[Vader’s Pinch of Death]

I am wondering that if I tell iTunes to burn a MP3 CD and I have MP4's that I have encoded myself does iTunes convert them to MP3's before it burns or will it just place the MP4's on the disk and make it unreadable to MP3 supported cd/dvd players?

[awaspaas]

It won't burn them. It says "None of the items in this playlist can be burned to disc."

[banninated68]

Is there a hack for this? I encoded TON of my CDs as AAC, but my car has an mp3-cd deck. Am I upshit creek? There has to be some hack to allow you to burn CDs and have iTunes convert them to mp3, burn, then erase the mp3s....

- Rob

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Is there a hack for this? I encoded TON of my CDs as AAC, but my car has an mp3-cd deck. Am I upshit creek? There has to be some hack to allow you to burn CDs and have iTunes convert them to mp3, burn, then erase the mp3s....

- Rob

Perhaps toast can do this.

Have you merely banned yourself from the lounge, or are you breaking your word, btw?

[banninated68]

This has already been explained. I still use a mac, I still have mac questions. I said goodbye to the lounge. Put 2 & 2 together.

[wataru]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Is there a hack for this? I encoded TON of my CDs as AAC, but my car has an mp3-cd deck. Am I upshit creek? There has to be some hack to allow you to burn CDs and have iTunes convert them to mp3, burn, then erase the mp3s....

- Rob

I've never heard of such a thing, and if you're still looking for it then it probably doesn't exist. That's what you get for not doing your research first.

[banninated68]

Well that's really ****ing gay then. I assumed that since 'burn mp3 cd' was still an option, it would convert them.

**** apple in the ear.

- Ca$h

[ReggieX]

nm LOL

[wataru]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Well I'm ****ing gay then. Like an idiot, I assumed that since 'burn mp3 cd' was still an option, it would convert them.

**** me in the ear.

- Ca$h

Fixed.

[tooki]

One can always use this limitation as an excuse to buy an iPod.

tooki

[banninated68]

Originally posted by tooki:
One can always use this limitation as an excuse to buy an iPod.

tooki

I hav eone. But I enjoy using Mp3 cds as well as the ipod for maximum travel music.

- Rob

[macintologist]

Um, if you go into the Import preferences and change it to MP3, can't you select all your AAC tracks in the Library and go to Advanced -> Convert Selected Track to Mp3?

[ReggieX]

You people will never cease to amaze and amuse me:

[decursive]

converting from aac to mp3 will lose whole spectrums of quality.

[macintologist]

Originally posted by decursive:
converting from aac to mp3 will lose whole spectrums of quality.

Only if you're an arrogant musician-wannabe audiophile.

128k AAC is perfect.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Only if you're an arrogant musician-wannabe audiophile.

128k AAC is perfect.

You are an ignorant idiot.

The idiocy of transcoding from one lossy format to another has been thoroughly discussed on these forums numerous times.

[theJoKell]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Only if you're an arrogant musician-wannabe audiophile.

128k AAC is perfect.

Wow, I nominate this as the dumbest post ever.

[ReggieX]

Originally posted by banninated68:
I have one. But I enjoy using Mp3 cds as well as the ipod for maximum travel music.

You really do get a lot of bang for the buck with a car CD MP3 player.

[macintologist]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
You are an ignorant idiot.

The idiocy of transcoding from one lossy format to another has been thoroughly discussed on these forums numerous times.

It's not as bad as people hype it to be. If you're a pragmatist, you'll notice very little difference, especially if you use 128k AAC. If you're an audiophile ideologue, of course you're gonna bitch at anything less than 320k Mp3.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by macintologist:
It's not as bad as people hype it to be. If you're a pragmatist, you'll notice very little difference, especially if you use 128k AAC. If you're an audiophile ideologue, of course you're gonna bitch at anything less than 320k Mp3.

Okay, so anybody who cares is an arrogant musician-wannabe audiophile ideologue.

I'm flattered, as I'm sure many other not-deaf people would be, by your expert assessment.

