Help! What kind of file extention is .m4a???

[dsllsd]

I was downloading some tracks off of a Direct Connnect hub last night and all the extensions are .m4a? What kind of program can I use to convert these to .mp3? Any help would be great! Thanks!

[cinder829]

It's an MPEG 4 audio layer file. FILExt (http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=m4a) That's a really handy site if you're ever unsure about a filetype.

[dsllsd]

Thanks! Is there a way to convert to .mp3? I am trying to burn to a CD.

[cinder829]

Yes. Go download dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC) (http://www.dbpoweramp.com). It's a really nice (free) program for converting audio files from one format to another. Next, you'll have to download the MP4 codec (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-mp4.htm) from the Codec Central (http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm) part of their website (here's where you'll get almost any codec you could need for use with dBpowerAMP Music Converter). Then you'll be able to convert from m4a -> mp3, mp3 -> m4a, etc.

If you're trying to burn a CD though, I'd recommend you convert the m4a file to a wav file instead (Again, you can do this with dBpowerAMP. The ability to convert to and from the wav format is built into the program, so you shouldn't have to download another codec to do that.). I don't know how much you know about audio files and such, but if you convert the m4a file to an mp3 file, it's possible that you'll lose some quality in the process since both the m4a and the mp3 codec are lossy codecs. Converting it to a wav file, on the other hand, will ensure that you get a perfect copy of the m4a file in a format your CD burning software can understand. The only drawback is that wav files tend to be very large since they're uncompressed, so if you're trying to do this to a whole lot of files, make sure you've got the harddrive space to do it first. I hope that helps.

[dsllsd]

Thanks alot. I really appreciate it! I should be good to go.

[cinder829]

No problem. Just glad I could help. =)