Loading music

[Mary]

I have encountered a problem with loading music on my slideshows..hoping somebody can help. If i purchase royalty free music, it comes in mp3 format. This loads fine on my slide shows. When i download certain tracks online, they come in whats called "windows media file" format. When i load these, it seems to cause havoc with my program. If i go to preview, everything freezes up and nothing can be viewed. If i get rid of the music it plays fine. Can anybody tell me whats going on and how i can use tracks online?

Mary

[Ian]

Hi Mary

Windows Media Audio files (.wma) is the native format of Media Player. Microsoft developed this format as an alternative to MP3 files. The compression is more efficient than MP3, so the files tend to be smaller in size. However, the format has a built-in licensing system which means that by default the wma files can be played via Media Player on the host computer, but further copies won't play. In practise this means that using wma files in PTE shows is a bit hit-and-miss as the music may not play back. There are settings in Media Player Options menu to disable the license feature, but I'm not sure if this will over-ride any embedded settings on downloaded files.

It is much safer to use MP3 files, as these tend to be much more universal. Media Player 10 has a setting in the Options menu to save as MP3 instead of wma, so you may be able to re-save the files and use MP3 format instead. You can also use Media Player (and lots of other programs) to rip CD tracks from your CD collection to MP3 files.

Ian

[Mary]

Thanks for your reply Ian. Got it figured out now!