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Sol

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 14, 2003
1,564
6
Australia
The latest iTunes has a feature that is sure to please those of us who care about the audio quality of our music libraries. On the Summary tab of iTunes that we see when an iPod is connected to the computer, we have had the option to convert higher bit-rate songs to 128 kbps files without altering the high quality originals on the computer. As of the last iOS and/or iTunes update, we now get to choose between 128, 192 and 256 kbps! It might seem like a little thing but I for one appreciate the option to maximise the quality of my portable music library.

A word of warning to anyone who uses this option; the initial transcoding/sync can take days depending on the number of tracks and speed of the computer but after that, each sync is the same as before.

If you have great headphones and love music then you owe it to yourself to use this upgraded feature.
 
Last edited:

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,565
The latest iTunes has a feature that is sure to please those of us who care about the audio quality of our music libraries. On the Summary tab of iTunes that you see when an iPod is connected to the computer, we have had the option to convert higher bit-rate songs to 128 kbps files without altering the high quality originals on the computer. As of the last iOS and/or iTunes update, we now get to choose between 128, 192 and 256 kbps! It might seem like a little thing but I for one appreciate the option to maximise the quality of my portable music library.

A word of warning to anyone who uses this option; the initial transcoding/sync can take days depending on the number of tracks and speed of the computer but after that each sync is the same as before.

If you have great headphones and love music then you owe it to yourself to use this upgraded feature.

Excellent tip. Most my music now is iTunes Match, and a small percentage lossless encoded, which obviously takes an awful lot of space on the iPod. So converting the lossless songs to 256 KBit is very helpful and doesn't take too long.

Because of the long time it takes in some cases (like using 128 KBit on a 160 GB iPod), it would be great if iTunes could do this bit by bit - sync with the full size, then start converting and adding more music, and letting you unplug the iPod at any time.
 

redfirebird08

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2007
476
168
I wasn't a fan of this feature at 128 kbps, but I'm willing to use it at 192 kbps. It's going to free up around 10 gigs of space on my iPod while still maintaining good quality compared to my 256-320 kbps music, which is nice.
 

rbrian

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2011
784
342
Aberdeen, Scotland
And how many songs are we talking about...?

6096, of which around 4000 are ALAC, the rest a mix of 256 and 320 AAC and mp3. 175gb on my mini, 36.6gb on my iPhone. I got bored when it said it was waiting for the artwork to sync, and I had to go out, so I yanked the cable. All seems well, my music is all there, and so is most of the artwork.
 

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,541
412
6096, of which around 4000 are ALAC, the rest a mix of 256 and 320 AAC and mp3. 175gb on my mini, 36.6gb on my iPhone. I got bored when it said it was waiting for the artwork to sync, and I had to go out, so I yanked the cable. All seems well, my music is all there, and so is most of the artwork.

I've just done 2034 songs around 3.5 hours, 90% 320kbps AAC, the rest 320kbps MP3s...
 

tkermit

macrumors 68040
Feb 20, 2004
3,581
2,833
Only took them a few years.

For whatever reason, the original iPod shuffle is excluded from this feature update by the way.
 

pjkelnhofer

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2003
641
0
Boston
Does not sync album artwork...

I have been a fan of this feature for a while (with 150+ Gigs of music on my MacBook and only a 16 Gig iPad, it lets me put a lot more music on my iPad).

However, since the iOS 5.1 update and the iTunes 10.6 update, using the feature causes any albums sync that are converted to not have album artwork on my iPad. Very frustrating. Anyone else experiencing this?
 

Sol

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 14, 2003
1,564
6
Australia
For whatever reason, the original iPod shuffle is excluded from this feature update by the way.

That is a bit ironic considering that the feature was introduced with the original Shuffle. I may be wrong about that but from memory, it was a feature introduced to fit more music in the Shuffle's small capacity.

----------

However, since the iOS 5.1 update and the iTunes 10.6 update, using the feature causes any albums sync that are converted to not have album artwork on my iPad. Very frustrating. Anyone else experiencing this?

Some albums in my library lost their album art too but they were very few. No way to tell what is causing this. It may be that the original album artwork was too big or that iTunes automatically uses whatever it finds or not online using the tag information.
 

marcusj0015

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2011
1,024
1
U.S.A.
iTunes 10.6 New Feature!!!!!!!

Ok, so you know the "Convert to 128kb AAC" option? yeah, well now it's a drop down list and it includes 256kb AAC!!!!! OMG I'M SOOOO EXCITED!!!
 

marcusj0015

macrumors 65816
Aug 29, 2011
1,024
1
U.S.A.
Here, see for yourself.

Incase you're wondering, that list also includes 128kb, and 192kb, in addition to the forementioned 256kb.
 

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techfreak85

macrumors 68040
Jan 13, 2008
3,092
1
Places
Ok, so you know the "Convert to 128kb AAC" option? yeah, well now it's a drop down list and it includes 256kb AAC!!!!! OMG I'M SOOOO EXCITED!!!

I was quite excited when I saw that too. I didn't want to have it convert everything down to crappy 128 (including my already compressed AAC files I would assume), so this is nice. I now have space for photos and videos on my devices.
 

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,541
412
I have been a fan of this feature for a while (with 150+ Gigs of music on my MacBook and only a 16 Gig iPad, it lets me put a lot more music on my iPad).

However, since the iOS 5.1 update and the iTunes 10.6 update, using the feature causes any albums sync that are converted to not have album artwork on my iPad. Very frustrating. Anyone else experiencing this?

Have not notice any problems with album artwork, but cover flow on iPod does exhibit some bugs... some display both artist and album name, some just the album name without the artist, so some of the artworks are in disarray...
 

pjkelnhofer

macrumors 6502a
Sep 8, 2003
641
0
Boston
Have not notice any problems with album artwork, but cover flow on iPod does exhibit some bugs... some display both artist and album name, some just the album name without the artist, so some of the artworks are in disarray...

That is odd. There is definitely a software bug at work. I use the "convert from higher bit rate" for both my iPad and my nano. On the iPad, it causes converted songs to lose their artwork every single time. On the nano, I have no artwork problems whatsoever. Hopefully, either iTunes or iOS whichever is causing the problem will be updated soon.
 

hollerz

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2006
709
1
Durham, UK
Ive never bought music from itunes, nor do i buy from iTunes now, all i do is obtain the music elsewhere, then add to itunes and let iTunes Match do its thing. instant top quality music.

OK, then not everyone uses iTunes Match, or thinks 256kbps is "top quality" :)



Yeah, I was thinking about converting the whole library on my iMac?

For that, just make sure you have the desired bit rates etc. in "Import Settings", and select all your music, right click, "Create AAC version".
 
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