Converting Library to MP3

2000 cd's will take a while, but no you don't lose the rest of the functionality in the meantime.  But some tasks may be slow.

You don't want to convert to mp3. Just make an LQ copy of those you need in the car. You can then set the Serve to make an mp3 copy of new rips.

LQ copy?  Not familiar with this? Is this done in the n-serve app?  What codec does it convert to?  

Go into the DTC. Find the album you want, right click and select add to mp3 library. You can choose the bitrate - I use the highest 320 and then import to the iTunes library.

If you connect your ipod to itunes you can select in the overview window the option that your music will be converted into aac. So no need to convert your wav before.

cheers

Ralf

Yes what you really want to do is what HH said -- maybe that's what you meant originally.  You want to keep your lossless files for home use, and use n-Serve to make a separate set of mp3 files.  They end up in the LQ folder on the uServe's Store. 

Thanks for the replies.  I've started the MP3 (320K) conversion process.  Can I link iTunes to the LQ folder on the network without having to transfer the files onto my laptop?  

I am pretty sure that you need to "import" music files into iTunes, as opposed to just being able to point it to a folder and have it index what's in it the way a UPnP server would.

Importing the mp3's into iTunes was way more time consuming and error prone for me than the prior step of getting the uServe to convert.

UnitiServe crashed on my first attempt to batch convert 15 albums.  Does the n-serve app on my laptop need to be running during the transcoding process?

You need to do the creation of an mp3 copy via the desktop client. I converted about 45 albums a couple of days ago. You can set them all going and look in the encoding monitor to check progress.

You then have to go into iTunes and import the albums one by one - 45 albums took about four hours to do. You can either wait to the end of the encoding process, or import them as they finish converting. It's a very simple process, but a trifle dull.

I have changed my iTunes location to my NAS drive.

You will find that iTunes creates a folder called "Automatically add to iTunes". If you put your new files into this folder iTunes will automatically import and move the files for you.

When I rip using dbPoweramp I have it set to rip an mp3 copy to this directory. When I open iTunes it all appears like magic.

Richard