MP3 player driving me nuts

[Maggie-Mae]

I have been trying to download music onto my sons MP3 player all day and cannot seem to get the tracks to play. I have Windows Media Player 9 with tracks downloaded from tesco.downloads (paid for, all nice and legal etc etc) - they seem to transfer ok to the MP3 but when I try and play them, the screen just shows "file error". The MP3 is WMA compatible - do I need to convert the files before downloading, if so, how? or any other advice gratefully received - thanks

[Stevee]

Are you saving the files in the Media Player?

Do they play in the media player? When you open the MP3 player drive on your computer do they show as being there?

[desertrat]

I had that with my daughters MP3 player. Legal downloads from virgin digital came down as protected files. I could play them on my PC but couldn't play them on the MP3 player although I could transfer them to it. I won't be downloading any more tracks if I can only play them on the PC I downloaded them too. So much for the surprise for her at Christmas. You should be able to copy tracks from a CD and then use them on the MP3 player.

[wideboy]

Could be something to do with Digital Rights Management. Although you are talking about mp3s, if they are from the Internet (especially in Media Player) they might in fact be WMA files and protected ones at that. Some mp3 players won't play these (even if they say they play WMA files). Solution:- make sure the files ARE mp3 not WMA.
(See also answer below about mp4 files)

[fo3nix]

agree with wideboy, sounds like DRM in action to me.

they make it out like DRM is a good thing. it's not, it's absolutely terrible and restrictive and is exactly why i wont download music.

[commoner]

...mm...also why not get Windows Media Player 10 from Microsoft.........one of there better efforts...commoner

[fo3nix]

If I were you i'd download iTunes from apple (free), and choose to rip CDs in mp3 format. will work like a charm!

you could also download legally from the iTunes Music Store and legally remove the DRM, using JHymn.