rax to mp3 conversion

October 15, 2006 9:21 PM

Crimefilter: Is there a program that allows me to turn RAX files downloaded from best buy's rhapsody service into mp3s?

The RAX files downloaded from best buy's rhapsody service can't be opened from itunes. Having two libraries is not satisfactory, and they can't go on the ipod as RAX. help?

posted by MNDZ to computers & internet (7 comments total)

can you burn them to a CD? once they're on the CD, you can then rip them as .wav's and convert them to mp3?
posted by unexpected at 9:28 PM on October 15, 2006

I've used a product called muvaudio to convert Yahoo Unlimited's protected WMA files to unprotected MP3 files, so I could load them on a portable player that doesn't support DRM. The way it's designed, it will allow you to convert anything that Windows Media Player can play into an MP3 (or OGG, or others).

If your RAX files can be played on WMP, then you might want to give it a try. It's reasonably inexpensive, and there's a free demo that should let you know if it'll work (the demo puts a voice saying "demo version" on the output file, so it'll show you if the real version will work for you, but it isn't actually a usable demo).
posted by toxic at 9:59 PM on October 15, 2006

Crimefilter? If such a program exists, it's author is a felon, however, you would not be breaking the law by using it.
posted by delmoi at 10:21 PM on October 15, 2006

You could just go lo-tech like many iPod people do for Apple-crippled AACs. Burn to CD, then rip and encode. I believe that a program like muvaudio is also using digital->analog->digital encoding process so you will get a similar quality loss.
posted by meehawl at 6:56 AM on October 16, 2006

If you're concerned about quality loss you can rip them in iTunes as Apple Lossless. (Preferences -> Advanced -> Importing -> Import Using -> Apple Lossless.)

They'll take up noticeably more space than MP3's, but if you only have a few albums worth you probably won't notice.

I don't know a thing about RAX files, but if the player won't let you burn them to a CD, you might have to find an application that will record an MP3 from your audio-out, which is a big drop in quality, but possible. I believe WinAmp has a plugin for doing that.
posted by Ookseer at 7:36 AM on October 16, 2006

thanks all!

It's not illegal to circumvent the distributors safeguard against copywrite violation?
posted by MNDZ at 9:52 AM on October 16, 2006

I've used a program called DBpoweramp to record from my `stereo mixer' (rather than mic or line in). This records with little noticeable loss of quality, and anything I can hear through my computer I can record at that quality.

Very handy if I want to listen to some real audio files on my mp3 player.

It may be technically illegal to do it, but I'm sure if you're not distributing the files to many thousands of other people, nobody will

a) find out
b) care enough to pursue the matter legally.
posted by tomble at 2:14 AM on October 17, 2006