MUS 510 / CSC 510
DIGITAL AUDIO TECHNIQUES

Windows Media Player

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The tidbits below are highlights from Windows Media Player Help Topics.  For more detailed information, please open Windows Media Player and click on Help to find the specific topic with which you need assistance.

Copying tracks from an audio CD

  1. Insert your CD into the CD-ROM drive.
  2. Click Copy from CD from the menu to the left.  All tracks are selected to copy if you have not previously copied them from the CD.  
  3. If there are any tracks that you do not want to copy, clear the check box next to them.  You can select the check box at the top of the list (in the menu bar) to clear or select the check boxes next to all tracks.
  4. Click Copy Music.
  5. If copyright protection is enabled the first time you click Copy Music, a message will appear notifying you that you will not be able to copy protected or licensed tracks copied from CDs to another computer. Click OK, or clear the Do not protect content check box, and then click OK.

Note   The selected tracks are copied to your My Music folder by default, and are listed in Media Library. The My Music folder contains subfolders, labeled with the name of the artist or labeled Various Artists, if more than one artist is on the album. You can change the folder where your music files are stored.

You can also copy tracks from a CD by clicking the File menu, pointing to Copy, pointing to Copy from Audio CD, and then clicking the CD-ROM drive if you have more than one attached to your computer. Select the tracks that you want to copy, and then click Copy Music.

Copying music from CDs

Copying tracks from CDs to Media Library is easy, and you can even listen to your CD while you are copying it. Variables such as the CD you are trying to copy and the speed of your CD-ROM drive can affect the quality of the copy. Although you are copying digital information from a CD, you may not get an exact copy. For example, you may notice some minor flaws in the playback, such as faint scratches or pops in the audio. This is normal and is caused by the way your CD-ROM drive reads information off the CD. Windows Media Player attempts to correct this, if the error correction check box is selected, but you may still notice very minor flaws.

The tracks that you copy from a CD are licensed if the Protect content check box is selected when you copy the tracks. The license enables playback of copied tracks on the computer used for copying, copying of tracks to a non-SDMI-compliant portable device, and copying of tracks to a CD. 

If you want to listen to a CD while you are copying tracks, you must configure the Player to use digital copying. Depending on how your CD player is configured, there is still a chance you will not be able to listen to your CD while you are copying tracks, especially if you have analog speakers.

Note   Your hardware (CD-ROM drive and speakers) determines whether you can copy and listen to tracks by using digital or analog audio. Select the settings that work best with your hardware.

Changing the folder where your audio files are stored  

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Copy Music tab.
  3. Click the Change button.
  4. Select another folder to store your digital media files, and then click OK.  Or, you may click Make New Folder, enter the name of the new folder, and then click OK.

Turning off content-protection when copying CDs

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Copy Music tab.
  3. Clear the Protect content check box.

Note   Content protection is turned on by default to protect tracks copied from CDs from illegal distribution. This feature applies only to tracks copied from CDs to Media Library that are in Windows Media Format.

Using digital copying and error correction

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Devices tab.
  3. In Devices, click the CD-ROM drive, and then click Properties.
  4. In Copy, click Digital.
  5. If you want the Player to correct minor flaws while copying, select the Use error correction check box, and then click OK.

Note   Your hardware (CD-ROM drive and speakers) determines whether you can copy and listen to tracks by using digital or analog audio. You should select the settings that work best with your hardware.

Specifying the info that appears in a track file name

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
  2. Click the Copy Music tab.
  3. Click the Advanced button, and then select the information and order of the information that you want in the file name.

Note   This feature applies only to CD tracks that you copy to Media Library.

Creating your own CD (woohoo!)  

  1. Click Copy to CD or Device.  Or, click the File menu, point to Copy, and then click Copy to Audio CD.
  2. In the Music to Copy pane, select the playlist or category of tracks that you want to copy from Media Library.  The number of selected items and total time is displayed at the bottom of the Music to Copy pane.
  3. If necessary, clear any check boxes for tracks you do not want to copy.
  4. Insert a blank CD-R or CD-RW in your CD-ROM drive.
  5. In the Music on Device pane, click the recordable CD-ROM drive.  Before tracks are copied to your CD, they are checked and converted to a file type for your CD. This process takes several minutes.
  6. Click Copy Music.

Caution   Do not try to perform any other actions while creating a CD because the Player could stop functioning.

You cannot copy additional tracks to the CD after copying is completed. If you are using a CD-RW, you can use another program or My Computer to erase the CD before using the Player to copy tracks to the CD again.

Note:   Tracks must be in Media Library before you can copy them to a CD. The list of tracks you can choose from is organized by your playlists, albums, genre, audio, or video  clips. Click the check box at the top of the list to clear or select all the items in the Music to Copy pane. By default, all the tracks in the pane are selected.  You can rearrange the order of the tracks in a playlist by dragging them to the position you want them to copy.

If Will not fit appears in the Status column in the Music to Copy pane for selected tracks, the tracks are not copied to the CD. Will not fit appears even if you have exactly 74 or 80 minutes of audio selected because the Player inserts seconds (spaces) between the tracks that it burns onto a CD.

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