Is it possible to reduce the file size of my itunes?

What format are they in? You can convert them to .aac. That makes a considerable difference.

 

Go to your iTunes, highlight your songs, go to the menu bar to advanced and hit create AAC version. You can check the file size difference by hitting j and then selecting to show file size.

 

Reducing them in size will really reduce the quality.

If you bought the movies from iTunes, then you can't reduce their size.

 

It wont make too much of a difference with the sound equipment hes presumably using. I doubt he'll be able to tell too much of a difference.

 

Well, maybe not. But if he is going from lossless to 128k AAC, then he will.

 

Handbrake will reduce the movie size.

 

On the flip side, can I increase the file size (increase the quality) of all of my songs in itunes without having to delete them and re-rip them from CD or rebuy them from itunes?

 

No. You cannot increase the quality. Once it is gone, it's gone.

 

What quality is CD quality? It's only 128 kbps, isn't it?

 

CD quality is 1440Kbps WAV.

But it can be maintained using AIFF or Apple Lossless in iTunes. Anyway you do it, you have to reimport.

 

You'll need to re-rip/re-buy. Where does the 'up-converter' get 256kbps worth of sound from (say) 128kbps file? You can remove information, but you can't put it back in without the original.

 

So if I go to the advanced menu in itunes and just do "convert to AAC", that will re-import everything in the 256 kbps Apple Lossless high quality format?

Also with iTunes Plus, this will work with every song as the DRM on songs was gotten rid of when I upgraded and it redownloaded a bunch of songs, correct?

 

'Apple Lossless' is a format on it's own (720kbps). 256kbps is a bit rate you can set for importing your songs. If you want control over the quality of your imports, open up Preferences in iTunes. Under 'General' near the bottom is 'Import Settings'. Don't be put off by the fact that it's sitting next to the 'When you insert a CD option', these options apply to every song you import. In there are a series of options. There are the default options to choose from and there is custom. Personally, I use AAC at 192kbps.

 

OK, cool. I think I will just go ahead and re-do everything at AAC 256 to make everything consistent in quality and (in most cases), better than what I currently have.

 

So if I bought 256k mp3s from Amazon, would there be much of a benefit to converting to AAC?

 

AAC stores more music information per MB than MP3. I can't remember how Apple equated it but 192 AAC is roughly like 256 MP3.

If you wanted to keep it pure, don't convert it. If you want to give it the iTunes/MP4 treatment convert it to 256 AAC. I recently got some free credit to a new sony MP3 store, all the music was in 320 MP3. Until it actually bothers me, I'm leaving them as it is.

 

So on the issue of quality, if I buy a 256 kbps AAC song from itunes, and then change my importing preferences to apple lossless (where it of course says the preferences dont apply to itunes store purchases), and then highlight said song in itunes and "Create Apple Lossless Version", sure enough it will give me a 700+ kbps version.

However as discussed earlier about not being able to put quality into a song, what exactly is it doing when it's converting the file to a lossless format and tripling the bitrate, since we can't add quality to a file? Is the 700+ kbps file REALLY 700 kbps, or is it actually just the same as the 256 kbps file, but just bloated?

Sorry for so many questions, trying to get this right.

 

No, he probably won't. People can't tell the difference between Lossless and 128k AAC on most speakers or headphones. The equipment is the limiting factor, not the format.

 

Exactly.