One point of agreement though: In the car, it probably won't matter much, since all car "hi-fidelity", ain't.

-s* (mostly 192kb vbr stuff, and some Apple Lossless)

[banninated68]

OKay, so who here can program? There needs to be a hack for itunes.

It will do the following. When you have a playlist containing AAC files, the AAC files will be converted to mp3 format JUST to burn the disc, then delete the mp3 files. It will leave the original AAC files in place.

Anybody?

I can give you like $10-20 and some food or something.

- Rob

[banninated68]

I can draw something for you too. Please hack itunes.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
One point of agreement though: In the car, it probably won't matter much, since all car "hi-fidelity", ain't.

And since that is what this thread is about, that's how I interpreted what he was saying. He was saying that the guy who started this thread can convert to MP3 and he won't notice the difference. And in all honesty, he probably won't, since these MP3 CDs he's making are for use in a car.

And for this, you called him an idiot.

[Chuckit]

And of course, you can just burn a normal music CD with no loss in quality whatsoever, and then you can play it anywhere.

[banninated68]

I hate it when a bunch of geeks rip on car audio. Look, I'm not a dorky ass audiophile, nor am I some moron who wants PHAT SUBS in my car. I have a nice reciever, decent 4 channel amp, nice wiring, and nice speakers. It sounds GOOD. Mp3s with hissing and pops and whatnot will sound like ****.

EITHER WAY, the point is is that when your playlist has AAC files, and you hit 'burn mp3 cd' it should CONVERT THE FILES TO Mp3, BURN THEM, HTEN DELETE THE MP3s!!!!!!!!!

- Rob

[bmedina]

Wait, so you already have an iPod? Why aren't you just hooking that up to your deck?

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by banninated68:
EITHER WAY, the point is is that when your playlist has AAC files, and you hit 'burn mp3 cd' it should CONVERT THE FILES TO Mp3, BURN THEM, HTEN DELETE THE MP3s!!!!!!!!!

I don't see why "Make a CD of crappy-sounding files" is a more logical operation than "Explain that the files are in the wrong format and if somebody wants to burn a CD of MP3s, he should probably use MP3s."

Anyway, why is manually converting the files is such a huge hassle for you in the first place? It's a simple way to accomplish what you want. Unless you intend to run an assembly line, automating it doesn't seem that important.

[banninated68]

Originally posted by bmedina:
Wait, so you already have an iPod? Why aren't you just hooking that up to your deck?

It's a 5 gig ipod. I don't have all my music on it, so I like to keep CDs that I'll always enjoy in my CD binder. The iPod is more for random music that I haven't decided on yet.

ALSO, the iPod isn't controlled with the deck, whereas a mp3 cd IS... this makes it much safer to change tracks etc if it's a CD.

- Rob

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
And since that is what this thread is about, that's how I interpreted what he was saying. He was saying that the guy who started this thread can convert to MP3 and he won't notice the difference. And in all honesty, he probably won't, since these MP3 CDs he's making are for use in a car.

And for this, you called him an idiot.

No.

I called him an idiot for using the term "audiophile ideologue".

Get it straight.

[macintologist]

Ca$h/Rob/*68 just look at my first post in this thread. There's your answer. It won't replace any of your AAC files, just make new MP3s.

[banninated68]

Originally posted by macintologist:
Ca$h/Rob/*68 just look at my first post in this thread. There's your answer. It won't replace any of your AAC files, just make new MP3s.

I realize this. So obviously itunes has the capability to convert an AAC file to mp3. My question is if your library consists of AAC files, and you want to burn an mp3 track, WHY do they have the USER have to manually convert the files to mp3, then create a new playlist, and then burn it, then delete the mp3s. That's retarded.

It has the capability to do this all automatically, but it doesn't.

- Rob

[BuonRotto]

Seems that the reason they don't offer this is because of the degradation in quality. I imagine that craptacular-sounding mp3 CDs don't reflect well on Apple's products that made the CDs in the first place. It's easy to imagine threads being started here to the effect of, "why do iTunes MP3 CDs sound so bad?" I mean, we see plenty of threads that assume Apple is the culprit behind many a problem here.

