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m4a + WinAMP - QT

Submitted by Karthik on 7 August, 2005 - 05:08

I needed to set up WinAMP to play m4a [MPEG-4 Audio] files, but was told that the only way to play it would be once I'd installed Quicktime on the system. However, I, like a lot of people suffer from a congenital [sic] aversion for QT - everything about it right from its file size, clunky interface, unintuitive short cuts, annoying tray icon, file association hijacking, browser hijacking, to the whole you-have-to-download-iTunes-or-suffer-the-consequences marketing BS, really gets under my skin.

So, I do my utmost to keep it away from my box with the same fervour as other rubbish like Real Player, [anything by] Yahoo! and the like. But, in the case of getting my m4a files playable via WinAMP [transcoding isn't really an option here], I was seemingly banging my head against a brick wall. Anyways, after much digging around, I found that it's actually rather simple, but just not documented well enough - hence this post :P

The solution below is outdated. You might want to read this instead.

This is how you do it:

  • Download and install 3ivx.
  • Once installed, test the m4a files in Windows Media Player.
  • If successful, open WinAMP, and go into the preferences [Ctrl + P]. Under Plug-ins->Input, look for the Nullsoft DirectShow Decoder, and double click it/click configure below.
  • In the pop-up, add the file extension of the audio file - m4a. Click OK, and if need be restart WinAMP, and queue 'em m4a files now - they should play fine :)

The same process will very likely apply to all the (x264 etc.) m4v video files that have started cropping up everywhere nowadays.

-K

Comments

Hey there, I know it's been awhile since you posted this, but I just now came across one of those .m4a files. I also absolutly agree with you on that "you-have-to-download-
or-suffer-the-consequences" thing, as you so nicely put it. That's why I was very relieved when I finally found your post. Thank you very much, it surely was a great help and didn't take too much effort. Thanks again.
Greetz from NYC

I followed your link and downloaded 3ivx and grapht. I already have windows media player v.9. Once I downloaded graphedt (from the 3ivx page where it recommends that I also d/l grapht as well as quicktime and media player) and tried to play the m4a file using windows media player, i was successful. Imagine my surprise. I couldn't find what you told me to find on Winamp, the lite v.5.4.

anyway, i deleted Winamp and stopped d/l quicktime and another version of wmp once i saw that i could play the m4a file using my version of wmp (9.0) (and that's after i d/l graphedt and 3ivx, mind you). in short, if you have windows ME, windows media player v.9, graphedt, and 3ivx you should be able to play your M4A file on Windows Media Player (my version is 9.0).

hey, i'm as comp. confused as anyone out there, and if i could get my M4A files to play you can too. good luck.

[quote=Anonymous]I followed your link and downloaded 3ivx and grapht. I already have windows media player v.9. Once I downloaded graphedt (from the 3ivx page where it recommends that I also d/l grapht as well as quicktime and media player) and tried to play the m4a file using windows media player, i was successful. Imagine my surprise. I couldn't find what you told me to find on Winamp, the lite v.5.4.

anyway, i deleted Winamp and stopped d/l quicktime and another version of wmp once i saw that i could play the m4a file using my version of wmp (9.0) (and that's after i d/l graphedt and 3ivx, mind you). in short, if you have windows ME, windows media player v.9, graphedt, and 3ivx you should be able to play your M4A file on Windows Media Player (my version is 9.0).

hey, i'm as comp. confused as anyone out there, and if i could get my M4A files to play you can too. good luck.[/quote]

Just as a site-note to this post: If you have the M4B files, you can change the extention and play them as M4A's

Also, I use Windows Media Player (WMP) without any plugins like quick-time and that stuff, and I can play the M4A's. A dialog box will apear saying that it doesn't recognize the file extention, but would you like to try it anyways? Click yes and there you go! :)

Thanks for sharing. Works a treat