[Appleman]

Do I have to insert all my 600 CD's into my Mac again?

Or is there a more clever method?

[Stratus Fear]

Originally posted by Appleman:
Do I have to insert all my 600 CD's into my Mac again?

Or is there a more clever method?

If you want to retain quality, use the CDs again. I wouldn't recommend converting from MP3 to AAC, you'll lose quality. Unless you want to rip CDs again, I'd leave the current files in MP3 format.

[Appleman]

Originally posted by Stratus Fear:
If you want to retain quality, use the CDs again. I wouldn't recommend converting from MP3 to AAC, you'll lose quality. Unless you want to rip CDs again, I'd leave the current files in MP3 format.

Assuming I like the quality of the MP3's, AAC would give me more space, isn't?

So instead of 2000 songs f.i. 3000 songs on a 10 GB iPod.

[Stratus Fear]

Originally posted by Appleman:
Assuming I like the quality of the MP3's, AAC would give me more space, isn't?

So instead of 2000 songs f.i. 3000 songs on a 10 GB iPod.

This is true. Again, though, if you want to keep good quality, you'll want to re-rip your CDs to AAC. Converting the MP3s to AAC will sound worse and probably won't make the extra storage worth it. if you do that, you might as well reencode the MP3 with a lower bitrate

[mikellanes]

I know it probably varies but what amount of space savings would one see by converting say 15GB of MP3 to AAC?

This would be using the CD>AAC method and not MP3>AAC

Could I now fit all these songs on my 10GB iPod?

[Appleman]

Originally posted by mikellanes:
I know it probably varies but what amount of space savings would one see by converting say 15GB of MP3 to AAC?

This would be using the CD>AAC method and not MP3>AAC

Could I now fit all these songs on my 10GB iPod?

Well, you live in the States, so following Apple's way of thinking that should be possible...

[Richyfp]

Possibly the most useful feature of iTunes 4 is that you can now convert songs to different formats in the following way:

Select the format that you wish to convert to in the Importing pane of Preferences. Then choose the songs that you want to convert by selecting them all in your music library. Go to Advanced>Convert Selection to AAC/MP3/AIFF/WAV... and wait!!!

Brilliant.

[mikellanes]

I will have to test some more, but I just encoded a song file to

1) MP3-192 kbps - Around 8 MB
2) AAC-96 kbps - Around 4.1 MB

The sound is almost Identical, not CD quality in some lows & highs but very nice.

so I can get almost 50% more songs on my iPod?

But perhaps my test is flawed, I will try some more tonight!

[Appleman]

Originally posted by Richyfp:
Possibly the most useful feature of iTunes 4 is that you can now convert songs to different formats in the following way:

Select the format that you wish to convert to in the Importing pane of Preferences. Then choose the songs that you want to convert by selecting them all in your music library. Go to Advanced>Convert Selection to AAC/MP3/AIFF/WAV... and wait!!!

Brilliant.

WOW!!!! This is exactly what I wanted! It's busy now, CPU on 100% but who cares in such a beautiful moment! Thanks a lot, I hadn't seen this feature!

Thanks!

[Krusty]

Originally posted by mikellanes:
I know it probably varies but what amount of space savings would one see by converting say 15GB of MP3 to AAC?

This would be using the CD>AAC method and not MP3>AAC

Could I now fit all these songs on my 10GB iPod?

The space savings can be calculated precisely ... no need to guess how much space you will save.

What bit rate are your mp3s encoded at ?

Tip: the bit rate of a file determines it size.
128kbps AAC is EXACTLY the same size as a 128kbps MP3. If your MP3s are encoded at 160kbps then reencoding them at 128kbp AAC will result in files that are 4/5 (128/160) the size of the MP3s.


Please see http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/...18170551.shtml for an explanation of bit rates, etc.

[itai195]

You'll definitely want to re-encode your CDs to AAC instead of mp3->AAC to retain quality... In terms of storage space, say on a 10GB iPod, you could fit about 2500 songs in AAC instead of 2000 in mp3... following Apple's standards of 160kbps mp3/128kbps AAC, about 4 minutes per song. Not too shabby at all. I was initially hesitant to encode all my CDs into AAC (especially because I'd have to rebuild my playlists) but for space savings like that, maybe it's worth it. I encode my mp3s at VBR with 160 as the minimum though, so I wonder what bitrate in AAC would be comparable.

[mikellanes]

if you are used to 160 on your MP3 i would try 96 kbps on the AAC, its VERY hard to notice a difference in my world.

plus the 50% space savings is NICE