itunes problem

[smuggs]

i dont trust my partner near my hifi so i ripped a few cds on the laptop and then she streams them via itunesnthrought the ps3, no problems so far.

then i play vinyl and spotify so i thought why not clear my itunes and start ripping the whole cd collection on itunes ive got to 95 albums and got bored played them through the dac magic spot on.

then the problems started got a phone call and the ps3 cant pick them up now. when i rip them 128 acc the ps3 can stream them when i ripped then in apple lossless the ps3 cant find them. has the ps3/xbox have limits.

many thanks simon

 

[Messiah]

Unfortunately the PS3 cannot handle Apple Lossless

 

[smuggs]

question1- what is the best form of ripping on itunes that the ps3 can handle via a wireless network.

question2- i dont fancy re-ripping 95 albums is there anyway i can convert them all via some itunes settings.

 

[BillDay66]

Sadly by ripping at 128 aac you have compressed your music to a level which most audiophiles wouldnt accept.

There is no way round it but re rip them all, I have a similar problem in that my source is a PS3 which wont play lossless files. My answer is to get DBpoweramp, and rip my collection into apple lossless (alac) for use through itunes (if connected via usb to amp) then make an MP3 copy for going on the PS3 - change settings to 320 vbr mp3, not aac. IMO you'll be hard pressed to notice the difference between lossless anyway.

The good thing about ripping lossless as a back up this way is that if say WMA or ALAC or FLAC become the absolute dominant codec in the future then the files can be converted without loss and without re ripping them all again.

 

[Fisherking 145]

You wont have to re-rip. If you select all of your music within itunes, and right click, you will have an option to convert.

Perhaps the best way would be to create a new playlist, and drag and drop all your lossless files into that playlist, then, go into edit, preferences, and import settings, and select MP3 & custom, and set that to 320kbps. If you then select your new playlist, and select all and right click, you will be given the opportunity to convert all to MP3. It will take a while, but not anywhere near as long as re-ripping, and no need for DBpoweramp.

DBpoweramp is excellent though, well worth the money, and as BillyDay says, it's hard to notice the difference between lossless & 320kbps anyway.

Hope this helps.

 

[John Duncan]

smuggs:i dont trust my partner near my hifi

Why not?

 

[BillDay66]

Fisherking 145:

You wont have to re-rip. If you select all of your music within itunes, and right click, you will have an option to convert.

Perhaps the best way would be to create a new playlist, and drag and drop all your lossless files into that playlist, then, go into edit, preferences, and import settings, and select MP3 & custom, and set that to 320kbps. If you then select your new playlist, and select all and right click, you will be given the opportunity to convert all to MP3. It will take a while, but not anywhere near as long as re-ripping,

Im not overly familiar with aac format, but assuming aac 128 means that the original file has been compresssed to 128 bit rate, then converting this compressed file up to 320 isnt going to do anything - No program can put back the bits that have been removed in the original compression without having the source file to start with, can it?

Id love to be wrong about this, as I have several low bit rate files where I dont have the cds anymore, but I cant see it.

 

[Fisherking 145]

You are quite right BillyDay regarding not putting bits back in, but the OP says he has ripped 90 odd CD's in lossless format, these are the files I was referring to - "drag and drop your lossless files into that playlist".

Sorry if you felt I was contradicting your advice.

 

[pwiles1968]

smuggs:
question2- i dont fancy re-ripping 95 albums is there anyway i can convert them all via some itunes settings.

Have you ripped them all to Apple Lossless now?

If so as mentioned above you can convert them in iTunes, I would grab a copy of them first just in case, I have described how to do it below just in case.

-----------------------

Go in to Preferences, Import settings Select AAC then select custom & 320kbps (or your preferred Bit Rate).

From here come out in to the Music View Use a Song list, and Select All of the tracks ('Ctrl A' if you are on a PC). Right Click the Selection and about 2/3 the way down you will see 'create AAC Version', click this and leave it to run. This field will say something else if you have something other that AAC set in preferences Import Settings.

You will end up with 2 copies of each song in your library now the easiest way to filter out the ALAC ones is in Audio Song View again right click on the top bar (Name Artist etc) and add Bitrate as a column heading, Click on Bitrate in the top of the column and it will organise your songs by bitrate, anything over 320 will be ALAC (they should be 500+kbps) Select them and delete them from the library.

Hey presto you have a library with just AAC, and you should also have saved your ALAC files elsewhere on the PC in case you need them in future.

------------------------

 

[BillDay66]

Fisherking 145:

You are quite right BillyDay regarding not putting bits back in, but the OP says he has ripped 90 odd CD's in lossless format, these are the files I was referring to - "drag and drop your lossless files into that playlist".

Sorry if you felt I was contradicting your advice.

No youre right Fisherking!

misread the OP. In which case pwiles advice is spot on. Convert your alacs to a ps3 friendly format, I use 320 mp3 vbr - its in the import settings but thats your choice. Do make sure you keep your alac files as well though, so you wont ever have to re rip if a new super duper codec get invented next week

 

[smuggs]

nice one guys many thanks.