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I've a few songs in .m4a format that Windows Media Player plays fine on my old XP system but I've copied them onto my new Vista system and it will not play them. I understand that it's a CODEC problem but what must I do to make Windows Media Player on my Vista system play .m4a files? Please, no wisecracks!
http://www.orban.com/plugin/
Click on the "GET IT HERE" text link.
You can also use quicktime.
While m4a is part of the "mpeg" family, it seems to me to be highly tied to quicktime because it's the big format used for good compression in quicktime (generally mpeg4, including m4a), at least before H.624 became popular.
Various other programs can play it as well.
Thanks for that the plugIn from Orban works a treat.
Just for my (and everyone else) information, what's the most likely reason Windows Media Player on my XP system had the codec, as I have never knowingly installed a plugIn for it?
The most likely reason: XP has been around for a long time. Updates to other software install codecs and plug-ins to play their stuff using the (then current) version of Media player.
Installing or updating an existing program (even just once) can install said needed codec. When you switch to Vista, or Win 7, that program may not be installed (say you only used it once, and didn't bother to re-install) or the current version doesn't have a codec for the latest version of WMP.
Of course that is all just speculation, but plausible. :)
Glad it works for you now.