 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / May 2005IPod and Music Collection
Dear All, Just had a quick scan in google archives for a clear anwser to these questions, but cannot find any. Will be much appreciated if anyone can help anwser these questions. TIA. I understand the ipod reads music in the mp4 format (or something more proprietary), and requires conversion from a wma/mp3 music collection in order to be able to play it on the ipod. And I understand itunes is used to do this conversion. Firstly, does the itune software change anything about the original music files? I would be quite annoyed to find it had copy-protected it, converted it, or reduced the bit-rate etc. etc. Secondly, what bit-rate does it record to the ipod at? Does the sound file suffer significant quality loss if it was originally in mp3/wma format? Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save a copy or anything like that on the computers hardrive? What bit-rates do people find give the best balance of quality for listening, with the least disk-space? Does the Sony model offer any obvious advantages? Many thanks. Duncan Murray. > I understand the ipod reads music in the mp4 format (or something more > proprietary), and requires conversion from a wma/mp3 music collection > in order to be able to play it on the ipod. You understand incorrectly. The iPod will play WAV, MP3, AAC, and AIFF files all with no conversion whatsoever. MP4 (AAC) is not proprietary -- it's an open standard. WMA files *are* proprietary to Microsoft, and will require conversion. I don't know that the encrypted WMA files from other music stores can be converted, if that's an issue. I haven't tried it. > And I understand itunes is used to do this conversion. You can convert to one of the iPod-supported formats using any utility you like. iTunes can convert to MP3 or AAC (MPEG-4). A protected version of the AAC format is used for iTunes Music Store purchases, but not for anything you rip from your own CDs. > Firstly, does the itune software change anything about the original > music files? By the very nature of converting ANY file to MP3 or AAC, you're changing it because you're compressing it (or recompressing it). This is true of iTunes just as with any MP3 or AAC encoder. There will be a loss of quality. > I would be quite annoyed to find it had copy-protected > it, converted it, or reduced the bit-rate etc. etc. It will do whatever you want, at any bit rate you select. By default, it will do *nothing* with the files unless you specifically use the "convert" command. If you add your MP3 files to your iTunes library, they are simply copied with no changes made, and then transferred to the iPod when you plug it in. > Secondly, what bit-rate does it record to the ipod at? Does the sound > file suffer significant quality loss if it was originally in mp3/wma > format? See above. The iPod is NOT like the Sony MiniDisc players and their first hard-drive-based players, in that it doesn't require files to be converted to a specific, proprietary format (like ATRAC on the Minidisc players). The iPod will play pretty much any bitrate you throw at it, be it 32k or 320k. > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save > a copy or anything like that on the computers hardrive? No conversion. You use iTunes as the conduit to move music to the iPod. Most commonly, you'll use it to manage your music library on your computer's hard drive, and the iPod will automatically synchronize to whatever's in that library. You can switch it to manual mode, though, if you'd prefer to just move the music manually. > What bit-rates do people find give the best balance of quality for > listening, with the least disk-space? > Does the Sony model offer any obvious advantages? I don't believe so, no. I hope that answers your questions.  SignatureGarner R. Miller Clifton Park, NY =USA= > Dear All, > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > I understand the ipod reads music in the mp4 format (or something more > proprietary), iPod deals with (at least) MP3, AAC (protected or not), Apple's own lossless compression, and uncompressed audio. > and requires conversion from a wma/mp3 music collection in order to > be able to play it on the ipod. > And I understand itunes is used to do this conversion. If you've got MP3, you're already fine. And reconverting the MP3s will lose fidelity. ISTR you're correct about iTunes having a function to convert WM audio to something the iPod can cope with. > Firstly, does the itune software change anything about the original > music files? Uh-uh. > I would be quite annoyed to find it had copy-protected > it, converted it, or reduced the bit-rate etc. etc. > > Secondly, what bit-rate does it record to the ipod at? You're slightly confused here. The iPod