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Ommid

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 27, 2008
338
14
Hi all.

I have a library on my PC of about 120GB and want to transfer this across to my MacBook Pro. Both machines are running iTunes 9.

I have read many articles and I am still unsure as to what is the best way to tackle this.

Alot of my music is in the WAV format and as some of you will know this means that there is no ID3 Tag, BUT iTunes has named all of them correctly and also added the correct album artwork.

Now, alot of my smart playlists rely on the play count so using the new iTunes Home setting in iTunes 9, the play count isn't transferred.

What I want to do is use the backup to DVD option in iTunes and trick it into creating one big disc image and simply restoring this on my Mac but I am not sure how to go about this.

Any advice off anyone will be greatly appreciated,

Thanks :rolleyes:
 

wpc33

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2006
305
1
Vancouver, BC
Convert them all to Apple Lossless, which will save you lots of space, with absolutely no loss in sound.
You will have tags, then, and provided you have the necessary third-party drivers for your Mac to read NTFS, you can just copy your files from the finder, and add them to iTunes.

Or, burn lots and lots of data discs within iTunes, with maybe a dvd-rw.

I have about 300+ cd's in lossless, and I used to use WAV, until my Library corrupted, and all my intricate tagging was gone. I haven't had any re-import/moving issues with ALAC, plus, drive-space=money.

I'm only semi-sure play counts are included in ALAC tags. I know if I transfer MP3's via an iPod, play counts are always there.
 

HBOC

macrumors 68020
Oct 14, 2008
2,497
234
SLC
there are several programs that will convert WAV to MP3. I have used Audacity before. It is free, and will convert WAV to mp3. I have heard that Switch is good as well. XACT is great, but I don't think you can convert WAV to mp3 in it... I am unsure if Switch is freeware, but Audacity and XACT are!
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
Convert to Apple Loseless to preserve album art and meta data.

Not sure about play count.

2 step process: Perhaps get / borrow iPod classic, sync as much music as you can, and move them using an iPod -> iTunes software. And repeat.


there are several programs that will convert WAV to MP3. I have used Audacity before. It is free, and will convert WAV to mp3. I have heard that Switch is good as well. XACT is great, but I don't think you can convert WAV to mp3 in it... I am unsure if Switch is freeware, but Audacity and XACT are!

People with loseless format (WAV) usually do not want to convert it to 15 year old file format (mp3), when MP4 (aac) is much newer and superior.
 

GermanSuplex

macrumors 68000
Aug 26, 2009
1,518
29,940
I'm only semi-sure play counts are included in ALAC tags. I know if I transfer MP3's via an iPod, play counts are always there.

In iTunes, playcounts are stored in the iTunes database file, not the tags of the music files. Hence why if you delete a track from iTunes then re-add it, its playcount is zero.

The reason playcounts transfer over to your iPod is because iTunes sends the information over. In fact, I'm not sure how much the iPod uses any tags in a music file. Album art is read not from the tag, but from the artwork database that iTunes creates on the iPod.
 
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