What's the highest quality iTunes ripping file format? (Lossless?)

[JWolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 6 hours was regarding encoding to fill the entire player here are the disk use numbers for the 3 albums i have tested: Code: [left]album 1 flac level 5 303,341,568 bytes flac level 8 302,899,200 bytes wavpack 301,748,224 bytes alac 304,398,336 bytes album 2 flac level 5 441,507,840 bytes flac level 8 439,734,272 bytes wavpack 435,949,568 bytes alac 440,844,288 bytes album 3 flac level 5 365,289,472 bytes flac level 8 364,175,360 bytes wavpack 361,832,448 bytes alac 367,214,592 bytes[/left] the average of all 3 of my tests is that you will get one extra album every 420 albums using flac 8 over flac 5. not worth it...

But we aren't talking FLAC level 5 vs level 8. It's FLAC level 8 vs ALAC. Come on, get it right. And given the CD I used, I worked it out that for every 87 Cds in ALAC you get another in FLAC. And I based that on actual disk space used (NTFS file system).

 

[zip22]

oh but we were talking about level 8 vs level 5
Quote:

Originally Posted by JWolf Level 5 FLAC is pointless. Level 8 is what should be used.

the average of my three sample albums would be one extra album every 240 using flac 8 instead of alac. based on actual disk space used (NTFS)

 

[Febs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWolf You don't get it.. The idea is to get more compression without a hit on the decompression. Level 5 FLAC is pointless. Level 8 is what should be used. You can let the computer do the comptression while you do something else. It's not that hard.

"Should be used"?!? You mean that it is what you would choose to use. Others may value their time more than the marginal gain in disk space.

 

[JWolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Febs "Should be used"?!? You mean that it is what you would choose to use. Others may value their time more than the marginal gain in disk space.

It's so easy to start the computer ripping a CD and then compress into level 8 FLAC while doing something else and then come back and have it be done. There's no real reason not to.

 

[Brent Hutto]

So can I leave my computer watching you guys go back and forth all day while I go do something else?

 

[DrJon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 i can use 1 single GB - $0.40

Isn't it great that storage space is so cheap now?

I'm actually thinking about putting all of my CD's onto some huge terrabyte-sized hard drive and using that to run my stereo. One barrier keeping me from that is all the time to rip the CD's (my inserting, cataloging, etc.- not processor time). Another barrier is that I'm not sure I want a computer in my room where I listen to music. I like being away from computers and work when I'm just listenting to music. Ahhh...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto So can I leave my computer watching you guys go back and forth all day while I go do something else?

He he.

 

[zip22]

if you go with alac, itunes will do all the cataloging for you.

JWOlf, you can't really set it and foget it. you need to be back at the computer every 10 minutes.

 

[JWolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 if you go with alac, itunes will do all the cataloging for you. JWOlf, you can't really set it and foget it. you need to be back at the computer every 10 minutes.

And if you use EAC, it will do it for you as well. Well, not as well at iTunes... much better in fact.

 

[ObiHuang]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWolf And if you use EAC, it will do it for you as well. Well, not as well at iTunes... much better in fact.

Dude, he means physically ejecting the CD and putting in another one. Do you realize how negligible 3% is? Do you go to sales that say "3% off!"?

 

[zip22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWolf And if you use EAC, it will do it for you as well. Well, not as well at iTunes... much better in fact.

haha, you're joking, right? i installed eac a little bit ago. it is not anywhere near as easy as itunes.

itunes - insert cd - it pops up tagged correctly - press the large "import" button and i'm done. i had to press one button and i have the alac files tagged and cataloged perfectly in folders separated by artist and album. i also have easy access to play the files from my computer and sync them with an ipod. the only way it could be any easy would be if i didn't have to press the import button (which is an option). i can even set itunes to automatically import the cd and eject it. do you know how simple that would be? to calatog an entire music library, you would need to open the cd drive, insert the first cd. it would pop out, and you drop in the next cd - etc.

i need to do some more research as to how to get eac to use flac, how i want to organize my library and tag my files in eac, and how i get it to automatically retrieve file info. maybe once i configure all that, there will be a flac button on the right side and my tags will show up automatically. maybe i can even find a setting that will import it automatically. you have to be kidding claiming that eac is much better than itunes, though. yes, i had to arduously change the import setting of itunes, but even that was many times more intiutive than eac. eac has many more options, but do all those options make your life any easier?

