Max & '.rar' audio files

[tempusfugit]

Dear Sir:

I've received an audiobook from a fellow P2P participant which has an extension .rar However, I've discovered it's not a compressed .rar archive, but rather a .rar audio file. Can your program Max play such files or convert them to MP3 / M4A format which I can play via Itunes on my Mac running OS X 10.4.8? If not, do you have any recommendations? This particular P2P contributor is in Germany and has moved many of his English language audiobooks to this .rar format - whereas I record a lot of BBC Radio programs in M4A format which he downloads. Any advice and/or help would be appreciated by this not-so-cutting-edge 60-year-old..

Regards

[sbooth]

Are you sure this isn't a .rar compressed WAVE or other audio file? I've just done a bit of reading about rar, and it appears to be a generic compression format suited to many uses (just like zip, bzip2, etc)- which you appear to know already from your original post.

If you drop the .rar file on The Unarchiver, do you get a file out of it?

[tempusfugit]

When I drop the .rar file on The Unarchiver there is a message to the effect that this isn't a compressed file and/or archive. The Mac version of Windows Media Player won't open it. It also won't open with RealPlayer or QuickTime or ITunes - or SoundJam and Zip for that matter. That's why I wondered if there's a specialized .rar player or whether MAX can play these .rar audio files.

[RonaldPR]

The audiobook.rar files that I know, are archived audio files, such as mp3 files. Maybe this file cannot be decompressed because it is corrupted.

[tempusfugit]

Always possible, particularly with files shared P2P. If, however, the file is not corrupted and The Unarchiver sees it as an uncompressed file, then how what do you use to listen to the file? Do you think MAX could do the job?

[sbooth]

Max doesn't handle .rar audio files.

Are you sure the file is a .rar file, or could the file's contents not match the extension? What does the 'file' command tell you about it?

[tempusfugit]

Checked under the file command 'Get Info' and it's described as rar audio file. Thanks for the information that Max doesn't handle .rar audio. I may just have to accept the fact that it's a type of file Mac can't handle. Thank you all for the advice and suggestions.

[sbooth]

Would you be willing to send me the file for testing?

[posthaste]

Dear Sir:

I've received an audiobook from a fellow P2P participant which has an extension .rar However, I've discovered it's not a compressed .rar archive, but rather a .rar audio file. Can your program Max play such files or convert them to MP3 / M4A format which I can play via Itunes on my Mac running OS X 10.4.8? If not, do you have any recommendations? This particular P2P contributor is in Germany and has moved many of his English language audiobooks to this .rar format - whereas I record a lot of BBC Radio programs in M4A format which he downloads. Any advice and/or help would be appreciated by this not-so-cutting-edge 60-year-old..

Regards

I've never seen any "Rar" audio files ... that's a new one on me. More likely it's a compressed rar archive.

Download MacParDeluxe and drop your file on it; that program can decode every .rar file I've ever downloaded ... The Unarchiver isn't a dedicated Rar application.

[tempusfugit]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[tempusfugit]

Tried MacParDeluxe, didn't work. Didn't recognize .rar audio file as compressed/archived .rar file.