ITunes - Format

I have a question about Itunes. I downloaded version 7.0 a few days ago and started to transfer some of my tunes to Itunes and noticed that the default file format is AAC. Now, I don't know very much about how these things work, but I have heard that AAC format can be restrictive in terms of transfering and making CDs. Is that true? Should I be using another type of file format and if so what is it? Please advise. Thank you.

Factna OCL

 

It depends on what type of AAC file you're talking about. The ones you buy from iTunes have copy protection. If you rip the file yourself from the original CD, there is no copy protection.

 

If you are importing from a CD then it is all about some setting changes.

Try this...
1. open itunes
2. go to edit - preferences (shortcut is ctrl +)
3. go to advance - import
4. and change the settings (same in the pic)

let me know if it works =)

 

Or Better yet, to freely enjoy your downloaded purchases tunes, visit the following website;

http://hymn-project.org/

 

Thanks to all for their respective feedback. The hymm project looks interesting, but it's a little bit over my head. I would rather just change a setting or two in Itunes to accomplish what is probably the same thing.
Azntiger 1000 writes that it is all about changing the settings. I own the CDs that I am importing, truly, so there is no issue with the music. I have no desire to download music from Itunes or any other service provider for that matter. All of my music is original and belongs to me.

So, to go back to my original question, is it better to have songs formatted in AAC or MP3 format. At this time, my settings are for importing songs on AAC at 160 kbs. As I understand from reading some of the responses, MP3 will also work, but does not have the limitation of transferring or copying. Is that correct? If so, what I may do is change my setting to MP3 with a higher setting such as 190 kbs. Any additional thoughts.

 

I assume MP3 since AAC gives more restrictions.

 

I would have all my music as mp3. I mean if there is a difference in quality, you can barely hear it unless you're a hardcore music person. Also I'm paranoid in having my music all in the same format.

 

I would also go with MP3, since it's pretty much universal; everything can play it. However, I would also install the iTunes-LAME plugin, it will give you much better results than Apple's MP3 encoder.

 

Thanks for the link to that hymn website, I may give that a go later. I purchase all my music through the iTMS and unfortunately it is all encrypted.

Definitely make it .MP3. That way you can burn MP3 CDs. You'll have no problem burning regular audio CDs with .AAC files, but the nice thing about .MP3 CDs is that you can see the title, artist, track, and other info on players that support it. For example, some cars have MP3 CD players that will display all that info when a button is pressed.

 

Im actually ripping some CD's I just bought in WAV format since its lossless, but that means big file sizes (40mb+) but its worth it for the quality.

I'll have to convert them to AAC so I can put them on my Ipod though.

Whats better AAC or MP3?

 

I rip my CDs as AAC 192kbps. To me, it's a good compromise between portability and sound quality. But what bit rate you encode at should be highly dependent on what you plan to do with the iPod. I only listen to my iPod in my car or at work with Shure e2c headphones. It sounds good for what I do.

However, I never play my iPod at home. I have a nice speaker setup and find that even 320kbps sounds inferior to the original CD.

 

There are no restrictions on AAC files created in iTunes other than less hardware support for the format. If you're using an iPod, then I suggest using AAC as AAC encodes better for lower bitrates than mp3. If you want more universal hardware and software support for your music files, then rip to mp3.

 

Music bought from almost all online shops is DRM (Digital Rights Management) Encrypted, which means it has restrictions over how many devices and discs the music file can be copied to.

Apple sell their music in the AAC format, which offers better compression than standard mp3 files. The Apple iPod is perfectly compatable with AAC and DRM, but a lot of media players arent, such as most of the Sony mp3 walkman range.

AAC offers slightly better audio quality compared to mp3 in a similar sized file, as the better compression means that the file can be sampled more using the same amount of data.

I keep all my music in AAC, but it dosent really matter. The audio quality difference, and the difference in file size is very small, and it really depends on the samplig level of the file, quality of speakers and sound card that determins the quality of the sound.

When it comes to burning CDs, its not a problem, iTunes quickly converts AAC files into the correct format needed.

 

- I just want to point out that AAC and MP3's are lossy formats, so when you make a CD, the wav file does not sound as good as the original CD.

 

I, too, encode all my music in AAC because it works fine on my Zune and it has better quality than an MP3 at a given bitrate/file size. But that's just me, for my uses.

 

Well, what im going to do is keep my ripped WAV (lossless) files for backup then make a copy and convert them to AAC.

 

You better have some ballsy storage space.

 

Right now I'm only going to store my Katatonia collection of music on my HDD since its so important to me.

 

You could also look into FLAC. It is similar to .ZIP in that it is completely lossless and can save 50% of your space http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flac

 

Why on earth would you store as WAV?? If you're using iTunes, rip to Apple Lossless then convert to AAC when you want. You can always convert back from Apple Lossless (or any other lossless format) to WAV to burn to CD or use a program that does that for you.

Reasons against storing music as WAV:
1.)No way to properly tag a WAV file
2.)Takes up much more HD space than lossless compression methods