Someone sent me an email attachment containing an audio file. The file extension is ".cda" and it has the Windows Media Player icon next to it in My Documents folder.

I only have two options to save it as type -- either "CD Audio Track" or "All Files." I've tried both, but neither will open and play in either Windows Media Player or RealPlayer. Those programs don't list ".cda" as one of the many file extensions they support. In WMP I get an "unknown error" message when I try to play the clip.

What should I do?

Thank you!

My guess is that the file is corrupt. You really should use WinZip or some such to e-mail these types of files.

According to the settings in my Windows Media Player, *.CDA is a supported format. It is basically CD playback. If your's does not support it, then you may have to use Winamp or some other similar program to play it.

Not a perfect solution I looked around found this posting the winamp player is part of the solution (though delete it when you finish (Has spyware!)
Not used the other software (no review)

Thank you very much for the three replies. You've given me help in figuring this out. I also went to Microsoft's Windows Media Player site and searched their usergroup for .cda file questions.

Some things I read there:
"CD Audio (.cda) tracks are audio files that are stored on CD media. You can play .cda files only from a CD-ROM. The .cda files are representations of CD audio tracks and do not contain the actual pulse code modulation (PCM) information. You cannot play the file if you copy a .cda file from the CD-ROM to your hard disk...........A .CDA file is just a pointer to the true audio on an Audio CD. You must have the CD in the drive............You have to rip the CD, you can't convert a CDA file. You must have the original media."

I looked at the .cda file I downloaded. It's only 1 KB, so that seems to prove it's a pointer to audio you have to access from an actual CD....if I'm understanding this correctly.

I will check with the person who sent it to see what he did. I'm assuming he needs to make a mp3 or wav file.

I'll post again if things still don't work.
Thanks for your speedy, helpful answers.

people people there sure a lot of false info on .cda file


well if you try ti burm a audio cd and failed byt tuen off the compter before it was done, all the file on cd are .cda, and no player esp window media player can play them,
but
dBpowerAMP Audio Player (dAP) can
lol
also some site tell you can not play a mess file from a cd and tranfer to to hard drive and play it there
some say it will not


welllllllllll people it can and does