How To Play Mp4a Tracks On Windows Media Player Or Real Player

[wayfarer108]

I've started copying 500G of music to my PC's hard drives, courtesy of a music-collecting friend. The only problem is most of the tracks are mp4a rather than mp3s. How can I play mp4a's with Real Player and/or Windows Media Player (the two players I use most often)? With Real Player I was prompted to download a plug-in, which I did, but they still do not play. Thanks for the help.

[Guest Reimar]

I've started copying 500G of music to my PC's hard drives, courtesy of a music-collecting friend. The only problem is most of the tracks are mp4a rather than mp3s. How can I play mp4a's with Real Player and/or Windows Media Player (the two players I use most often)? With Real Player I was prompted to download a plug-in, which I did, but they still do not play. Thanks for the help.

I'm not good in Audio things but mainly you'll need a codec for to play the Mpeg4a in Media Player. Maybe you do a google for the mp4a codec for Media player (incl. the version you use). Should be easy.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

[lopburi3]

I don't seem to have any MP4a files but MP4 video files play fine in GOM Media Player (as does just about everything else I try). But playing MP4 in Windows Media Player is out of sync. I use Media Player for keeping my files but play everything with GOM. Primarily, other than playing everything, I can set the brightness/contrast to suit me and it holds for all playback until I change it - have not been able to do that with other players.

[Veazer]

I've started copying 500G of music to my PC's hard drives, courtesy of a music-collecting friend. The only problem is most of the tracks are mp4a rather than mp3s. How can I play mp4a's with Real Player and/or Windows Media Player (the two players I use most often)? With Real Player I was prompted to download a plug-in, which I did, but they still do not play. Thanks for the help.

If you have that much music, you'll need more than a player that can merely play it but one that can manage it and make it easily searched and used. I'd recommend Winamp, MediaMonkey or Foobar2000. Winamp would be my personal choice. The free version has a restriction on CD ripping speeds, everything else works fine.

Foobar2000 is a great player but unfortunately needs a lot of tinkering and tweaking to get everything just right.

[sniffdog]

Itunes

[wayfarer108]

I'll check out GOM. Winamp does play my mp4a tracks but I can't get it to play more than one track at a time. What about Real Player? I avoid iTunes for many reasons, chief among them being the way you can't choose what drive it's installed on.

[lopburi3]

GOM will play forever in random or a playlist. I tried that Itunes software when they were pushing it for PC's and quickly removed it (after it deleated title information at random and filed everything at the bottom of a bottomless pit so you had to use there software to find anything).

[Veazer]

I'll check out GOM. Winamp does play my mp4a tracks but I can't get it to play more than one track at a time. What about Real Player? I avoid iTunes for many reasons, chief among them being the way you can't choose what drive it's installed on.

Do you see more than one track in the "Now playing" list? If not, try going to preferences (CTRL-P) > Media Library > tab: "library options"

and change "Double click or enter in the library" from "plays selected item" to "Enqueues selected item"

This will add items to the now playing list when you double-click them in the media library instead of replacing the current track.

I could list endless complaints about itunes....

[katana]

I've started copying 500G of music to my PC's hard drives, courtesy of a music-collecting friend. The only problem is most of the tracks are mp4a rather than mp3s. How can I play mp4a's with Real Player and/or Windows Media Player (the two players I use most often)? With Real Player I was prompted to download a plug-in, which I did, but they still do not play. Thanks for the help.

You might have some luck by installing ffdshow. I can get mp4 videos to play in WMP using this. Although I find ffdshow quite intrusive and disable most of it except for eg mp4 etc.

[wayfarer108]

I'll check out GOM. Winamp does play my mp4a tracks but I can't get it to play more than one track at a time. What about Real Player? I avoid iTunes for many reasons, chief among them being the way you can't choose what drive it's installed on.

Do you see more than one track in the "Now playing" list? If not, try going to preferences (CTRL-P) > Media Library > tab: "library options"

and change "Double click or enter in the library" from "plays selected item" to "Enqueues selected item"

This will add items to the now playing list when you double-click them in the media library instead of replacing the current track.

I could list endless complaints about itunes....

That might be the solution, will check.

I hate the way iTunes takes over your computer and all audio media, etc.

[Veazer]

That might be the solution, will check.

I hate the way iTunes takes over your computer and all audio media, etc.

Almost any media player will attempt that, the key is to specify not to to during the install process. Also, with winamp i recommend disabling "winamp agent" in preferences.