[koshercuts]

Bought an album from da iStore.

Hooked up my oldish Rio Chiba.

Updated iTunes and installed the Rio plug-in
that allows iTunes to recgognize the player.

The RIO shows up.
The current playlist shows up,
with free space available, etc.

PROBLEM is it doesn't want to recognize mp4 files!

Anyone know about a workaround,
like a way to "unlock" and convert an MP4 file?

thanks.

[Randman]

No way to unlock a tune from the iTMS.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Randman:
No way to unlock a tune from the iTMS.

Burning to CD and re-ripping is a working and legal way to unlock an iTMS song.

[Millennium]

There are programs which will allow you to break the iTunes DRM. Their legality is currently a very large gray area in the US; they are technically illegal but the laws themselves are of questionable validity. Even once you've done this, however, you will need to re-encode the song to a format which the Rio supports, such as MP3.

Burning and re-ripping is, however, unquestionably legal.

[koshercuts]

I have already tried the method of burning to CD and
then re-importing to iTunes from the CD. I still can
not convert the tracks as they remain locked as mp4s.

Any recommendations on conversion programs
for mp4? - I don't want to get anyone in trouble here...

thanks.

[Goldfinger]

Originally posted by koshercuts:
I have already tried the method of burning to CD and
then re-importing to iTunes from the CD. I still can
not convert the tracks as they remain locked as mp4s.

Any recommendations on conversion programs
for mp4? - I don't want to get anyone in trouble here...

thanks.

You need to burn your CD as an audio cd (CDDA) not an MP3-cd or data CD from within iTunes.

[koshercuts]

bingo. thanks!

[Moose]

Originally posted by Millennium:
they are technically illegal but the laws themselves are of questionable validity

The laws that the Congress passes and the President signs are the laws until and unless the Courts say otherwise.

Play with fire and you stand a good chance of getting burned.

Even once you've done this, however, you will need to re-encode the song to a format which the Rio supports, such as MP3.

Resulting in a file that sounds like you recorded it over a cellphone.

[ghporter]

Originally posted by Moose:
The laws that the Congress passes and the President signs are the laws until and unless the Courts say otherwise.

Play with fire and you stand a good chance of getting burned.

Resulting in a file that sounds like you recorded it over a cellphone.

First off, the laws that Millenium refered to are "of questionable validity" because their theoretical foundations have been successfully challenged, and they want only a direct challenge themselves to topple. The problem is that it is very expensive and time consuming to set up a situation that would allow their individual validity to be challenged.

As for "sounds like you recorded it over a cellphone," I don't know what you use to burn audio CDs, but I've never had a problem producing high quality audio burning with either a Mac or a PC. And re-ripping an audio CD into an MP3-at whatever sample rate you choose-is the only way to bork this process up. I use the highest rate my software supports, always a lot higher than audio CDs support, and my music sounds great.

[Goldfinger]

Originally posted by ghporter:
I use the highest rate my software supports, always a lot higher than audio CDs support, and my music sounds great.

The highest bitrate for mp3 is 320kbps, uncompressed CD audio is 1440kbps (or thereabouts).

I must add that you do lose a lot of sound quality but the "sounds like a cell phone" comment is quite exagerated.

[koshercuts]

actually, i converted the ripped AIFF
files into mp3 at 128 and it sounds
fantastic through good headphones.

no complaints here!

[Big Mac]

I don't see how re-ripping an iTMS file is so clearly illegal. Apple explicitly states that you are within your rights to burn said file in data or audio CD format. They do not specify any proviso after that, either. If it is permissible to burn to audio CD, then it should be permissible to re-rip with the same software that you used to burn the CD. And Moose, while you are right about a law being a law unless and until the courts say otherwise, judicial review is a powerful process in American jurisprudence.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I don't see how re-ripping an iTMS file is so clearly illegal.

It's clearly legal. Nobody argued otherwise. Apple grants you the right to burn unprotected Audio CDs. And ripping unprotected Audio CDs for personal use is legal fair use.

