[Mithras]

So my dad is just getting set up with an iPod and soon an iMac. This will be used mostly as an mp3 jukebox, so I want ripping CDs to be as fast and easy as possible.

Here's my idea: To make ripping very fast, I'll set iTunes to use the AIFF importer. That pulls down the file as fast as the optical drive can read it. That way my dad can quickly feed a bunch of CDs into the computer. Plus, this way, if he wants to make a quick copy of a CD, he won't have the AIFF>mp3>AIFF loss of quality.

Then, overnight, I'll have some kind of script that will look through the iTunes music library for AIFF tracks, and encode them to high-quality mp3s.

Any suggestions for how to do this? Should I just use a shell script to search for .aiff files? One challenge is that reading the id3 information from the AIFF files doesn't seem to work directly. Hmmm, perhaps mdls will help here? And how can I programmatically remove the old files from the iTunes database, and insert the new ones? (I know many programs, including iPodderX, JHymn, etc., do this kind of thing, so it must not be too tricky...)

Any advice? Does this sound like a good idea?

[nonhuman]

It's been a while since I looked into anything like this, but it shouldn't be difficult at all to use a CLI mp3 encoder, a shell script of some flavor, and a cron job to do this.

[wtmcgee]

the only problem would be that the iTunes library would be looking for the unconverted .aif files. You'd have to come up with a way to have the script replace the old files with the new .mp3 files

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by wtmcgee

the only problem would be that the iTunes library would be looking for the unconverted .aif files. You'd have to come up with a way to have the script replace the old files with the new .mp3 files

Wouldn't be difficult to write a script to change the filenames in the iTunes library folder. It would just be a global search and replace as the paths to the songs are readable text.

[Mithras]

For anyone looking to do this: I found this AIFF->mp3 script, which is useful for transferring the iTunes id3 tags. I still need to work on updating the iTunes library, however. I'll report back with progress.

[dreilly1]

There are Perl modules on CPAN available to make changes to the iTunes library. I looked into them at one point, but I'm a hardware guy, not a software guy, and decided that my Perl Kung-Foo was not good enough....

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by Mithras

For anyone looking to do this: I found this AIFF->mp3 script, which is useful for transferring the iTunes id3 tags. I still need to work on updating the iTunes library, however. I'll report back with progress.

Hmm, I used to have a global search and replace utility that I wrote in Python that would definitely do the trick for updating the iTunes library. I'll see if I still have it anywhere.

[bmedina]

It's pretty easy to do this within iTunes.
1) Change the encoder prefs to MP3.
2) Select all files in a smart playlist you've created that contains only AIFF files, and choose Advanced->Convert to MP3.
3) Change the encoder back to AIFF for further ripping.

Two questions, though:
1) Do you have any idea how much time it saves to rip to AIFF rather than MP3?
2) Why MP3 rather than AAC?

Oh, and this is one more reason Apple should allow the option to automatically encode songs when they go onto the iPod. Then your dad could have lossless copies on his computer and lossy copies on the iPod, with absolutely no extra work from you or your dad.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by bmedina

Oh, and this is one more reason Apple should allow the option to automatically encode songs when they go onto the iPod. Then your dad could have lossless copies on his computer and lossy copies on the iPod, with absolutely no extra work from you or your dad.

Ooh, that is a good idea. Although the time overhead might be a bit much, especially on older Macs.