is a hard drive that happens to have audio playback functionality provided you've used iTunes to copy the audio files over. But all iTunes is doing at that point is a copy. You can use whatever bit rate or other characteristics you like. > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save > a copy or anything like that on the computers hardrive? It does keep a local copy on your machine. The conversion is a separate task from populating the iPod. G SignatureGoal 2005: Convincing James Hetfield to cover the Strawberry Shortcake "Are You Berry Berry Happy?" song. > What bit-rates do people find give the best balance of quality for > listening, with the least disk-space? I missed that question in my first answer. I find 160K MP3 sounds fine to my ears for the things I listen to. I find 160K AAC sounds even better, and uses the same amount of space, so that's what I use. SignatureGarner R. Miller Clifton Park, NY =USA= > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save > a copy or anything like that on the computers hardrive? Others have answered your other questions, but I'm not sure I saw a clear answer to this. When iTunes converts your files, it will store them on your computer's hard drive, whether or not an iPod is connected. When you tell iTunes to update the music files on your iPod, it will then copy those files (or whatever subset of them you want) to the iPod. They're two separate tasks. The files stay on your computer after they're copied; the iPod is just an external hard drive, and pretty much behaves as one. If you want to delete the songs from your computer manually once they're on the iPod, you can. ----j7y Signaturejere7my tho?rpe | "The land knows whom it sent out; (440) 775-1522 | In the place of human beings jere7my2@oberlin.net | Their ashes in urns http://www.livejournal.com/~jere7my | Come back to each man's house." --- Aeschylus, The Agamemnon > > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > When iTunes converts your files, it will store them on your computer's > hard drive, whether or not an iPod is connected. That may be a bit misleading. iTunes doesn't convert files unless you're (1) importing songs from an Audio CD, or (2) you're importing WMA files. In those cases, it'll convert them to whatever format and sample rate you've set in the iTunes importing preferences. If you're just importing MP3 files that you already have on your hard disk, iTunes doesn't convert them. It just copies them into the iTunes music folder on your hard disk. If you uncheck the "Copy files..." option in the advanced preferences, it won't copy the files at all; it'll just remember where that file is on your hard disk. > > > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > > > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > them to whatever format and sample rate you've set in the iTunes importing > preferences. That may be a bit misleading. You make it sound like there isn't a standalone convert function in iTunes. If you have an AIFF (or WAV or Apple Lossless) file in iTunes and want to convert it to MP3 (or whatever supported format), when you convert using iTunes you will have an AIFF file and an MP3 file in iTunes. I do it all the time after ripping my vinyl to AIFF. Greg Many thanks to everyone for replying, it's cleared up a lot. I didn't realise ipods played mp3s - I was probably muddling it up with the sony one, which doesn't. The only problem is that most of the collection I intend to use the ipod with is wma. Are there any players that support wma? or will there be in the future? The thought of having to convert so many gigabytes of my collection are unbearable. Duncan. In article <wayne.morris-EAEED5.13142316052005@shawnews.wp.shawcable.net>, > > > Thirdly, does itunes simply look at the music file, convert it in > > > memory, and then transfer it over to the ipod? It doesn't have to save [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > them to whatever format and sample rate you've set in the iTunes importing > preferences. Well, it also converts them when you use the "Convert to <whatever>" command, which is what I was referring to. > If you're just importing MP3 files that you already have on your hard disk, > iTunes doesn't convert them. It just copies them into the iTunes music > folder on your hard disk. If you uncheck the "Copy files..." option in the > advanced preferences, it won't copy the files at all; it'll just remember > where that file is on your hard disk. Yup. ----j7y Signaturejere7my tho?rpe | "The land knows whom it sent out; (440) 775-1522 | In the place of human beings jere7my2@oberlin.net | Their ashes in urns http://www.livejournal.com/~jere7my | Come back to each man's house." --- Aeschylus, The Agamemnon |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.