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 haha, you're joking, right? i installed eac a little bit ago. it is not anywhere near as easy as itunes. itunes - insert cd - it pops up tagged correctly - press the large "import" button and i'm done. i had to press one button and i have the alac files tagged and cataloged perfectly in folders separated by artist and album. i also have easy access to play the files from my computer and sync them with an ipod. i need to do some more research as to how to get eac to use flac, how i want to organize my library and tag my files in eac, and how i get it to automatically retrieve file info. maybe once i configure all that, there will be a flac button on the right side and my tags will show up automatically, but it is no where near as easy as itunes. yes, i had to arduously change the import setting of itunes, but even that was many times more intiutive than eac.

EAC is very much not too difficult. Follow the directions here:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/cse/EAC/index.html

As you can see, it can be set up very quickly. Now, I don't know how intuitively it can be done with external help. But since there are guides to setting it up, that's not too important.

Database -> Get CD information from -> remote freedb will let you access the freedb database and then you can tag things as you wish. The reason why it does not do it automatically is because there may be multiple entries in the freedb database.

There are little inputboxes for you to set the artist, album, year, etc. tags very easily and the tracks can also be renamed without much hassle.

On the other hand my experience with iTunes was not good since it seems like iTunes takes upon itself the role of prima donna, and assumes you will use it not only for ripping but also for media listening in general. I dislike it when a program makes such (imho) unfounded assumptions.

 

[zip22]

i tried the database > get info from >remote freedb. it told me i had an invalid email address. if it works, does it do it automatically? why do i need to delete wav files? does it import in wav then convert? that seems like it would take even longer than flac level 8 alone.

i also pretty much did what they instructed for getting flac to work. i was confused why the bitrate option dropdown is still around, but other than not too bad. the command line stuff i would have needed to look up.

the unfounded assumptions in your mind are very nice simplifications for joe sixpack. less time looking up tutorials for how to import a cd and more time listening. if you can get over the initial shock of the joe sixpack simplifications, itunes does a great job of taking care of everything for you.

in fact, i don't think "unfounded" is an appropriate word. you're implying that people wouldn't want to listen to the music they just encoded. itunes is, first and foremost, a media player. the assumption that a user would also want to listen to the music is actually well-founded. not wanting to listen to the media is an unfounded assumption.

 

[JWolf]

iTunes is very limited in what formats it can handle. So lets say I have an iPod with Rockbox and decide to use Wavpack as my lossless format due to it being the best one for size. iTunes won't do a thing with it. It's really not hard to manually sort your tunes. I do it all the time and it works very well and very easy. I don't have to worry about some program making a mistake because of something I forgot about or because it doesn't do it quite how I want.

 

[zip22]

so the reason you think eac is better at cataloging music than itunes is because it supports wavpack?

i'm not sure what you mean by the program making a mistake. itunes would be much harder to mess up. eac comes messed up out of the box and must be made to do what you want. there are many more chances for you to forget about something.

 

[K2Grey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by zip22 i tried the database > get info from >remote freedb. it told me i had an invalid email address. if it works, does it do it automatically? why do i need to delete wav files? does it import in wav then convert? that seems like it would take even longer than flac level 8 alone. i also pretty much did what they instructed for getting flac to work. i was confused why the bitrate option dropdown is still around, but other than not too bad. the command line stuff i would have needed to look up. the unfounded assumptions in your mind are very nice simplifications for joe sixpack. less time looking up tutorials for how to import a cd and more time listening. if you can get over the initial shock of the joe sixpack simplifications, itunes does a great job of taking care of everything for you. in fact, i don't think "unfounded" is an appropriate word. you're implying that people wouldn't want to listen to the music they just encoded. itunes is, first and foremost, a media player. the assumption that a user would also want to listen to the music is actually well-founded. not wanting to listen to the media is an unfounded assumption.

In EAC -> freedb / database options there is a place to input an email address. It need not be a real one. It is not done automatically, IIRC.

You do not need to delete any WAV files. EAC takes care of that for you. As for how it rips, it rips in WAV, then converts. I don't think there's any faster way to do it given that the information on the CD is in that form. With the exception perhaps of encoding on the fly (which saves you probably a miniscule amount of time) and that can't be good for reliability.

If one used iTunes for everything I suppose one would appreciate this integration. For myself I view it in the same light as a CD player with a speaker integrated into it, or a computer having all sorts of software preinstalled on it, and things of that general nature.