[Tutorial] Zune DRM removal

Originally Posted by placebo

hmm. thanks for the test and info!
i will test all four programs (Tunebite, Soundtaxi, aimersoft drm music converter, winamp) more seriously

See also:
Lossy DRM removal software: SoundTaxi, Tunebite, NoteBurner, freeTunes, MuvAudio
http://undrm.info/remove-DRM-protection/

Originally Posted by placebo

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

Both Tunebite and Soundtaxi record from a virtual sound card. They allow you to record faster than in real time, but this causes problems for some users.

As for Daniusoft Digital Media Converter, they claim the following:

Hook is another new and more complicated technology which can be used to remove the DRM from protected WMA files. Compared to recording process, these sorts of programs have much higher conversion speed, but it’s hard to make it support some DRM formats with new and lofty encrpytion tachniques.

The only problem is that Aimersoft, Daniusoft and other Wondershare brands are promoted by spam. I don't even want to try anything promoted by spammers.

[Scott6]

Originally Posted by drfsupercenter

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.

Hua? Im new to this DRM stuff, and not about to both re-recording junk, ill just deal with it since I plan on keeping my ZPass.

but 192WMA is = to 320MP3, and even if it wasnt, how would you better quality form something thats not there to begin with. You can only go one way with compression.

[drfsupercenter]

but 192WMA is = to 320MP3, and even if it wasnt, how would you better quality form something thats not there to begin with. You can only go one way with compression.

No, see, here's the thing. Encoding a file, even if it's to the same format (e.g. WMA to WMA, or mp3 to mp3) is going to lose quality. Even if you take a 192kbps mp3 and re-encode it as a 192kbps mp3, you are going to be losing bits of data.

Hence why a lossless method (as in, decrypting the file) is the most preferred. But seeing as how we can't do this anymore:

The reason I say to use 320kbps is because it's much higher than the source. Yes, you are right, you can't have quality that wasn't there to begin with. But, you can LOSE quality that was there to begin with, so we'd want to save as high a quality as possible.

Technically, if you were to convert your WMA files to WAV (or even something lossless like FLAC or WMA Lossless), you would essentially have the exact same quality. But at a size increase, something like 20-30MB per song instead of 4-8.

The only problem is that Aimersoft, Daniusoft and other Wondershare brands are promoted by spam. I don't even want to try anything promoted by spammers.

I can't comment on the first two, but I do recall using a program called Wondershare PPT2DVD... it did exactly what it said, it converted some PowerPoint presentations into DVD files that I could burn. It worked fine for me.
Granted, I didn't actually buy it, I *ahem* obtained it elsewhere, so I can't comment on their actual website. But the software did work, if that means anything to anybody.

[Scott6]

So I have played with a few..

Aimersoft DRM Media converter seems very good. In my initial tests, I was surprised to find that wen I tell it convert my 192WMA files form Zune to 192WMA(9) the files sizes were mostly exact when done, only a few were off by .01mb. I could not tell the difference in quality over my ATH-AD900 cans. both on amp, and off the sound card (crudy x-Fi with oAmp upgrades, cap upgrades and some shielding.) It was slow.... but I was able to leave it in the background while doing other stuff, and it did not effect the encoding quality. I noticed it looses the sound track number on the tag. but its in the filename so who cares.. This doesnt matter to me anyway, my ditgial playback devices dont care when im on shuffle.

Audials 8, I did not like for every major reason. Interface was horrid. The multiple sound card thing got the job done faster, but if I was doing anything else on the PC, the songs would get pops and skips in them (NOT GOOD!) Yea it was fast as hell. But who cares about speed when quality is sacrificed. (just like encoding video with cuda... blaaa) It did keep all the tag info 100%.

BTW: I gave up on lossless audio a long time ago, its to much of a pain to deal with getting. And CDs are too expensive. East to get WMA192 is my file of choice.

[r122513]

Is this not working anymore? With Soundtaxi i get a silence at the end of the song, dont like it

[Scott6]

Any new updates on this subject?

[JSSR]

Can anyone upload the links to the original package again? Megaupload is down for the count!

[JSSR]

Hi guys - can anyone provide me a link to the package? All the old links are down! Pretty please! I'll keep it in a safe place.