How can I be sure I buy DRM free? [more inside]
posted by doorsfan on Jun 3, 2008 - 19 answers

Surprise! Paul Simon's newest album works on an external CD player but not on either of my Macs. I assume this is a DRM issue (my experience, backed up by one Amazon review). The iBook says it can't recognize the CD and spits it out; the PowerBook says nothing and spits it out. Any ideas here, beyond bittorrent, returning the disc or initiating the class-action lawsuit? The label is Warner. There is no mention of DRM/compatibility on the disc.
posted by thejoshu on May 11, 2006 - 15 answers

Waugh! (Pronounced the Snoopy way or the Evelyn way.) My iTunes will no longer burn AAC files onto CD. I've followed Fearless Leader's lead and de-DMRed all my Apple Music Store purchases with hymn, but I can't burn protected songs that have been hymned, protected songs that haven't been hymned or unprotected songs that used to be hymned. (I guess I didn't try an AAC rip since I mostly rip to mp3, so there's a missing data point.) When I go to burn a playlist, it deselects all the AAC tracks, although it will burn mp3s made from unprotected AAC files. Does anyone know what's up? Is there another Mac app for making audio CDs from AAC files? I'm not much of an audiofile, but don't want to go through the quality loss of converting 128 kbps AAC to 128 kbps mp3 for all these songs.
posted by blueshammer on Dec 8, 2004 - 3 answers

If I rip my CDs with iTunes, and select the "AAC Encoder," will the files be any less portable than MP3s? Can most MP3 player apps/devices handle them? Are they all intrinsically copy-protected? Are there real quality benefits? (I'm asking on behalf of someone who has already invested serious time in ripping, using iTunes' - you guessed it - default settings).
posted by scarabic on Feb 3, 2004 - 15 answers