On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:02:42 -0500, Richard Rasker wrote:
> On Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:35:12 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | Here's why... and this is also why I wanted to post this warning: The
>> | latest versions of Microsoft's Windows Media Player have been doing |
>> something very bad. They've incorporated a sub-routine that Microsoft |
>> has been very quiet about and it has to do with something called |
>> "Digital Rights Management" (DRM).
>> |
>> | [...]
>> |
>> | DO NOT OPEN UP ANY AUDIO FILES FROM YOUR GAMES IN WINDOWS MEDIA |
>> PLAYER. Use some other (and preferably older) MP3 player instead. | If
>> you open them in WMP, you'll risk ruining your game's audio files. | I
>> learned this the hard way... but you don't have to. `----
>>
>> http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?
topic=573006&forum=109
>>
>> Whether it's true or not, you decide.
>
> ?? This isn't something one can just 'decide' from hearsay - but it's
> easily checked:
> - Get WMP11
> - Create a directory with copies of MP3 files - Get sizes, MD5sums or
> whatever of these files - Play failes with WMP11
> - Compare sizes, MD5sums etcetera.
>
> Anything changed? -> Kill Microsoft.
OK, and I just tried the above. Ripped and MP3-encoded a commercial CD on
Linux, put the whole shazzam on a USB stick, and created a list with MD5
sums of all the songs.
Plugged the USB stick in an XP machine, copied songs the HD, and had
WMP11 play all the songs. Checked the MD5 sums afterwards: no change.
Checked all relevant settings for WMP11, and turned on anything and
everything even remotely smelling of DRM, and played the songs again.
And again: no change.
So I don't know what the guy from the forum did wrong, but I couldn't get
WMP11 to alter my MP3 files at all.
Although I must mention that actually "upgrading" WMP10 (which was on the
machine when I got there) was about as pleasant as a visit to the
proctologist's: the update was a slow-as-hell procedure, with numerous
popup windows, several of which turned out to be WGA related, demanding
the box to drop its pants and bend over for a full cavity search for
illegal items.
I hate it when someone I don't know sticks his greedy fingers into my
machine, looking for stuff that'll make me pay him even more. Then again,
this wasn't my machine ;-)
Richard Rasker
--
http://www.linetec.nl/
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