[Moose]

Originally posted by ghporter:
First off, the laws that Millenium refered to are "of questionable validity" because their theoretical foundations have been successfully challenged, and they want only a direct challenge themselves to topple. The problem is that it is very expensive and time consuming to set up a situation that would allow their individual validity to be challenged.

Successfully challenged? Please point me to a PDF of a decision of an appellate court. Until a court rules, no challenge to the law has been "successful."

As for "sounds like you recorded it over a cellphone," I don't know what you use to burn audio CDs, but I've never had a problem producing high quality audio burning with either a Mac or a PC.

I don't care what software you use to burn a CD. You're not going to get "high quality audio" by burning a track you purchase from the iTunes Music Store.

And re-ripping an audio CD into an MP3-at whatever sample rate you choose-is the only way to bork this process up.

This is (roughly) what he wants to do. Read the original post before replying, please.

I use the highest rate my software supports, always a lot higher than audio CDs support, and my music sounds great.

When you rip CDs, you use the highest rate your software supports? This rate is "a lot higher" than what audio CDs support? Please tell me what rate this is, and explain what benefit this has for you.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by TETENAL:
It's clearly legal. Nobody argued otherwise. Apple grants you the right to burn unprotected Audio CDs. And ripping unprotected Audio CDs for personal use is legal fair use.

I suppose I misread Millennium's post, because I thought he wrote that it was unquestionably illegal.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Big Mac:
I suppose I misread Millennium's post, because I thought he wrote that it was unquestionably illegal.

He said the exact opposite.

hymn will let you "unlock" M4P files.

[ghporter]

Moose, I don't have the right library handy right here, but the Digital Millenium Copyright Act has had several major pillars knocked out from under it in the last year or so, and Hollywood's paid lawmakers (especially the Honorable Mr. Hatch) are on shaky ground both legally and politically in trying to patch it. I'm no lawyer, just a fan of freedom of expression and the legal use of purchased, copyrighted materials, and I'm hoping to see DCMA go down in the flames it deserves.

Originally posted by Moose:
This is (roughly) what he wants to do. Read the original post before replying, please.

Sorry, I was not clear in what I typed. Re-ripping incorrectly, i.e. using a dirty drive to read the CD, choosing a bad codec (depending on your software), choosing a low sample rate, and so on, are the ways you can screw this up. If you re-rip the CD properly at worst the audio quality will be that of an original CD.

Originally posted by Moose:
When you rip CDs, you use the highest rate your software supports? This rate is "a lot higher" than what audio CDs support? Please tell me what rate this is, and explain what benefit this has for you.

The highest standard sample rate I know of for MP3 rippers is 320kbps, though some software offers custom rates higher than that.

Originally posted by Goldfinger:
The highest bitrate for mp3 is 320kbps, uncompressed CD audio is 1440kbps (or thereabouts).

Apples and oranges. Compressed data sampled at a lower rate can easily provide a deeper datastream than uncompressed data at a higher sample rate. "CD quality" MP3 sampling is generally quoted as being 128kbps.

[analogika]

Originally posted by ghporter:
The highest standard sample rate I know of for MP3 rippers is 320kbps, though some software offers custom rates higher than that.

Apples and oranges. Compressed data sampled at a lower rate can easily provide a deeper datastream than uncompressed data at a higher sample rate. "CD quality" MP3 sampling is generally quoted as being 128kbps.

Yes, that is unfortunate.

It should be obvious to anyone with a basic grasp of what happens when you compress to a lossy format that NO mp3 is "CD quality", even if the audio equipment used by that person is sub-par enough not to expose the audible difference in quality, or if said person simply doesn't care as long as it's "good enough" (which is fine by me).

The same goes, of course, for the AAC files downloaded off iTMS.

However, the original poster has already declared that it sounds absolutely fine to him re-ripped from a CD, and that the files work on his Rio. These two things are all that matters in this context.

I declare this thread happily resolved.



-s*