I have recently bought a WD TV Live Hub and I copied my music library to the internal harddrive.
I have problems playing some of my music files that were created using iTunes to extract the songs from CDs. They are m4a files and play fine on my iPod, but when I try to play them on the Live Hub, they are skipped and finally an error shows up saying “The selected item is missing. Please make sure the content source is available”.
Is the format compatible with the device? If it’s not, what format do you recommend me to use so I don’t lose quality? What software should I use to convert?
If we go by the user manual, then the m4a container (Extension) should play, however, only if the codec inside is MPEG2, MPEG4, AAC LC or AAC HE and needs to be unprotected. You can check with MediaInfo about the files you try to play, then you can convert with any software you like. There are several options and most of them are a matter of taste.
Quality loss depends on the original codec and the resulting codec, it’s not always possible to keep it with the say parameters as the original file due to the nature of the codec itself.
There used to be a way to bypass the DRM of songs purchased from the iTunes store.
It remains possible that Apple changed their iTunes software in an attempt to close this backdoor, and in the process, the possibility exists that iTunes has added DRM to your CD rips, making them unplayable on the WDTV.
I don’t know if that’s the issue here. I don’t use iTunes.
As Pizza says, if the contents are supported and they’re unprotected, they should play… but I also thought that iTunes defaulted to AAC unless you choose something else, and that if it was the wrong codec in the container that the WDTV would give you an “Unsupported” error, as opposed to the error message you’re seeing – which is making me guess that this might be some kind of weird DRM issue. I’m doubting it’s a DRM issue though, since I thought DRM files also produced the “Unsupported” error, and not the message you’re seeing.
It seems most likely, if the item is “missing”, that you’re playing a playlist, and not the file itself, and the playlist is pointing to a location the WDTV doesn’t understand.
Nieco, I have the exact same problem with some M4As: some work, some don’t. As ThePizzaMatrix (a very funny username by the way, TPM) suggested, “If we go by the user manual, then the m4a container (Extension) should play, however, only if the codec inside is MPEG2, MPEG4, AAC LC or AAC HE and needs to be unprotected. You can check with MediaInfo about the files you try to play, then you can convert with any software you like.” I converted the offending files with AVS Audio Converter to FLAC files, which play perfectly and are smaller than the M4As; not more high fidelity, but not less, either.
Hi,
Thank you all for your answers.
I’ve checked the files using MediaInfo and I think I found the problem, the files used ALAC (Apple Lossles format). I guess that format is not supported, right?
@hawkster27, I’ll try converting to FLAC as you suggested.
Thanks!
