How I read a .wma file

[Leonard Chatagnier]

--- On Sat, 12/12/09, HermanAA <hermanaa at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: HermanAA <hermanaa at gmail.com>
> Subject: How I read a .wma file
> To: "Ubuntu user technical support, not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Date: Saturday, December 12, 2009, 4:18 PM
> I want to listen these files:
> 01 Track 1_8.wma  and  01 Track 1_9.wma (spoken
> text).
>  (I Googled, read-up om .wma)
> 
> My system is: Ubuntu 8.10, default installation.
>  MY program-source is Synaptic.
> 
> XMMS2 - wma decoder
> This is a transitional package that depends on all plugins
> required for
> decoding Windows Media Audio files with xmms2.
> 
> ..........looks like a wrong choice (no codecs I guess).
>
Probably don't have the needed mirror activated, medibuntu.
 
> Is this one better? : (Audacious)
> 
> small and fast audio player which supports lots of formats
> Audacious is a fork of beep-media-player which supports
> winamp skins
> and many codecs.
> 
> In the default install, the following codecs are
> supported:
> 
> * MP3
> * Ogg Vorbis
> * AAC and AAC+
> * FLAC
> * Windows Media (WMA)
> * Musepack
> * TTA
> * Many module formats and much more!
> 
> Additionally, Audacious is extendable through plugins, and
> contains
> other useful features like LIRC support and support for
> last.fm.
> --------------------
> I have an old XP installation that we (the kids and I) use
> maybe 3 times
> a year. I dont mind making that 2 times.
> -------------------
> 
> I am in touch with the maker of this .wma file.
> Should I suggest to use MP3 instead? (can Windows make MP3
> Files as
> easily?)
> 
> ..... or is this a long-solved problem (just install
> 'audacious')?
> 
> Herman in Philippines.
> 
> 
>
No expert here but do you have w32codecs installed and perhaps ubuntu-restricted-extras. Do you have medibuntu activated in your sources.list. I don't have any XMMS2 apps installed on my Karmic 64 bit but play audio/video files ok.
The medibuntu entry for sources.list is:
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ karmic free non-free
Just change karmic to the name for 8.10 which I don't recall off the top of my head.  Software sources has a medibuntu entry that you can just tick to activate.
I'm not sure just which player you are using to play wma files but you might try one of the mplayer apps(gnome-mplayer, kmplayer, mplayer, smplayer all of which you may not have on 8.10.
I suspect you don't have codecs installed but if none of this helps, come back with some info on what you've done and someone will help.
Leonard Chatagnier
lenc5570 at sbcglobal.net