[Tutorial] Zune DRM removal

[Scott6]

Yea anything I do gets me 11.0.6001.8015.

Clean XP, WMP10, all v 10. dlls, (Including Core). There is not IBX file in my DRM folder. The second I play anything that needs a licenses(that ridin_Full video) Boom! 11.0.6001.8015.

Hell, I pay for the Zune-pass monthly with no plans on stoping... but I want it on 4 devices... Wife's ZHD, Kids ZHD, my Phone7, and my ZHD. (Yes I still use my ZHD as I have docks, in the car, work, living room, and zK350)

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

Avoid M$ malware software, services, gadgets,... using DRM, and stay out of trouble. Don't risk losing your legally purchased music collection! Request DRM-free services everywhere!

[placebo]

okay, i guess the times of mass-downloading and mass-unDRMing of files by Napster, Zune, Kazaa, MusicMe and Rhapsody are over, but there are still other fine services from where you can **ea* the songs and full albums. Some of them stream in 192kbps MP3 (e.g. RDIO, WE7, (SIMFY)), in 256kbps MP3 (e.g. PLAYME), or in 320kbps MP3 (e.g. GOOM, ********), if you dont want to waste your time with audio/sound recording streams by SPOTIFY or DZR.

Some people like Spotify and Deezer. But if you're into "recording from soundcard", then i'd rather sign up for Napster or Zune, download the 192k wma's and convert the DRM-protected wma's with foobar2000 (or any other player which can playback DRM-protected wma's like Winamp). Recording from soundcard, e.g. with Replay Music is the least practical method to secure legally purchased music and not recommended by me

[drfsupercenter]

If you're just doing music, I recommend SoundTaxi. Yes, it's lossy, but if you can't decrypt it, then it actually works pretty well, I used to use that program way back before I discovered lossless ways of doing it. (You could convert it to a much higher bitrate, like 320kbps mp3, and essentially not lose any quality)

[Scott6]

Originally Posted by drfsupercenter

If you're just doing music, I recommend SoundTaxi. Yes, it's lossy, but if you can't decrypt it, then it actually works pretty well, I used to use that program way back before I discovered lossless ways of doing it. (You could convert it to a much higher bitrate, like 320kbps mp3, and essentially not lose any quality)

thats what im worried about with sound taxi and Tunebite, is the quality.

What is the lossless way? how about a hint, ill do the research.


EDIT: Ohh Lossless is the removal of DRM vs re-recording (stream?) Like FairUse4WM

[drfsupercenter]

Right. Lossless would be decrypting the file.

But since that doesn't seem to be possible anymore, at least with most music services like Zune and Napster, the only real option is a lossy method - of which SoundTaxi is quite great. Think about it: your source file is 192kbps WMA... if you save it to 320kbps that's almost DOUBLE the quality, so you shouldn't really have any issues.

[placebo]

SoundTaxi? never heard of it before. so do you sincerely and really recommend it (instead of conversion with Winamp or foobar)?

then i will have a look at it and consider buying it.
i certainly like tools which directly support "our purpose".

Thanks for the great tip!
Other tools similar to soundtaxi are:
Audials Tunebite, and
Aimersoft DRM Music Converter (formerly: Daniusoft Digital Music Converter)

...none of which i have personally tested.

[drfsupercenter]

Winamp and foobar can play encrypted WMA? I didn't think they could.

The only other method I knew of (and keep in mind, this was back in like 2006 before FairUse4WM was created) was to burn the track to a CD, then re-rip it. But obviously with stuff like Zune Pass, you can't do that if the license doesn't allow it.

(I've only dealt in Wal-Mart music downloads back then, they were all 128kbps encrypted WMA. They then changed to mp3, like Amazon did, and a few months ago just shut the store down alltogether since Amazon was beating them sales-wise)

SoundTaxi does (or at least DID, back in 2006) support WMA and unlike having to play it through the sound card and record the output, it somehow can directly convert it to other formats. So if you can't decrypt it, I'd say that's the next best option since conversion will sound better than recording, at least IMO.
Not quite sure if the program even works anymore, I'll try it myself and see LOL

--EDIT--

I have used Tunebite too, that program *does* record through the sound card, in fact what it does is make a "fake" sound card that can play the audio back at 4x speed rather than real-time. It still basically records it though. How do I know SoundTaxi doesn't record it? It only takes like 15 seconds to convert a 4-minute song

[drfsupercenter]

Alright, I downloaded the trial, made a temporary Zune Pass account and yeah, it does indeed work.

It appears to be a bit slower than I remember, perhaps now they HAVE to record the file? Like Tunebite, it actually does install its own proprietary driver. When it's doing the actual conversion, it uses some "Media Protected Framework" by Microsoft, I don't see a WMP running anywhere, so I'm not quite sure how it works (and since it's not free, perhaps that's the idea? )

The trial only lets you do up to 90 seconds, which is a bit annoying. I actually did pay for the software back in 2006, but I seem to have lost all my emails from back then so I can't find my serial

Maybe someone here wants to buy a copy and license it to "Stream Recorder Forums?"

So yeah, I definitely recommend using Soundtaxi - just go into settings and tell it to use 320kbps instead of 170ish, and you should be set. It claims to be able to convert videos too, I haven't actually tested that out - but if it's anything like Tunebite, it actually plays the video and records your screen, it's just automated, quite a waste of CPU if you ask me.

[placebo]

Originally Posted by drfsupercenter

I have used TuneByte too, that program *does* record through the sound card, in fact what it does is make a "fake" sound card that can play the audio back at 4x speed rather than real-time. It still basically records it though. How do I know SoundTaxi doesn't record it? It only takes like 15 seconds to convert a 4-minute song

hmm. thanks for the test and info!
i will test all four programs (Tunebite, Soundtaxi, aimersoft drm music converter, winamp) more seriously when i am on a napster or zune subscription again. if any of the four uses recording techniques (from soundcard or soundboard), i will uninstall it from hdd. i hate sound recording!

lossless drm stripping would be the best method. after that comes lossy conversion (with no soundboard involved). yeah, foobar doesnt play drm-protected wma's, sucks. winamp.. i think it does (see wikipedia). but i hate winamp too. so.

so drf, we're not sure if soundtaxi does actual conversion (similar to foobar type of conversions) or merely soundboard recording? argh.