problems burning downloaded files to burner
 

can any help with this problem?i have a g4 mac 9.2.2 and i can download mp3 files to my shared file no problem,but sometimes when i drag the song or add the song to the cd it bounces off and/or the disc just wont accept the song i want,i have run a system test on burner which is a iomega 52x24x52 speed,i has been fine until recently and the burner i functioning correctly,can anybody shed some light on why i cant burn my songs??

itunes protected, or ownership issues
 

itunes allows you to download music off the internet. When you do this, you are only allowed to use that downloaded song to create a set number of CD's. They end in the file format m4a. They are protected, and thus you can't use it! Im not sure if this is the case, but do a "apple I" to get the info. on the CD. If the "Kind" is MPEG-4" then its protected. Also while your there, check the Ownership & Permissions. It should say you can "Read & Write".
Hope this helps.

thanks alot for the reply will post here if i get a result

Hmm, if this is true about the protection on the .m4a files then you might wanna do the following, even though it can be a great hassle, especially if you have a large number of music files (like me...):
go to iTunes' Preferences and click Importing. Change the importing codec to .mp3 and hope that this one doesn't have some funky protect stuff on it too. Now (and here's the frustrating part), re-import every single song that is in .m4a format.

thanks alot murasme,but i dont have itunes,do i need it?i have an external iomega writer/burner,i downloaded itunes and failed to see the point of it i couldnt search for or download anything i could only listen to the radio tuner,sorry if im being vague,but i didnt fully understand the m4a.thing how can u tell the file is in that format before it has finished downloading?i cant tell if its protected or not whilst downloading.can anyone post a link or explain this for me many thanks for your help great forum.


spoon

also what does i tunes have to do with downloading music from limewire?excuse my ignorance.

spoon

Aaaaah. So you didn't have iTunes to begin with... You said you had a Mac so I figured you also had iTunes.
Ok, iTunes doesn't have anything to do with Limewire other than the fact that LW's developers were kind enough to include a iTunes support function in LW.
As for the .m4a format, you can see it when you dld a song via LW under one of the columns that displays the extension of the file that you are about to dld or are already dlding (in the Search window). Generally, when you look for music in LW it will be in .mp3, with occasional .wma here and there as well as .ogg.
Now, fi you want to check what kind of format the files you already dlded are in, then simply find the file in the Finder and click it's name: you will be able to alter the name at that piont, but more importantly, you will be able to see the full name of the file, as well as it's extension (the very last letters after the .)
Since you dlded iTunes, if it works well (it's probably a cracked version) you can reencode the files from .m4a to .mp3 format by going to the preferences and changing the codec, as I said earlier. After that, if you wish to keep iTunes, then you can enable LW's iTunes support which will automatically import any songs you may dld later in one of iTunes' playlists, which will keep your files organized and close at hand.
iTunes is not necessary in order to use LW so it's a matter of personal choice.

superb,i will report back here if all goes well!thanks alot murasame!!

itunes for Mac OS 9 is a free Apple download

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120073

Ah ok, I didn't know that last one.

hi murasame!tried what you suggested,i get to the preferences,importing,then mp3 encoder.the files are all in .mp3 not .m4a so i dont think thats the problem,any other ideas?the burner still wont "accept"particular songs like i downloaded zero 7's new album when it fals and none of the songs burn to did they just "bounce"off.

can u suggest anything else??

spoon.

I forgot to ask: by bouncing off do you mean that you try to burn the songs by simply inserting a CD and drag-and-dropping songs into it? If so, then I hope that you kept iTunes since it allows you to burn music CDs (and .mp3 CDs) in a much faster way: say, you want to burn a playlist you just created. All you have to do is click the Burn at the top right of the window and then insert a CD when you are asked to.
I don't know if you've already tried this, so that's why I'm telling you. If , by any chance, you did try it, then post back and I (and many others) will try to figure something out.

Oh, and as a side note: you might wanna register as a member. It's completely free and the forums will send you an email with the thread's link everytime someone replies to a thread you have subscribed (like this one) so that you know without having to come to the forums to check.

thanks i will register.yes i mean that the bounce means exactly what you said i have tried to burn a cd using itunes but i dont have an internal burner and my external burner isnt compatible with itunes!so i dont think i have a chance of burning new albums.

Didn't your external burner come with burning software? You might want to buy Roxio's Toast Lite (or try finding it via LW) since it's a nice app to have. It shoud be quite cheap too (I figure about 20 bucks or sumthin')

yes,the burner come with software,but can i use software other than the software that came with the iomega burner then?

Well sure, but you'll have to buy (or find via other means) an app that will support your burner.
Why don't you wanna use the app that came with the burner? Is it crappy?

tried that,still wont work.personally i think it is a copyrighted cd/file so u cant copy them because i am not the only 1 here with this problem!!thanks alot anyway murasame.

I realise this is an old thread & I don't know whether you found a solution, but may I suggest you use murasame's suggestion about using Toast. Toast versions 5 (OS 9 & X) & 6 do recognise the m4a format, what's-more it will recognise external burners. Open Toast & click open the Audio tab/window. Drop your m4a files in & Toast will convert them. Then put your blank CD in & press Record (burn.)
It is NOT a good idea to convert mp3 to m4a or vice versa! Both are 'Lossy' formats which means they throw away information to help them compress in size. To compress them twice would have a significant effect upon their quality & most likely quite noticeable. However, converting them upwards to a full audio CD will not result in any loss of quality! Take murasame's suggestion about how to obtain Toast. (I've seen plenty myself.)
In the past & still many cases now, software that accompanies burners is for pc windows only.