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naphtali · Sep 17, 2005, 05:20 AM

Hi guys

After iTunes 5 came out with the option to encode CDs to VBR AAC, I was wondering if I ought to re-rip my CDs when I was free.

Should I wait for the rumoured High-Efficiency AAC option instead? Or does that just refer to VBR?

Thanks!

wataru · Sep 17, 2005, 10:13 AM

HE-AAC is intended for low-bitrate streaming applications, not a personal library of music. I wouldn't wait for it.

Apfhex · Sep 17, 2005, 01:24 PM

Use VBR AAC.

Once I get some better speakers I'm going to re-rip what I can in high bitrate VBR AAC. One interesting note, a CD I recently ripped as 192k VBR AAC isn't marked as VBR. Is this a limitation of AAC or iTunes, or does it just not work the same way as MP3? It *would* be nice to know what's VBR.

EFFENDI · Sep 17, 2005, 01:33 PM

I alweays use Apple Lossless right from the beginning. Mathematically, it retains all the audio information that full-resolution CD audio has, therfore, if I need to convert to lower-filesize formats later on its much easier than re-ripping my entire CD collection.

naphtali · Sep 18, 2005, 04:01 AM

Originally Posted by wataru

HE-AAC is intended for low-bitrate streaming applications, not a personal library of music. I wouldn't wait for it.

Does that mean that AAC VBR is as good as AAC gets?

Thanks for the answers guys! Really appreciate it!

Busemann · Sep 18, 2005, 07:04 AM

Originally Posted by naphtali

Does that mean that AAC VBR is as good as AAC gets?

Thanks for the answers guys! Really appreciate it!

Yes, HE-AAC is only for bitrates below 64kbps. I have re-ripped some of my CD's to 192kbps VBR and are doing the same to the lossless albums that really doesn't need to be in lossless (192 sounds absolutely perfect to me).

wataru · Sep 18, 2005, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by naphtali

Does that mean that AAC VBR is as good as AAC gets?

Thanks for the answers guys! Really appreciate it!

I don't know if there are other variants that Apple hasn't implemented that might be even better, but of what's available in iTunes right now I think VBR must be the best.

power142 · Sep 18, 2005, 07:39 PM

I use Apple lossless to archive the music from CD and then use a library of 192kbps AAC for my iPod. It would only take me a couple of clicks to reconvert all my music to utilize VBR AAC, but I figure if I just do this in iTunes, I would lose my last played counts and ratings.

Does anyone know how I could just replace the existing files without losing my counts and ratings? Maybe I'll backup my iTunes library and try it.....

naphtali · Sep 19, 2005, 02:20 AM

Originally Posted by power142

Does anyone know how I could just replace the existing files without losing my counts and ratings? Maybe I'll backup my iTunes library and try it.....

I think you could try this:

1) Temporarily drag your iTunes music library files (XML and audio files etc) somewhere else eg your desktop.

2) Launch iTunes again, have it create a new temporary library. This will make it such that you need not weed out the duplicates / risk losing your counts and ratings.

3) Drag the Apple Lossless files onto the iTunes window, the re-rip. Transfer the new VBR AAC files from the new temporary library folder to the old music folder.

I think this should work as long as the file names and extensions are the same because, if memory serves, the counts and ratings are stored in the XML file.

power142 · Sep 19, 2005, 02:00 PM

naphtali, thanks for the info and sorry to thread hijack!

I followed your suggest very closely, only using iTunes Library Manager to be able to switch between libraries, achieves the same thing as backing them up.

Anyhow, so without iTunes running, I sneakily move one of the tracks into a new folder ~/Music/Backup and take the file for the same track (encoded in VBR AAC, although iTunes doesn't mention VBR in Info) from ~/Music/VBR (the location of the new, temporary lossless->VBR music) and drop it into the location occupied by the original file.
Here's the strange bit - when I launch iTunes, find the track in question and look at Info, it gives <home>:Music:Backup:<trackname> - iTunes knows where the original file is and is still using it! Now, I've moved the backed up file back to its original location and iTunes is playing it as I type. Very interesting...

naphtali · Sep 19, 2005, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by power142

naphtali, thanks for the info and sorry to thread hijack!

I followed your suggest very closely, only using iTunes Library Manager to be able to switch between libraries, achieves the same thing as backing them up.

Anyhow, so without iTunes running, I sneakily move one of the tracks into a new folder ~/Music/Backup and take the file for the same track (encoded in VBR AAC, although iTunes doesn't mention VBR in Info) from ~/Music/VBR (the location of the new, temporary lossless->VBR music) and drop it into the location occupied by the original file.
Here's the strange bit - when I launch iTunes, find the track in question and look at Info, it gives <home>:Music:Backup:<trackname> - iTunes knows where the original file is and is still using it! Now, I've moved the backed up file back to its original location and iTunes is playing it as I type. Very interesting...

That's pretty clever of Apple! (not sarcastic)

Does it work if you delete the backup folder? Or perhaps you could go to iTunes preferences -> Advanced -> Change Music Folder Location to force it to use your new folder

Hope it all works out!

DeathMan · Sep 20, 2005, 01:04 AM

Apple uses file pointers to keep track of files, rather than simple locations. This is why you can move applications around and they still work. I don't have any suggestions about the location problem, though.

power142 · Sep 20, 2005, 05:13 PM

OK, thanks, I'll have another try and see what happens and report back later.

power142 · Sep 20, 2005, 05:50 PM

This is interesting... I archived the original file from ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ and deleted the local copy. I then copied the file from ~/Music/VBR/ to ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ and fired up iTunes and not only did it play just fine, but it retained the Play Count and other info. I still don't see any indication in iTunes that the file is VBR, so I'm assuming this is normal.

When I looked in the iTunes Music Library.xml, I noticed that the Size field had been updated to the new file size.

Now to tackle my main music library....

SS3 GokouX · Sep 21, 2005, 11:08 AM

Wow, this is new. I have a bunch of VBR AACs that I encoded using QuickTime 7, in iTunes 4, it wouldn't say it was a VBR AAC but the bit rate would be the average bit rate (not the typical 128, 160, 192 etc.). Now iTunes 5 states that the bit rate of those same files is the closest typical bit rate (all of mine are suddenly 128 kbps). But if I open these in QuickTime Player and show the Info window, it states the real average bit rate.

Why would they change that? All of my VPR MP3s are still listed as VBR. Now I won't be able to easily tell which AACs of mine need to be re-ripped as VBR from within iTunes.

power142: iTunes has always used file pointers. My method: Quit iTunes, make a copy of the original file, send the original to the trash, empty the trash, put my new file in its place (a better encode of the same track but I want to keep my ratings and play count), open up iTunes, get info on the track, and everything gets updated (or it'll ask me to locate it if the file extension changed), then I throw out copy after I know everything works.

It's a bit of a hassle, especially if you want to update lots of songs. Too bad there's no 'Replace...' button in the Get Info window or under the Advanced menu.