Don't know what this does: convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC? Should I?

cheeseblock · Feb 8, 2011

So today i got my new verizon 32gb iphone and i just synced 27.1gb of music onto it (~4000 songs). This leaves hardly any room for apps, and no space for pictures or video, although i'm fine with that if i have my music.

In the summary tab of the iphone syncing options in itunes, i noticed an option that says "convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC". I know that this basically means dumbing down most of my songs' "quality", but to what extent?

Right now, it says i have 0.46gb free space on my iphone. when i check this box, it changes to 11gb free space. WTF? what will this do if i click apply? will the songs be noticeably worse? how could this possibly get rid of 10.54gb? how bad is the compromise?

Like i said, i'm sorta okay with having this tiny amount of memory free, but if this option won't make my music noticeably worse, i'd love to take advantage of it.

Who has experience with this, or knows about sound quality/ bit rates?

If it helps, i listen to music from my iphone either on a decent quality stereo with sub, or my skullcandy FMJ in-ear buds. Usually quite loud.

Thank you for your help!

miles01110 · Feb 8, 2011

Odds are you won't notice. Higher bitrates only matter if you have trained your ear to hear the difference, you're listening in more or less optimal conditions, and you have the right equipment. iPhone headphones walking around outside are not optimal conditions.

iStudentUK · Feb 8, 2011

Basically kbps is how much 'information' there is per second of music. So the higher the rate the better quality the music. However, it isn't as simple as that as there is no point having a really high value if your ears can't hear the quality.

Original iTunes downloads were at 128 kbps, now they are 256 kbps. So you can only get half the music on an iPod you used to be able to. Adding the convert option changes the iPhone music to 128, but leaves the original file at 256.

Some people say that 256 is better, however I can't hear the difference between that and 128. Nobody I know can. If you have 0.5Gb free on your iPhone you should enable this option!

It is a good idea to download/rip into iTunes at 256 as you can always convert to a lower quality.

cheeseblock · Feb 8, 2011

miles01110 said:
Odds are you won't notice. Higher bitrates only matter if you have trained your ear to hear the difference, you're listening in more or less optimal conditions, and you have the right equipment. iPhone headphones walking around outside are not optimal conditions.

So if i do this conversion, and for some reason am unsatisfied, will i be able to fully reverse it later back to all my songs' full versions?

And are you saying that unless i have super-fancy headphones or professional studio equipment, bit rate won't really matter?

iStudentUK · Feb 8, 2011

cheeseblock said:
So if i do this conversion, and for some reason am unsatisfied, will i be able to fully reverse it later back to all my songs' full versions?

And are you saying that unless i have super-fancy headphones or professional studio equipment, bit rate won't really matter?

As I said in my post the original files on iTunes are unchanged. You having nothing to lose by trying it apart from time (takes a while for iTunes to convert them all).

miles01110 · Feb 8, 2011

cheeseblock said:
So if i do this conversion, and for some reason am unsatisfied, will i be able to fully reverse it later back to all my songs' full versions?

I am not sure if it does the conversion only on the files stored locally on the iPhone or if it will convert songs in the library. I'd guess the former, but in case the latter is true you may want to have a backup.

And are you saying that unless i have super-fancy headphones or professional studio equipment, bit rate won't really matter?

No, I'm saying that 128 kbps is "good enough" for most people.

OllyW · Feb 8, 2011

miles01110 said:
I am not sure if it does the conversion only on the files stored locally on the iPhone or if it will convert songs in the library. I'd guess the former, but in case the latter is true you may want to have a backup.

It converts the songs on the fly as you sync the iPhone with iTunes. The original files are not modified in any way.

cheeseblock · Feb 8, 2011

Thank you guys for your help!

I just started the process, and it's averaging around 8 seconds to do each song. For 4000 of them. This is gonna take awhile...

P.S. if my iphone is already fully charged, will it hurt it in any way to leave it plugged in for several more hours to my computer? this is a dumb question i know, but i've always wondered how rechargeable batteries work in situations like this

iStudentUK · Feb 8, 2011

cheeseblock said:
Thank you guys for your help!

I just started the process, and it's averaging around 8 seconds to do each song. For 4000 of them. This is gonna take awhile...

P.S. if my iphone is already fully charged, will it hurt it in any way to leave it plugged in for several more hours to my computer? this is a dumb question i know, but i've always wondered how rechargeable batteries work in situations like this

Not with lithium ion batteries. They can stay plugged in for hours with no problem. In fact the opposite is problem, lithium ion batteries should not be completely emptied, so try not to let it drop below 5%.

michaelsavino · Mar 29, 2011

ugh

I got a verizon iphone when it came out and when i select the option to convert the songs nothing happens and i click apply, nothing happens. I unselected and reselected and still nothing. Please help.

paulvee · Sep 26, 2021

Yes, this is a ten-year old thread, but maybe someone will know the answer. Just spent two days syncing to a new phone and, due to huge library, it took 48 hours to convert my songs all to 128kbps. NOW - if I wanted to go with full sized files, uncompressed and I unchecked the "convert higher bit rate songs" box, HERE IS MY QUESTION: would it delete all the files that I just synced and compressed, then replace them with the new files? I'm sure it would not up-convert the low quality files, but wanted to make sure. Thanks in advance if anyone sees this.

sgtaylor5 · Oct 6, 2021

paulvee said:
Yes, this is a ten-year old thread, but maybe someone will know the answer. Just spent two days syncing to a new phone and, due to huge library, it took 48 hours to convert my songs all to 128kbps. NOW - if I wanted to go with full sized files, uncompressed and I unchecked the "convert higher bit rate songs" box, HERE IS MY QUESTION: would it delete all the files that I just synced and compressed, then replace them with the new files? I'm sure it would not up-convert the low quality files, but wanted to make sure. Thanks in advance if anyone sees this.

It would delete the files on the phone and replace them with the full size files. up-converting is essentially impossible, because when they are down-converted, the process throws away information in creating the smaller files. **The original files are untouched.**

paulvee · Oct 6, 2021

sgtaylor5 said:
It would delete the files on the phone and replace them with the full size files. up-converting is essentially impossible, because when they are down-converted, the process throws away information in creating the smaller files. **The original files are untouched.**

Thanks. What I figured, but just wanted to double-confirm. The 128 files are really good enough for my purposes, but phone storage is getting more and more capacious.

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Don't know what this does: convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC? Should I?

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