itunes compression
Posted by: Simon Matthews on 30 September 2004
I have been loading cd's onto itunes on my pc at 256kbs AAC. The music is then transferred to my ipod at the same quality.
Having nearly filled my mini ipods 4 gig I would now ideally like to reduce all the music on my ipod to 192kbs to free up some space for more tunes. Is this possible and if so how? Is it possible also to reduce the ipods quality without changing the quality held on my computers hard drive.
Thanks in advance.
Having nearly filled my mini ipods 4 gig I would now ideally like to reduce all the music on my ipod to 192kbs to free up some space for more tunes. Is this possible and if so how? Is it possible also to reduce the ipods quality without changing the quality held on my computers hard drive.
Thanks in advance.
Posted on: 30 September 2004 by garyi
Simon you can do this but involves doubling your traks up.
In preference change the quality to what you want.
Then select all the tracks, right click and convert to...
Once all have converted (This may take time) create a new playlist you can create a smart playlist I think to include all the tracks at the selected compression.
Then set the ipod to only import from that playlist.
Yes its a bit fiddly. What I do is have another user account called music. In there is my itunes with the ipod library. I do however have the benefit of a second harddrive to fit all this stuff onto lol.
In preference change the quality to what you want.
Then select all the tracks, right click and convert to...
Once all have converted (This may take time) create a new playlist you can create a smart playlist I think to include all the tracks at the selected compression.
Then set the ipod to only import from that playlist.
Yes its a bit fiddly. What I do is have another user account called music. In there is my itunes with the ipod library. I do however have the benefit of a second harddrive to fit all this stuff onto lol.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Simon Matthews
Garyi
Sorry if I am being a bit stupid here. As opposed to setting up specific playlists what I want to do is just reduce the size of the one on my computer so that it creates more space on my ipod when it directly transfers.
If I pick a number of songs and with the right mouse key select 'convert to AAC' then will that convert files into the kbs rate last set? I set importing to 192kbs and tried this but once file conversion had occured I noticed no drop in the overall disk space used up. I must be missing a trick here.
Sorry if I am being a bit stupid here. As opposed to setting up specific playlists what I want to do is just reduce the size of the one on my computer so that it creates more space on my ipod when it directly transfers.
If I pick a number of songs and with the right mouse key select 'convert to AAC' then will that convert files into the kbs rate last set? I set importing to 192kbs and tried this but once file conversion had occured I noticed no drop in the overall disk space used up. I must be missing a trick here.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Hawk
Simon,
It may sound a bit of a pain or OTT, but i strongly recommend that you consider buying an external hard drive like one of the Lacie ones on the apple site if your worried about the space on your computer.. they are getting cheaper by the day and you can store a big library of low compression music for quality without worrying about the space... There are utilities you can get that switch your iTunes from one library to another if you want to keep it as simple as possble... If on the other hand its only the space on the pod that your worried about then as gary said you can put higher compression versions of each song in your iTunes library either by converting or reimporting at a diff rate. You will be able to transfer only the high comp smaller files to the iPod by setting the playlists to transfer. Ie you could have a playlist that contains all the high comp songs only...
To answer your question about converting to AAC, I dont think doing it by that method will change the compression. Changing the import setting will only effect new imports...
Rgds
Neil
It may sound a bit of a pain or OTT, but i strongly recommend that you consider buying an external hard drive like one of the Lacie ones on the apple site if your worried about the space on your computer.. they are getting cheaper by the day and you can store a big library of low compression music for quality without worrying about the space... There are utilities you can get that switch your iTunes from one library to another if you want to keep it as simple as possble... If on the other hand its only the space on the pod that your worried about then as gary said you can put higher compression versions of each song in your iTunes library either by converting or reimporting at a diff rate. You will be able to transfer only the high comp smaller files to the iPod by setting the playlists to transfer. Ie you could have a playlist that contains all the high comp songs only...
To answer your question about converting to AAC, I dont think doing it by that method will change the compression. Changing the import setting will only effect new imports...
Rgds
Neil
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Simon Matthews
I am not worried about space on my computers hard drive, I want to free space on my ipod by increasing the AAC ccompression from 256 to 192kbs on all songs already imported.
I have created a new playlist by dragging and dropping the tracks from the default playlist. I am still looking for an answer to how I can re-compress already imported files. If I convert to AAC a particular song it remains at its existing compression rate which is not what I want.
I have created a new playlist by dragging and dropping the tracks from the default playlist. I am still looking for an answer to how I can re-compress already imported files. If I convert to AAC a particular song it remains at its existing compression rate which is not what I want.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by garyi
Simon, if all you want to do is reduce the quality of the imported ones. Goto prefs change the import to the quality you want, then select all tracks right click and 'convert to..'
Then once complete delete the originals.
Then once complete delete the originals.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Simon Matthews
Garyi
I am trying to do exactly that but with no success. When I do as you explained it does not alter the bit rate or create a second version. Is this because I am trying to convert AAC to AAC rather than another compression type to AAC?
I want to avoid the hassle of reimporting cd's at lower bit rates, surely AAC can recompress larger AAC files.
I am trying to do exactly that but with no success. When I do as you explained it does not alter the bit rate or create a second version. Is this because I am trying to convert AAC to AAC rather than another compression type to AAC?
I want to avoid the hassle of reimporting cd's at lower bit rates, surely AAC can recompress larger AAC files.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by garyi
Umm, this should not be a problem, but I am at work I will have a look when I get home, I am confident it can do it as I started the process myself, but it takes ages!
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by garyi
Another way Matthew would be to download an convertor application, they are avaialble on version tracker, set it to work on your itunes folder then drag the whole lot into itunes.
Yes I know its a pain
Yes I know its a pain
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Hawk
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Simon Matthews
Thanks guys.
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Paul Stephenson
Tight ass Simon you should have bought the grown up pod!
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by garyi
ha ha, yea a 'mans pod'
Posted on: 01 October 2004 by Simon Matthews
Paul
My junior pod suits me nicely, as long as it still works with that system connection soln you guys are releasing.....
Anyhow Garyi, I got a soln. I was trying to change bit rates within a playlist rather than at the top 'library' level.
As an aside, is there an incresed quality loss to go to 192kbs after previously creating the file from CD at 256kbs as opposed to going to 192kbs directly from CD??
My junior pod suits me nicely, as long as it still works with that system connection soln you guys are releasing.....
Anyhow Garyi, I got a soln. I was trying to change bit rates within a playlist rather than at the top 'library' level.
As an aside, is there an incresed quality loss to go to 192kbs after previously creating the file from CD at 256kbs as opposed to going to 192kbs directly from CD??