PROBLEMS / TROUBLESHOOTING
Forward - First of all, my limited knowledge covers only Windows
Operating Systems. But perhaps Mac and Linux might be similar
enough to at least give an idea where to look.
Note: There are two types of m4a file choices here, and one may
work in your browser or player and the other may not. The AAC
version is a lossy version that does lose some music quality on
compression as mp3's do, and is not much larger than the mp3 320 kbps
option here. However, the ALAC version of the m4a is a lossless
version done by Apple and now released to the rest of the world, and is
a much larger file - almost 3 times as large as the other two choices.
Some players or browsers may honor some of these but not others.
LEFT CLICK IN BROWSER DOES NOT WORK
Firefox Browser - Easy, at least for me. It asked what
program to start it with. Windows Media File Works. If you
click the item at the bottom that asks if you always want to start up
these files with that program, then it no longer asks and all is well.
Microsoft Internet Explorer - Mine just seemed to work.
Perhaps since Windows Media File is also Microsoft, it defaults to that
Chrome - Mine seems to work fine for MP3s - however, it seems
to use its own MP3 player, a simple one, I suppose to make it distinct
from Microsoft. I could not yet find the setting to ensure it
worked with M4as. I did find some items about this on the
web, but I have not researched it all yet. What I do is download
the M4a's and then use them on my computer in Windows Media File and
also on my pad using Winamp.
LEFT DOUBLE CLICK DOES NOT START MUSIC - WINDOWS COMPUTER FILE SYSTEM
This would generally be an "associate" type problem. Huh?
You might ask? When in a windows computer when you click or
sometimes double click a file in some file programs, Windows will try to
start up the program. It will look at its extension - the last
letters such as ".mp3" or ".m4a" and then check what kind of program
that you prefer to run this kind of file. Let us say "Windows
Media Player" was in that list and your computer found that. Then
Windows will first start up Windows Media Player and then tell that
program to play your song.
But if nothing happens, that likely means that Windows does not know
what program to use for that file. In this case, you should
"associate" file extensions with the program you wish. To do this:
- First ensure you have a file ending with ".mp3" and /or ".m4a"
on your computer. If not, download one of ours to a place in
your computer where you know where it is
- Open up "My Computer" on your computer, and likely you would
look on the c drive for where you just put that file or those two
files.
- One file at a time, right click the file and go to "Open With"
... but do not tell it what program to open it with just yet
- On the bottom, it should say "choose default program" or
something like that. Select that first.
- Then choose Windows Media File which should work for either file
type and you are good
- If you are doing both files then do the other
- Now whenever you double click that file type ".mp3" and /or
".m4a" on your computer your computer should start up the correct
program you wanted to use for that file.
AFTER DOWNLOADING, MY MUSIC PROGRAM DOES NOT WORK WITH IT
I am not familiar with all music programs that computers or pads can
have. However, Windows Media Player should work with either MP3 or
M4a type. At least on my computer, the later versions of Winamp
also works, and it is usually possible to get winamp on either your
Windows Computer or Pad
M4a versus MP3
You can read the reviews online, but really the numbers should tell
you most of what you want to know. the "4" is a later improved
version of "3". M4a stands I believe for Mpeg version 4, and the
"a" stands for analog. For my tastes, I am new at comparing the
two, but yes the newer version seems more accurate. Hard to
describe exactly since I am new to it also. But it would appear
that M4a has more distinct sounds, less muddled, and also a higher
frequency response than MP3 - even at about the same file size.
That is what I think I heard. As for the m4a differences between
AAC and ALAC - AAC is a lossy version that will lose some music quality
in compression, but we did use the highest quality version of that.
ALAC done by Apple and now released to others since 2011 is a lossless
version of m4a and is a larger file and should be the original quality
as the original wav - as they say.
An ending note may be missing - Such as in Have you Ever Seen
the Rain
Not sure what is going on there. The ending note is on the
master, and when I play the song using "Winamp" at least the original
"wav" the ending note is there. But it seemed missing from Windows
Media Player playing the very same wav. But the note seems to be
really there. It just depends on the conversion software or the
player whether or not they see it or miss it. Perhaps that is why
most of us fade songs at the end to avoid this stuff. :)
SUMMARY
Hope this helps. And hope you enjoy the music at least a
little. Thanks for reading this far.
- Ron
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