Do music files have to be saved as MP3?

[CharlieMcD]

I have tried a desk top at work and my laptop and, although I have no problem hearing the background music on the desk top at home where I create the slide shows, I cannot hear it on the other computers. And yes the slide show runs on the other computers and yes I did check to make sure the volume was up and that speakers were on. Do I have to record the music from CDs onto my computer as an MP3 file? I just used whatever program that Windows defaults to in order to copy the music from a music CD onto my hard drive. It automatically copied a song into My Music and that is the song that I used as background music in my slide show. It plays great on the original computer where the slide show was created. Is there another way that I should be saving the music I want to use in slide shows?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Charlie

[JRR]

Charlie:

Welcome to PTE, I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do.

MP3 is the preferred format for PTE as it is much more compact than a .wav file.

I suspect windows saved it for you as a .wav file.

There are many ways to convert a .wav file to a MP3.

Boxig just recently prepared a uitlity to do that.

See posting at: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums//index...ct=ST&f=2&t=659

Or you can use Acoustica, Cool Edit (or dbPowerAmp which is free at http://www.dbpoweramp.com/ .)

Acoutisca and Cool Edit can be easily found via a search on Google, both have been mentioned many times in past posts.

The other problem could be that I know there has been some mention that newer versions of Windows may allow you to copy music to your hard drive and used on your computer, but will not allow it to be exported to other computers.

Using the other software to copy the music might solve your problems

I am sure others will come along shortly and add to my answer.

Good luck

[Ian]

If you've used Windows Media Player to save your files, then its probably converted them to "wma" format. This is Microsoft's own compression format - similar to MP3 but not as universally accepted and it does have some restrictions. Microsoft have built in some anti-piracy features, one of which is that there is an option that allows the wma file to be played back from the initial copy, but further copies won't work. I think this is something that can be disabled by the user, but as I don't use wma files I'm not familiar with the settings.

Its much better to convert to MP3 as stated above. There are several utilities available as free or low-cost downloads that will rip directly from a music CD to MP3. I use Audiograbber , which is very powerful and gives flawless results. If you search for MP3 on this forum you'll find lots of other advice to get you on the right track.

Ian

[alrobin]

Ian,

I have tried several programs for ripping music files from CD's, and have found that for some strange reason, Audiograbber is the only one, (other than the expensive "Cool Edit Pro"), that will work with my desktop CD player.

You can even use the free download version - until you register, it will randomly highlight only certain selections for ripping. However, if you close the program and start again, eventually the selection you want will be highlighted.

Of course, it is better to pay the small registration fee and support the maker of the program.

[Ian]

Couldn't agree more! I used the trial version for a while, re-starting the program until all the required CD tracks were complete. But its only something like $15 to register anyway, so it was well worth it!

Ian