Converting m4a to mp3

[Ewan]

I have some m4a files (not protected) that I'd like to convert to mp3, but I can't seem to find a free utility that will let me convert them.

I'd be grateful if anyone could help me out, cheers.

[Ignominy]

I have a great one, I will pm you the details.

Edit: Do you have winRar?

You'll need it if you don't. It's free.

If anyone else wants it feel free to pm me or post here.

[Scurvy]

sign me up

[genocidal]

Why do you need to do this? My free CD burning program does it automatically for burning albums but I already used up my trial period converting formats and I'm not about to pay $59.99 or some bullshit for Platinum Edition. Don't most media players support m4a, or at least have a plug-in for it? I always use Winamp and half my shit is m4a?

[Edify]

Maybe

[Scurvy]

iTunes supports whatever...obviously iPod's are fully compatable--but for her birthday we got my mom some off-brand cheap-o mp3 player (she wouldnt know what the hell to do with an iPod). its one gig and holds about 200 mp3s...problem is, most of my music that she would want (beatles, elton john, eagles, etc) isnt in the correct format. so...thats why.

[Pressure Drop]

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/index.htm

is a freeware program (relies on donations i think) seems to be able to do alot off stuff but i don't really know how to use it. I needed to convert a video file ages ago and i downloaded it went on its forums and followed their instructions and it worked

seemed complicated since i didnt know what i was doing but might be a powerfull program if you do the forums had good walk-through for what i needed anyhow.

[HeavenSent]

When I'm really desparate, I'll play the song and record it with Goldwave. Then save it as a MP3. ..Or just load it into Goldwave and convert it from there.
(Gotta have LAME.dll to make MP3s tho)

[Ewan]

Why do you need to do this? My free CD burning program does it automatically for burning albums but I already used up my trial period converting formats and I'm not about to pay $59.99 or some bullshit for Platinum Edition. Don't most media players support m4a, or at least have a plug-in for it? I always use Winamp and half my shit is m4a?

They are files I've downloaded from Soulseek. I have the relevant codecs and so my Windows Media Player _can_ play them, however, when they are in .m4a format, they don't get listed in the regular library which is why I want to convert them to mp3.

[Ignominy]

http://mediacoder.sourceforge.net/index.htm

is a freeware program (relies on donations i think) seems to be able to do alot off stuff but i don't really know how to use it. I needed to convert a video file ages ago and i downloaded it went on its forums and followed their instructions and it worked

seemed complicated since i didnt know what i was doing but might be a powerfull program if you do the forums had good walk-through for what i needed anyhow.

cracked > free :P

[genocidal]

They are files I've downloaded from Soulseek. I have the relevant codecs and so my Windows Media Player _can_ play them, however, when they are in .m4a format, they don't get listed in the regular library which is why I want to convert them to mp3.

That's your fault for using Windows Media Player.

[Ewan]

Let's not turn this into a battle of "OMG my media player is better than yours!"

Anyway it's sorted now thanks to igno.

[genocidal]

I won't nerd-argue with you either but it's not about what is better - it's about what isn't abysmal.

[Ewan]

Well I don't consider WMP abysmal:

The library is simple and easy to use
It has a smaller memory footprint than winamp
Plays all my music (m4a issue aside)
Also plays all my TV and stuff
Syncs well with my phone

[geekbot]

you *really, really* don't want to actually convert from an m4a to an mp3. i'm pretty sure you'll lose lots of quality doing this (even if you set whatever program you find to encode as 192 bit rate or higher).

since all you need is your player to see them, try
1) just changing the extension (and nothing else)
2) try seeing if WMP has some setting to list the type of files to look for