iPod/iTouch question

With an iPod/iTouch you need to use iTunes on your computer, then it's extremely easy!

Best to use Apple Lossless (ALAC) when ripping for best quality, then set up iTunes to automatically rip when a CD is loaded on your computer and automatically ejected after ripping.

It all works an absolute treat!

Steve O. I only have little 1. hand experience with iPods, but a few points worth considering.

The iPod Classic will give you much more storage space if that is of importance. 160GB versus max. 64 on the iPod Touch. Should you choose to use a full-quality encoding such as ALAC, this translates to (very) roughly, room for 350 albums on the Classic versus 140 on the Touch. For music-only I would say that the Classic is a better choice.

Your wma-files are not directly usable on any of the iPods; they have to be converted to any of the supported formats. I don't know details here, but I would suppose the conversion can happen more or less transparently either when you import the files into iTunes, or whenever you load them onto the iPod. However unless you depend on wma in other ways, I would recommend you choose some of the natively supported formats.

Hi Steve. It is unfortunate that the Apple gods wont allow replay of windows encoded tracks, especially with 300 cd's already ripped.

There is a facility for converting wma to mp3 on itunes but i've no idea how good the result might be. I suspect not nearly good enough for a decent dac. If you're determined about the ipod you may well have to rip all the cds again in itunes. (lossless for the dac and nait would be best)

The upside is that Itunes is a fabulous tool.

As bhaagensen says, a classic ipod has nearly 3 times the space of the biggest Touch but isn't as cool (by a long way). It is however relatively quick to chop and change the contents of an ipod so it may not be a problem depending on your level of patience.

Best of luck. Paul.

WMA is (surprisingly) not a particularly popular format, its usually what people use to if they simply stick with what was given them on their computer.

WMA tracks appear only to be used with windows media player, no one else cares.

There are plenty of programmes that will convert them.

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:


Best to use Apple Lossless (ALAC) when ripping for best quality, then set up iTunes

How do i do this I can't find it on my itunes

thanks

Steve, if it's an iRiver you want to replace this is what you want.
iRiver B30
I replaced my ageing H320 I bought 16G version you can add an extra 8G via a Micro Disc
I bought mine from the link above excellent service I would recommend them.....Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Diccus62:

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:


Best to use Apple Lossless (ALAC) when ripping for best quality, then set up iTunes

How do i do this I can't find it on my itunes

thanks

'lo Steve. Go to 'edit' then 'preferences'. In the 'general' tab click 'imprt settings' and in there click 'apple lossless encoder' and off you go.

I was told AIFF was the best to use, now I'm even more confused.
That's what I have been using to rip to iTunes.

Or is ALAC just for ripping to iPods etc?

munch is right ,(there has to be a first time! ) it's all getting to complicated.

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:
I was told AIFF was the best to use, now I'm even more confused.
That's what I have been using to rip to iTunes.

Or is ALAC just for ripping to iPods etc?

ALAC is to AIFF what x.zip is to x.doc - ALAC is a compressed form of AIFF. So as long as your playback devices can decompress the files quick enough (an iPod certainly can) then they'll sound identical - just like when you unzip a word processing document it looks just like the original.

To me - all this ripping stuff is nonsense - on the disributed audio thread somebody printed checksums for a file ripped different ways - all the rips were identical - every 0 and 1 in the same place. They cannot sound different - any difference heard is for other reasons such as the system has warmed up a bit.

I wonder if you play the same CD three times if it sounds different each time. Rip to ALAC with iTunes and be happy or better still just play the original CD or record it to a Sony Walkman Pro.

people lose far too much sleep over digital and ripping formats, XXX, EAC, itunes, monkey media, foobar and other paranoid enabled rippers.

Unless you cd is so badly scratched that it jumps every lossless ripper on the planet will produce identical results. Some of them might write the file header or metadata slightly differently, some might insert 1/4 or 1/2 a second of silence at the start or end of the track, but the music data stored in the file will be 100% identical in every case.

If your cd's are so badly scratched they skip, then try EAC (exact audio copy).

I spent literally days ripping the same 12 songs from 10 different cd's through about 8 different applications and in every case the files were identical. Only the cd with the song that skipped in the cd player was handled differently by any of them.

Thanks for all the replies so far guys. They are very much appreciated.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
WMA is (surprisingly) not a particularly popular format, its usually what people use to if they simply stick with what was given them on their computer.

WMA tracks appear only to be used with windows media player, no one else cares.

There are plenty of programmes that will convert them.

That's basically the story in a nutshell Garyi- up until now I haven't been bothered about the file format. The iRiver default was wma as was the Windows Media Player. It was my first mp3 player so I thought they were all the same.
I am very happy with the performance of my iRiver and was thinking iPod because of compatibility issues (docking stations etc). I am basically lazy at heart and don't want to fart about converting masses of files or re-ripping the CD's. That's got as much to do with not being bothered to learn how to do it as the actual task itself.
Maybe Jim (Blueknowz) has a point. Perhaps I should stick with the iRiver family of products.

Regards,
Steve.

None with the capacity even approaching the ipod classic though.

Everybody uses something else until they use an ipod.

You'll come over eventually

It's true. Even haters of Apple can't naysay there awesomeness.

Don't know which way to turn in all honesty.
Maybe a laptop and a DAC. I don't know. I'll put it on the back burner for a while I think. You know what they say - buy in haste, repent at leisure.
Regards,
Steve.

Steve, if you decide to stick with your WMA formattted rips, then many mp3 players, save for those from Apple, will play WMA rips. You could look at Cowon, Creative or Sensa and not go wrong. However, none have the same range of integrated docking/accessory features offered for the Apple.

That said (and I understand the pain of what I am going to suggest, because it is what I had to do in the past), if you are thinking of a DAC in the future, or wish to keep your mp3 player optons open then I seriously suggest that you start re-ripping your cd collection, either in to a lossless format or as WAV files (the latter if you share the views of some who believe there is a loss of quality in ripping to lossless).

You can then create a lossy version of your rip(mp3 is universal and, at 320kbps, as good as any lossy format) to put on to your mp3 player - indeed some rippers allow the creation of a lossless and a lossy rip at the same time.

Also, as you say you are a pc user, I will just mention that you do not need to use i-Tunes, even if you have an i-Pod - most Windows designed media management software syncs sufficiently well with an i-Pod.

quote:

Originally posted by mongo:

quote:

Originally posted by Diccus62:

quote:

Originally posted by tonym:


Best to use Apple Lossless (ALAC) when ripping for best quality, then set up iTunes

How do i do this I can't find it on my itunes

thanks

'lo Steve. Go to 'edit' then 'preferences'. In the 'general' tab click 'imprt settings' and in there click 'apple lossless encoder' and off you go.

Sorted, thanks

Thanks church warden,
I really am loath to have to re-rip 300 CD's. I think my iRiver is great and was only tempted towards iPod as I would like a docking station arrangement. My head really is spinning at the moment!Many thanks for all the help though guys!
regards,
Steve.