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Best format to convert songs that I've downloaded from Itunes online?

post #1 of 6
9/15/09 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 
Hey guys, I'm looking to convert the M4p (or aac, or whatever, I'm a noob) songs that I've downloaded from Itunes. Meaning not songs I've ripped with itunes, but that i've purchased through itunes. Ive learned my lesson and will from now on purchase CDs.

That being said, I have a program that legally converts downloaded itunes tracks to other formats. I was thinking of converting them to lossless WMA. They're going to be played on a zune mostly.

I'm not sure what format the songs are in when downloaded. Theyre AAC in a m4p wrapper right? So what would be the best format to convert them to? Options are Mp3, WMA, AAC, and FLAC. I can choose different bitrates for each format.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
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post #2 of 6
9/15/09 at 12:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AliasNeo07 View Post
Hey guys, I'm looking to convert the M4p (or aac, or whatever, I'm a noob) songs that I've downloaded from Itunes. Meaning not songs I've ripped with itunes, but that i've purchased through itunes. Ive learned my lesson and will from now on purchase CDs.

That being said, I have a program that legally converts downloaded itunes tracks to other formats. I was thinking of converting them to lossless WMA. They're going to be played on a zune mostly.

I'm not sure what format the songs are in when downloaded. Theyre AAC in a m4p wrapper right? So what would be the best format to convert them to? Options are Mp3, WMA, AAC, and FLAC. I can choose different bitrates for each format.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Converting lossy files to a lossless format will not restore the information lost when the tracks were ripped. You will end up with a bit-perfect copy of an already degraded file. You really have nothing to gain by doing this. I suggest you concentrate on buying either uncompressed or losslessly compressed files in the future.
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post #3 of 6
9/15/09 at 3:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrBenway View Post
Converting lossy files to a lossless format will not restore the information lost when the tracks were ripped. You will end up with a bit-perfect copy of an already degraded file. You really have nothing to gain by doing this. I suggest you concentrate on buying either uncompressed or losslessly compressed files in the future.
Exactly, any conversion from those files you've downloaded from itunes will result in further degradation of an already lossy file regardless to if you're converting to a loss-less format. I'd say stick with those 256Kbs AAC files or just purchase CDs.
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post #4 of 6
9/15/09 at 4:25am
Thread Starter 
well shi* there goes hundreds of dollars.

At least i know to stop now instead of 5 years from now.

Thanks guys.
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post #5 of 6
9/15/09 at 1:39pm
If you need to convert then definitely go Apple Lossless, as it will take care of the current audio data.
Transcoding with a lossy codec like MP3 will only degrade the audio data. Aka a waste of time and sound quality.
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post #6 of 6
9/15/09 at 7:13pm
Google for "requiem". And don't upgrade to iTunes 9.
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