Stupid Win/Mac filename incompatibilities are cramping my style

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So a friend burnt me a bunch of CDs of MP3s, which is cool, but the problem is this friend used a Mac and some of the filenames have Windows-verboten characters in them (mostly " -- i.e. '12" mix'). Therefore I can't play them, can't copy them, can't rename them (what with them being on a CD), and apparently can't do anything with them. Are there any applications or utilities that can work around this?

And while we're at it, what's a good app for converting m4ps into mp3s?

nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 25 December 2003 22:36 (twenty years ago) link

a quick search of versiontracker brought this for the file names.

itunes for windows will allow you to convert aac (m4p) to mp3. Just set encoding to mp3 and then select the tunes and choose convert selecxtion to mp3 from the advanced menu.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 25 December 2003 22:40 (twenty years ago) link

Fuck, I need Windows 2000/xp to even use iTunes

nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 25 December 2003 22:45 (twenty years ago) link

according to this winamp lite 5.01 supports aac file playback, it might allow you to convert.

Ed (dali), Thursday, 25 December 2003 22:48 (twenty years ago) link

Or this MacNames program

And Winamp won't play them either.

nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 25 December 2003 22:50 (twenty years ago) link

i've suffered your 200-character filenames getting mangled on my Mac Quadra for nigh-on 6 yrs now. suffer, PC-ists, suffer! muahahahaha...*cough**

Nice weather we're having...

petra jane (petra jane), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:03 (twenty years ago) link

at least on the mac it will still read huge file names but truncate them (NB the 32 character filename limit on mac went out with the arc, but props to petra for keep an old soldier like a quadra going)

Ed (dali), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:08 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, well, enjoy slsk when it comes out for the Mac -- oops, I'm sorry, my bad.

Now can we NOT turn this into some dork-ass OS war so we can get to the important things, i.e. my being able to listen to Larry Levan remixes?

nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:15 (twenty years ago) link

I have slsk working just fine on the mac.

nate, time to upgrade you OS I think

Ed (dali), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:25 (twenty years ago) link

Time to give me some actual solutions on how to fix this problem that won't require me spending actual money

nate detritus (natedetritus), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:27 (twenty years ago) link

no, NO PROPS! every year for the past i don't know, 4 years? dad has promised me a new (well prob second-hand but at least new wnough to HAVE SOFTWARE AVAILABLE FOR IT) computer for xmas and every dec25 i am BITTERLY DISAPPOINTED and have to pretend to really appreciate whatev trinket he does get me in name of appearing grateful & keeping the peace. this yr on Xmas eve he told me he was renewing my domain name for this xmas - the domain i'd just RENEWED MYSELF LAST WEEK, gah! even photoshop 3 & this archaic IRC client (closest i can even get to AIM, snifff) are starting to fck out on me.

ok i'm done. perhaps you cld make yr friend EAT the CD-R and then burn you another? impractical but FUN TO WATCH!

petra jane (petra jane), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:27 (twenty years ago) link

nate, even if you can't rename the files on the cd, if you can see them you should be able to copy them to your pc. Once you do that, you can rename them. You might want to add '.mp3' to whatever name you give them so Windows can identify them as music files.

Berkeley / Sackett (calstars), Thursday, 25 December 2003 23:42 (twenty years ago) link

Can't copy them -- when I try, I get a message stating some sort of "file system error (1026)" happened.

nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:02 (twenty years ago) link

crazy work round, you could try setting up an ftp server on you machine and using an ftp client to upload the from the cd to your machine, any decent ftp server ought to correct for filenames that don't work

Ed (dali), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:04 (twenty years ago) link

I have no idea how to do that. I did try to upload from the CD to my website's server, though, and I got a "Can't open file" message.

nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:19 (twenty years ago) link

bugger, that won't work then, I'll have to think of something else

Ed (dali), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:20 (twenty years ago) link

reburning the cd with iso9660 or FAT32 compliant filenames remains the best options. If your mate has Toast this is easy to do, if not then it may be harder.

Ed (dali), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:21 (twenty years ago) link

OK, I found a shareware program called "IsoBuster" that will let me view the CD filenames in a shortened ISO form and therefore do not have to worry about any stray "s. Problem solved!

nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 26 December 2003 00:55 (twenty years ago) link

Petra, you need to get Linux is what you need to do.

Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 26 December 2003 01:35 (twenty years ago) link

no no no no none of this no

nate detritus (natedetritus), Friday, 26 December 2003 01:43 (twenty years ago) link

Girolamo: yes, if by "linux" you mean "a new computer with more than 0.2GB hard drive, working software & less bugs than yr average roach-infested diner".

</hijack>

petra jane (petra jane), Friday, 26 December 2003 02:01 (twenty years ago) link

No, seriously. Your computer in its current state could easily fly (at least moreso than it is now) under Linux.

Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 26 December 2003 02:06 (twenty years ago) link

g sav, you'd find it hard to find a linux distro that would provide a usable desktop environment on a 68k mac. (trust me I've tried)

Ed (dali), Friday, 26 December 2003 02:26 (twenty years ago) link

THANK YOU ED!
i get sick of PC-ists telling me to upgrade to this or that!

*mutter* at least you people can play mp3s...

petra jane (petra jane), Friday, 26 December 2003 02:45 (twenty years ago) link


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