[mitchell_pgh]

1) Transcoding for CAR use is perfectly fine. I would argue that NOBODY can tell the difference in most traffic situation. MY POINT: You aren't in a studio. The missing link will be all the noise from your ear to the speaker as compared to the CD->MP4->MP3 conversion.

2) The reason Apple probably doesn't offer an automatic MP4->MP3 CD burning option would most likely be quality and time. It would take forever to convert 600MB of MP4s to MP3s. And it's a very small market. The end result would be of a rather low quality as well.

[banninated68]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
The end result would be of a rather low quality as well.

Your arguments hold no water. Look, if the quality was really THAT BAD, they wouldn't have made itunes able to convert AAC to mp3. The fact is that it CAN convert AAC to mp3, and for some reason, when you burn an mp3 cd, they made it skip all the AAC files instead of converting them, burning them, and deleting them. It wouldn't take that long on almost any modern mac.

- Rob

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Your arguments hold no water. Look, if the quality was really THAT BAD, they wouldn't have made itunes able to convert AAC to mp3. The fact is that it CAN convert AAC to mp3, and for some reason, when you burn an mp3 cd, they made it skip all the AAC files instead of converting them, burning them, and deleting them. It wouldn't take that long on almost any modern mac.

Sure it would.

Include any machine that's running the latest version of iTunes, and you have a huge number of 400 mHz G3 machines that count as "modern macs". How long does it take to transcode a hundred songs on one of those? (I don't know, I've never bothered. But just one or two songs are annoying on my Powerbook.)

'Twould be nice to be asked, though, whether transcoding should be done for the burn - with a note that this will take some time.

By the way, the argument that it can't be "THAT BAD" if Apple includes the functionality doesn't really "hold water", either. Otherwise they most surely wouldn't have included 16-kbps mp3 in the options, either.

-s*

[banninated68]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
Sure it would.

Include any machine that's running the latest version of iTunes, and you have a huge number of 400 mHz G3 machines that count as "modern macs". How long does it take to transcode a hundred songs on one of those? (I don't know, I've never bothered. But just one or two songs are annoying on my Powerbook.)

'Twould be nice to be asked, though, whether transcoding should be done for the burn - with a note that this will take some time.

By the way, the argument that it can't be "THAT BAD" if Apple includes the functionality doesn't really "hold water", either. Otherwise they most surely wouldn't have included 16-kbps mp3 in the options, either.

-s*

16kbps is good for spoken word. Not great, prefer 50+ but it's understandable.

[bmedina]

Why is this conversation still going on? You can't do what you want, you think you should be able to, and we all know that now. Continuing inane arguments here is not going to change that.

And besides, iTunes mp3 encoder sucks even when it's encoding from a lossless source.

[banninated68]

Originally posted by bmedina:
Why is this conversation still going on? You can't do what you want, you think you should be able to, and we all know that now. Continuing inane arguments here is not going to change that.

Actually it might. I was asking for programmers, or somebody to hack imovie somehow to allow it to burn mp3 discs of AAC files. Why? Because it has the ability to do so, but odesn't, YET.

Also, why are you still here? You can't make me think like you do, you think you should be able to, and we all know that now. Continuing inane arguements here is not going to change that.

And besides, iTunes mp3 encoder sucks even when it's encoding from a lossless source.

http://www.rjamorim.com/test/mp3-128/results.html

It's not THAT bad. It's comparable to some other codecs. If it was SO HORRIBLE it would have been 95% sure that it was worse than the others, which it is most clearly not.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by banninated68:
16kbps is good for spoken word. Not great, prefer 50+ but it's understandable.

I know. And transcoding AAC to mp3 is acceptable for certain uses.

just not good.


You get my point.

[Chuckit]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
I know. And transcoding AAC to mp3 is acceptable for certain uses.

just not good.


You get my point.

I don't think he will. I've offered a perfectly workable solution, but he seems more interested in holding out for some benevolent $20 1337 haxx0r.

