoiding the generic 15 cent variety. :)
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eMacMan said:
I was not suggestion using Kodak Gold here. Just avoiding the generic 15 cent variety. :)
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After years of buying, listening and re-downloading audio books to a variety of different computers and iPods plus other compatible players, my experience tells me that it's a waste of time burning these files to CD - it's not the price of the CDs that's deterring me, it's the time and effort involved as compared to the reward which is negligible.

You're talking to an old bat who kept every book she ever bought for many years and eventually had to rent a larger apartment so there was room for them all. Finally someone asked me how many of those books I had actually looked at after the first reading. When I realized that the answer was "none" I had to give my head a shake and realize that I was devoting way too much attention to what amounted to dead wood and I ditched the whole lot. I've never looked back.

When I first started downloading audiobooks, I carefully filed them away and backed them up until I realized I was doing the same thing with audiobooks as I had done with paper books. The difference here is that if I later get a hankering to listen to a book over again, I can download it from my library at Audible.com.

Maybe it's a result of getting older and (finally) learning from my mistakes.

But what do I know.

Margaret
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