itunes question ??

[Shimmyhill]

I am now using the Windows version of itunes

As im moving to a lappy next week i want to reencode my mp3's and wma's to the itunes AAC format

What is the best software avaiiliable for this ??

[The Guppy]

iTunes should have a "Convert selection to AAC" option somewhere. (I forget where, one of the menus I think.) You could convert your WMAs to MP3s and then convert them into AACs, but I think that would knacker the quality a lot.

Don't convert anything that you have on CD. Re-rip it.

[weresheep]

I am not sure what you mean so I will use a two prong attack

1)
If you mean "I have my CDs encoded in MP3/WMA and I would like to import them into iTunes' native AAC format" then iTunes itself is the best way to go. iTunes should mount the CD inside itself and give you the option to import (rip + encode) the CD. View the iTunes prefs to set what encoding you want iTunes to use.


2)
If you mean "I have a number of MP3s and WMA files but no original source material, how to I encode an AAC file directly from an MP3/WMA" then I would first of all say don't bother, at least for the MP3s. Transcoding from one lossy format directly to another will result in a loss of quality. Unless you are really not bothered about how the music sounds. iTunes + iPods can play MP3s fine so I would just add them (drag and drop) to iTunes and let them stay as MP3s. WMA on the other hand cannot be played by iTunes so I guess you'd have to convert them if you don't have access to the original source.

I don't know off the top of my head how you'd do this, but I imagine you should be able to go WMA -> WAV -> AAC. The WAV -> AAC can be done by iTunes but I don't know how to do WMA -> WAV. I don't think this should be difficult though.

Hope that helps. I am no where near an expert but happy to help in anyway.

-weresheep

[Shimmyhill]

Cheers,

I do have the cd's as a rule but its all the effort involved in re-rippind them.

Will there not be a Codec that will allow itunes to play WMA ?? Im aware that its apple vs MS but surely if itunes wants to be the best it should be able to play them all?

[Dazzla]

There's no codec to play WMA in iTunes. Converting MP3/WMA to AAC is also a bad idea because you're going from an already lossy file to another lossy format. Transcoding = The Devil.

Best off leaving your MP3s as they are and re-ripping your WMAs or just reripping the entire lot if you're feeling up to it

[weresheep]

I don't think Apple will be bringing WMA support to iTunes/iPods for a couple of reasons.

Firstly WMA is a Microsoft technology and therefore MS control it.

Secondly, Apple have the worlds most successful portable digital music player and the worlds most successful online music store. Apple obviously believe that people will move to their choice of format to use their products.

My advice would be to rip everything again in either MP3 or AAC format. Sucks time wise I know, but hopefully you wont have to do it again for some time

-weresheep