wma<->mp3 with Nero or Windows Media Player?

[spiritgumm]

I read a post about someone using Nero6 to convert between wma and mp3 formats
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic324081.html?highlight=nero%20wma
but I get a licensing error that Nero won't do it. I'm wondering if the above poster was referring to wav, not wma? I did load the Nero wma plugin, and can choose the "Make a WMA" cd option, but it won't let you convert wma to mp3 in the "Encode Files" section. The closest I can get is loading a WMA in Nero Wave editor which will allow it be saved in other formats but it takes forever to load it.
I also tried converting with Windows Media Player10 but I get a codec error.
I know there's other software to make conversions, but my question is how these two can do it.

[Ai Haibara]

What kind of WMA files are you attempting to convert? The 'licensing error' suggests you're attempting to convert WMA files that are DRM-protected, and most converters won't be able to do a straight conversion with those.

[spiritgumm]

I made these WMA music tracks from retail cds and music recorded from a vhs tape.
Nero will encode MP3 to WMA, but says it's not licensed to convert WMA files to other formats. Likewise Windows Media player will convert MP3 to WMA but not the reverse ("unrecognized codec").

[MOVIEGEEK]

I made these WMA music tracks from retail cds and music recorded from a vhs tape.
Nero will encode MP3 to WMA, but says it's not licensed to convert WMA files to other formats. Likewise Windows Media player will convert MP3 to WMA but not the reverse ("unrecognized codec").

That's one reason I don't like WMA...another is DRM.
Converting a lossy format to another lossy format isn't recommended because of loss of quality,your best bet is to rip the originals to MP3.

[spiritgumm]

I'm just saving them to an mp3 player so they don't need to be perfect. I needed to change the MP3 and WMA files from stereo to mono. I used freeware program WinFF to load all the WMA and convert them MP3, then loaded them in Nero encoder for stereo-to-mono. It would have been easier to do it all in Nero if it handled WMA. Also I don't trust Winff to do a good job (whatever script settings it has don't always translate audio appropriately, and I don't know how to work with scripts to change them).

[Ai Haibara]

dbPowerAmp Music Converter should be able to handle all of those conversions, I think. It's worked well enough for me. (You'd probably need to install WMA support from their Codec Central site, though.)

[spiritgumm]

My question was specifically how to get Nero 6 (or Windows) to do it, especially since someone claims their Nero 6 did it.

[Rockas]

DAudioK converts WMA into MP3... try it

[olyteddy]

I believe you can buy an MP3 codec and license for Nero. It may be necessary to write MP3 files.
http://www.nero.com/enu/mp3PRO_Plug_In_InfoPage.html

[spiritgumm]

Inre to Nero, the MP3 part is irrelevent. The problem is Nero won't load WMA files in it's encoder, so you can't convert them to another format. However, it will easily convert various audio formats to WMA format.
You can load WMA files into Nero's "Make a WMA cd" window but this won't change the WMA format.
A small exception is you can load a WMA file in Nero Wave editor and save that another format BUT it takes forever to load in the Wave editor.

[Cornucopia]

I made these WMA music tracks from retail cds and music recorded from a vhs tape.

Let me guess--Windows Media Player | Rip disc?

Go back and change your rip options to MP3 (it defaults to WMA). Say 192kbps.
No more conversion problems.

Might be easier to just re-rip rather than convert a 2nd time.

Scott