Li Bai and Du Fu audio files

Anonymous's picture

I recently purchased the Li Bai and Du Fu audio download. I think the recordings are well done, with a nice musical accompaniment. However, the download gives you .wma files which are relatively hard to work with. They don't transfer to an iPod and will only play on windows media player. There may be some way to change .wma files into mp3 files, but I am not aware of it at the moment.

So, great job on the recordings, but I hope that in the future Cheng&Tsui will make use of a more user-friendly encoding format for such downloads. It makes sense to eliminate CDs (saves on printing and shipping costs), but it's no good if customers can't use the material very freely.

Eleise's picture

I'm very glad to hear you're enjoying the Li Bai & Du Fu audio recordings! We offer most of our audio downloads as WMA files, in order to bring compact and convertible files at a low cost to our customers. Understanding that many students would like to transfer audio to an MP3 player, we've compiled an FAQ on ways to play and convert WMA files to other formats -- you can download that PDF here: About WMA Files.

Additionally, the newest version of iTunes should detect WMA files and offer to convert them to the AAC format, which can be played by iTunes.

I hope this helps, and thank you for taking time to send us your feedback.

Eleise

Cheng & Tsui Editorial Staff Member

Cheng & Tsui Editorial Staff Member

Anonymous's picture

Thanks for the advice!

Anonymous's picture

Unfortunately, iTunes does not do what it says it will. I made sure to have the most recent version, but it still cannot import or convert .wma files. The other programs you suggest for Mac surely work, but they all cost about $30. I'll keep looking for a way to make the files work, and I'm guessing I eventually will find something, but I would still recommend that you consider making files available to customers in mp3. It shouldn't require extra time and work in order to use the sound files, and I don't understand how it would cost Cheng & Tsui extra, though there's surely a lot of complication in publishing that I'm unaware of. Thanks for you help, all the same.

Jeremiah's picture

If you want to give iTunes another try, I just had a look myself, and not as seamless as it might be, but it will do what you need.

If you bought the download version, extract the folder with the downloaded WMA tracks, then launch iTunes.

Go to File -> Add Folder to Library...

It will prompt you to convert the WMA files, click "Convert" and it will import them into your library.

Same goes for a WMA CD - File -> Import and browse to your CD drive if it won't detect it automatically.

Jeremiah Dow
Cheng & Tsui Company

Anonymous's picture

Still doesn't work. It appears that iTunes for Windows can convert wma files, but iTunes for Mac cannot. So we Mac users are still in a bind.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5838340&#5838340 

Jeremiah's picture

The Li Bai & Du Fu audio download, is now available in MP3 format, and based on this thread, we have changed our policies to phase out and convert all WMA content to MP3s on an ongoing basis.

For those who have already purchased the download, you can re-download the MP3 content at any time by signing in to your Cheng & Tsui account, and downloading the updated zip archive from "My Files".

Thanks for bringing these issues and incompatibilities to our attention, and if anyone is having the same problem with another WMA audio package, you can raise the issue here or in the forum for that product, and we can get converted material out as soon as possible.

Jeremiah Dow
Cheng & Tsui Company

Anonymous's picture

Thanks for listening! I've been very impressed by your willingness to work with customers to solve troubles. I'll spread the word.

ydl's picture

you can google the ipod converter to convert wma to ipod mp4. here're many ipod converter on internet.