[mpbritt]

Originally posted by banninated68:
]EITHER WAY, the point is is that when your playlist has AAC files, and you hit 'burn mp3 cd' it should CONVERT THE FILES TO Mp3, BURN THEM, HTEN DELETE THE MP3s!!!!!!!!!

Use the feedback, Luke.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Look, if the quality was really THAT BAD, they wouldn't have made itunes able to convert AAC to mp3.

- Rob

Your argument holds no water. Who would ever consider converting their next CD to AAC if there wasn't an AAC to MP3 option built in to iTunes? Not everyone uses an iPod, not everyone uses AirPort Express and not everyone knows what the difference is between AAC and MP3.

Customer: My Rio player won't play my music.
Apple: You set iTunes to convert your music to AAC

Customer: So what do I do?
Apple: Reencode all your music then load it on to the rio.

Customer: WHAT!!! IT TOOK HOURS!
Apple: Or, select the music and convert to MP3

That being said, iTunes should probably just convert AAC to MP3 when creating an MP3 CD.

THAT BEING SAID
200 AAC music files would take around 3-4 hours to convert to an MP3 CD on a 1Ghz G4.

The average user might be a little confused why it took 15 minutes to burn one MP3 CD and three hours to burn another (one being a MP3 to MP3 cd burn and the other being an AAC -> MP3 to MP3 CD burn)

Just my 2¢

[jasong]

Why would someone with a Rio be calling Apple if their music doesn't work?

Also, the convert to . . . option simply converts the selection to whatever your current encoding preferences are set to. So if you change your default encoding preference to Apple Lossless and then right click on an MP3, you get Convert Selection to Apple Lossless. So, why is this option here? So you can rip something in lossless, and then convert it a lossy format as needed.

-- Jason

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
That being said, iTunes should probably just convert AAC to MP3 when creating an MP3 CD.

THAT BEING SAID
200 AAC music files would take around 3-4 hours to convert to an MP3 CD on a 1Ghz G4.

The average user might be a little confused why it took 15 minutes to burn one MP3 CD and three hours to burn another (one being a MP3 to MP3 cd burn and the other being an AAC -> MP3 to MP3 CD burn)

So, Rob:

1GHz G4 != "modern Mac", right?

[DeathMan]

I agree with the consensus. Apple won't do it cause It would take too long. I tried it once to see if it was worth it. It would be just as fast (or faster) to just re-rip the cds, and you'd end up with better files.

[banninated68]

It should be an option. If you disagree, I'm sorry to inform you, but you are a ****ing idiot.

- Ca$h

[banninated68]

Originally posted by Spheric Harlot:
So, Rob:

1GHz G4 != "modern Mac", right?

Relatively new, yes.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by banninated68:
It should be an option. If you disagree, I'm sorry to inform you, but you are a ****ing idiot.

- Ca$h

also known as "if you don't agree with me, you are a ****ing idiot."

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally posted by jasong:
Why would someone with a Rio be calling Apple if their music doesn't work?

You have obviously never worked Tech support

[bmedina]

Originally posted by banninated68:
Actually it might. I was asking for programmers, or somebody to hack imovie somehow to allow it to burn mp3 discs of AAC files. Why? Because it has the ability to do so, but odesn't, YET.

And we've told you that it won't happen. Doing so would require access to iTunes' source code.

Also, why are you still here?

To inform you.

You can't make me think like you do, you think you should be able to, and we all know that now. Continuing inane arguements here is not going to change that.

I'm not arguing; I'm trying to make you understand.

http://www.rjamorim.com/test/mp3-128/results.html
It's not THAT bad. It's comparable to some other codecs. If it was SO HORRIBLE it would have been 95% sure that it was worse than the others, which it is most clearly not.

The take home message of that test is:
1. Compared to some other really bad codecs, iTunes is even worse.
2. Compared to a good encoder (LAME) it's significantly worse.
Based on that, I can't see how you fail to come to the conclusion (as everyone else has) that iTunes' MP3 encoder is horrible.