Ryan Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Okay, I know that we can only use .mp3 formats for music storage. I also know AAC is bad! MPEG4 is what you get with I Tunes so....i'm assuming its no good either? If a file has .wma associated with it, will it play? If I were to have a customer burn itunes music into MP3 format, will the drive take it? I've given it a shot but haven't been successful. Most of my customers are now wanting all the music on their PC's to be loaded onto the media controller. What are the guidelines for most of the types? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemay Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 MP3 is the only thing that will play, right now.WMA is coming (it's late, but so is everything else C4 promises).MPEG4 is NOT iTunes - sorry... iTunes is AAC and you are correct, that won't play (nor will it ever, since Apple won't license it).So right now TODAY - your best bet is to convert everything to MP3 (burn iTunes music then re-rip it). As for WMA, a simple converter (shareware found almost anywhere on the internet) will convert it from one format to the other.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy.cytexone Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Also, you can configure itunes to rip directly to .mp3 instead of direct to .aac. As of itunes 6, the steps are:Edit > Preferences > Advanced (tab) > Importing (tab) > Import using (drop down) > mp3 encoder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxspivak Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 So right now TODAY - your best bet is to convert everything to MP3 (burn iTunes music then re-rip it).No, no, no! You don't need to burn and re-rip music you've already ripped in iTunes! Convert it from AAC to MP3 inside itunes itself:Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced tab -> Importing tabSelect "Import Using: MP3" and OKIn main iTunes window, select all songs and select Advanced -> Convert selection to MP3.This will work for your CDs that you ripped, not for DRM'ed songs you bought at ITMS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 Yeah, you cannot download iTunes music into MP3 too. While you can change the RIPPING opitons, you can ONLY download AAC from iTunes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slemay Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 No, no, no! You don't need to burn and re-rip music you've already ripped in iTunes! Convert it from AAC to MP3 inside itunes itself:This will work for your CDs that you ripped, not for DRM'ed songs you bought at ITMS.Thus why I posted what I posted... burn your ITMS purchased music to CD - then re-rip it. This is how you get around ANY DRM protection.Unless iTunes Music Store purchases can't be burned to CD? I don't have an iTunes account - so I don't know this or not... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 They can be burned. Also, you can try a "virtual burner". Haven't tested it yet but I'm curious to see how it works. Here's a link to one to try. http://www.alcohol-soft.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxspivak Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 Unless iTunes Music Store purchases can't be burned to CD? I don't have an iTunes account - so I don't know this or not...Yes, you *can* burn iTunes Music Store music to CD, from what I understand.Of course quality will suffer. You're going through two lossy compressions. You're going original CD source --lossy-conversion--> AAC --> burn to CD --lossy-conversion--> mp3It's an imperfect world. The best way *today* is to buy straight CDs and rip them to the lowest common denominator, mp3. Sigh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 Too bad MP3 isn't so common anymore:( You cannot buy MP3's online anywhere (that I've found).Also, you shouldn't need to go: CD Source-- Lossy Conversion-- AAC--> Burn to CD-- lossy conversion--> MP3 when buying from iTunes.Being that you can only buy AAC files from iTunes, you can go:AAC - CD - MP3Of course, AAC isn't the best to begin with, so you're still losing qualitiy.BUT when the client wants his music to play over the system, even a "workaround" is worth it. I'd rather be able to say "Yes, you can have your music play on your system" than "No, you have to re-buy all your CD's"Most won't even notice the quality loss when they are playing it through the whole house audio system. If they were major audiophyles they wouldn't have downloaded from iTunes in the first place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Wired Up! Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 www.allofmp3.com is a UK song service that sells for about .08 - .10 a song. Good sellection. Reliable service. Legal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted January 7, 2006 Author Share Posted January 7, 2006 First, this site rocks! In this particular build, (a medical center) we transfered 92gig's 14,000 songs to a maxtor network drive(300gig). When I scan it in the network file storage from composer, it comes up far short. ..."Where are all of my billy joel songs?" Turns out a bunch of the music is in MPEG4 and .wma. Fortunately, the network drive is rather easy to manage so conversion shouldnt be too difficult.Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chambrick Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 I began ripping my clients CD's. I rip them as wma and then convert them to mp3. That way when C4 can play wma we have them already in.I needed a batch converter pretty quick while on a client site the other day and ended up buy Advanced WMA Workshop for like$25. It seems to work very nicely. http://www.litexmedia.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy.cytexone Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 First, this site rocks! In this particular build, (a medical center) we transfered 92gig's 14,000 songs to a maxtor network drive(300gig). When I scan it in the network file storage from composer, it comes up far short. ..."Where are all of my billy joel songs?" Turns out a bunch of the music is in MPEG4 and .wma. Fortunately, the network drive is rather easy to manage so conversion shouldnt be too difficult.Thanks againThanks, Ryan. Glad you're aboard. Let us know if you need anything and keep your questions, ideas, and suggestions coming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy.cytexone Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 For all you lazy music rip people out there, here's a music ripping service tailored for integrators:http://www.readytoplay.com/Scripts/default.asp...and more "ripping services" reviews found here:http://reviews.designtechnica.com/guide44.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxspivak Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 Also, you shouldn't need to go: CD Source-- Lossy Conversion-- AAC--> Burn to CD-- lossy conversion--> MP3 when buying from iTunes.Being that you can only buy AAC files from iTunes, you can go:AAC - CD - MP3Of course, AAC isn't the best to begin with, so you're still losing qualitiy.You're right Tayloy, *you/we* just go AAC -> CD -> MP3. But, the original source was at some point encoded from something (CD?) to AAC, which is a lossy step.I agree, over distributed audio it probably wont matter much. But ideally, i'd like to take the same source and pipe it through my main 7.1 system. Now, you may start hearing multiple layers of lossy compression, especially in genres like classical and vocal jazz, not as much in electronica, rock. So the alternative I think I will use is on my good system, it's straight CDs. Whole house audio is the MC.Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylor Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 If they were major audiophyles they wouldn't have downloaded from iTunes in the first placeSee, you audiophyles don't mess with iTunes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All Wired Up! Posted January 8, 2006 Share Posted January 8, 2006 We used this converter today... it worked sweet. Very easy interface. Simple to show the customer.http://www.download.com/Easy-CD-DA-Extractor/3000-2140_4-10475544.html?tag=pdp_prod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hgrace Posted January 14, 2006 Share Posted January 14, 2006 The digital media management needs to be come a user function. Customers buying a low cost integration system are not going to be willing to spend the money for installers to manage their Music. C4 needs to create a simple whitepaper for the end user and dealers should let it go there.Learning why thes format problems occur is bad enough, but expl;aining them to the customers is unbearable.How about a big MP3 ONLY sticker on the MC or HTC ? If any thing is written a realtime AAC or WMA streamer is needed, then just recommend Network storage devices for arr digital media ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chemo Posted April 25, 2006 Share Posted April 25, 2006 ok i have had this problem maybe its because of the converter... but everytime i convert from mp3 to wathever or from wathever to mp3 i lose the info of the song name, artist, etc....is anybody having the same problem?Chemo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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