[Relayer71]

What is the best way to change AAC files from Itunes to MP3 or WMA files to listen to on Windows Media Player?

Thanks!

 

[ZackT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Relayer71 What is the best way to change AAC files from Itunes to MP3 or WMA files to listen to on Windows Media Player? Thanks!

Unless you're gonna get third party software - as it's AAC I'd use iTunes to make MP3 files at the resolution you want:

Go to "Preferences" >> "Advanced" >> "Importing" >> then change to MP3 encoder

Then select the tracks you want to convert and then either right click or advanced drop down menu. "Convert to MP3"

Remember you'll now have two copies of the song in your lib one AAC and one MP3.

Find the actual MP3 file produced and it should work fine.

ZT

 

[Chri5peed]

Transcoding is bad, mmkay.

 

[Relayer71]

Any good 3rd party programs?
It's not for me, it's for a friend who uses Itunes at home for her Ipod.

She had a lot of songs transfered to her work PC through Itunes but had Itunes removed due to company policy.
So now she has all these songs in AAC format and wants to listen to them through WMP.

 

[PodMan]

other programs besides itunes are able to play AAC. the simplest and one of the best is foobar2000.
http://www.foobar2000.org/


dbPowerAMP can mass convert between AAC and MP3.
http://www.dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

 

[ILikeMusic]

Yeah, no need to transcode everything, there are many small apps that can play .AAC files that would probably remain under the IT department's radar.

 

[ameyer17]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ILikeMusic Yeah, no need to transcode everything, there are many small apps that can play .AAC files that would probably remain under the IT department's radar.

Unless they're the C.R.A.P.-infested ones from iTunes.

 

[blessingx]

iTunes is a program. If you're trying to be cool with the abbreviations use iTMS.

 

[slinger1182]

Yeah, transcoding is a really bad idea. Just re-rip your cds.

 

[mail4u]

I tried converting AAC to MP3 and found that it would not convert protected AAC files. I had to create an audio disk and read it into WMP that way.

 

[Tech2]

This is why I stopped using iTunes (and no longer own an iPod). If you are talking about converting copy protected songs, you really won't be able to because of DRM/licensing issues. There used to be a way stripping out the DRM and then converting them using dbPoweramp, but there is a question of legality so I won't go into detail.

 

[mail4u]

That's the problem with protection. We're are not trying to create bootleg copies; we're just trying to make the music files compatible with the equipment we own. I subscribe to Yahoo streaming music to find and hear music I might be interested in purchasing. When I find something I like, I purchase the CD and to heck with the download.

Also, if itunes doesn't add streaming music to their service soon I think they'll see more and more people turning away from them.

 

[SilverBlade]

Best way I found to retain quality while converting one format to another is to convert to WAV first.

So for you it would be AAC>WAV>mp3

There's an extra step, yes, but its the best way if you want to keep the quality in the file.

 

[scratchyvinyl]

Just remember that you're losing a lot of fidelity re-compressing between different lossy codecs. Think of it almost like making a photocopy from a photocopy.

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverBlade Best way I found to retain quality while converting one format to another is to convert to WAV first. So for you it would be AAC>WAV>mp3 There's an extra step, yes, but its the best way if you want to keep the quality in the file.

This accomplishes absolutely NOTHING in terms of preserving sound quality, I am sorry to say. It's still taking a lossy-compressed file, and then using a different codec to lossy-compress it again. The intermediate step of converting it to WAV cannot get back what the AAC codec took out in the first place. Might as well just use something like dbpoweramp to do the conversion, but as many here have said, the resulting file will really not sound very good. Transcoding between lossy formats really is a bad idea.