iTunes monopolization

“I purchased videos on iTunes, but I can’t play them on my video player, because they are in some ‘protected’ M4V format that only works on iPods. How can I convert iTunes videos to MPEG or WMV format so I can play them on My portable video device?”

Many people are frustrated when they purchase videos on iTunes, and then find out they can’t play those iTunes video on their portable player, PDA or cell phone.
Apple, provider of the popular iTunes service only allowed customers play the iTunes video with portable players manufactured by itself (iPod, iPhone).

Those with other brands of portable video players such as Archos and Creative Zen players are comparably priced, have much larger screens, and will play almost any video format, including the standard MPEG, AVI, DivX, and Windows-only WMV files. But iTunes will not copy a protected M4V video to any of these non-iPod devices.

So, here is the reason why we need to convert the iTunes video:
1. To play videos on operating systems where iTunes does not exist, such as Linux.
2. To use a non-Apple portable video player to play iTunes video.
3. To watch your videos in the car, or the big screen in your living room
4. To loan the video to a friend, just like you’d do with a book, record or CD
5. To convert M4V video to VOB (DVD format) and use DVD burner software to burn DVD movie played on portable and home DVD players
How to convert iTunes video M4V to MPEG, WMV, AVI

I searched on Google, Yahoo answers and post the question on large number of forums, unfortunately, after scouring the Web for days, I couldn’t find a FREE way to convert M4V to MPEG, WMV or AVI format.

Then I tried to burn the iTunes video onto a DVD and re-import it into iTunes just like how to remove the protection from the iTunes audios (M4P) by burning it onto a CD and re-import it as mp3. I failed, cause iTunes doesn’t have a DVD burning option, then I used Nero, but it still doesn’t work as Nero doesn’t supports M4V format.

And finally, a software solution. I came across a few kinds of converters on Google search, they are Tunebite, Daniusoft and Noteburner. When I was testing the free trials one by one, what makes me comfortable is the Daniusoft media converter which has a much more simple interface (which I captured from its website below) and usage, it lets you convert copy-protected M4V iTunes video clips to unprotected WMV and other video with only three steps (Add files->Choose output format->Conversion). And this media converter “watches” as you play the video on your screen and captures the video stream, which can then be saved in the format you choose. According to the Daniusoft website, This DRM media converter does not circumvent DRM copy-protection technology, so it is completely legal. It costs US$35, but you can download a trial version that will convert the first 60 seconds of the video for free.

Finally, please remember to keep the converted iTunes video files only for personal use because of the restrictions imposed by iTunes. Otherwise, it might be smarter (and possibly cheaper) to just buy the video on disk.

Most of the protected video and music downloaded online like Windows Media Player iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Bearshare , Spiral Frog are all DRM files. here is the guide will show you how to remove drm from WMV, WMA and other protected video music files

What is DRM? Why do we remove DRM from windows WMA, M4P and WMV?

DRM (Digital Rights Management) - The anti consumer copy protection that prevents you from using music or movies in a way that suits you.
For example, if a DRM WMA or DRM WMV you downloaded from WMP(windows media player) that has windows DRM, you can only play it back on a compatible device, so if every piece of music had windows DRM on it you would need to buy the same track on CD to listen in your CD player or car, as an iTunes download to play on your iPod, as a ms store download to play on your Zune etc, but since you paid for it once you shouldn’t be forced to pay for it again and again and again, remove windows DRM and you can play it on your phone, iPod, Zune, PSP, CD player, pc, and anything else that you can listen to music on.

I got a few methods listed below:
1. Burn and rip
Actually, there is a common free method to remove DRM WMA, M4P with 2 steps:
Step 1 Burn the DRM WMA, M4P to a CD.
Step 2 Rip the DRM WMA, M4P from CD to your computer as MP3 format , then the DRM should be removed from the WMA files.
But it’s not very convenient that may wear out your CR-ROM, and It also needs a blank CD, a CD burner and a CD ripper to help you.
2. Re-record
One of the most common and simple technology is recording the DRM WMA and DRM WMV then use an ordinary converter to convert the recorded and unprotected files. Because this technology is easy to realized and easy to support more DRM formats besides DRM WMA and DRM WMV it is welcomed by most of the DRM converters like the SoundTaxi,Tunebite, etc.
But there are some disadvantages for those programs.
1. The conversion speed won’t get much improvement due to the long recording process.
2. Much audio and video quality could be lost during the recording process.
3. Hook
Hook is another new and more complicated technology which can be used to remove Windows DRM. Comparing with Re-recording software, these sorts of programs have much higher conversion speed, but it’s hard to make it support some DRM formats with new and lofty encryption techniques.
And as far as I know, Daniusoft was one of its supporters. After giving a test for some free trials I found it’s very easy to remove DRM from WMV WMA files with Daniusoft Digital Music Converter, and it also can extract audio from DRM WMV and othe video files and supports other audio formats conversion like M4P, AAC, AC3, WAV, M4A, M4b, MP3, etc.

You can free download the Digital Music converter  to have a try:

Simple steps for conversion:
1. Add DRM WMV , DRM WMA, iTunes M4P and other protected files.
2. Choose the output format you need
3. Pressthe “Start” button.