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Help MP3 or MP4

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swayed

macrumors newbie
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Nov 14, 2002
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Hi everyone I need help here in making a big decision. Right now I have about 7000 mp3 (at 192) in itunes. The big problem is that I am moving to South America and cannot take all the original cd's with me so i will be selling them. Here's the problem, with mp4 seemingly right on the horizon should I be using Quicktime 6 and re-rip all my cd's into mp4 format or just stick with the mp3 format, problem is I will have no way to re rip my cd's and dont want to be stuck with an inferior and larger file size format. Also when I have used QT6 to rip a song into mp4 (at 192) it is basically the same file size as the mp3 at the same bitrate. I thought that mp4 were susposed to be around half the size of the equivalent mp3 file as well. Ok any help or input will be greatly appreciated.

swayed
 
Re: Help MP3 or MP4

Originally posted by swayed
Hi everyone I need help here in making a big decision. Right now I have about 7000 mp3 (at 192) in itunes. The big problem is that I am moving to South America and cannot take all the original cd's with me so i will be selling them. Here's the problem, with mp4 seemingly right on the horizon should I be using Quicktime 6 and re-rip all my cd's into mp4 format or just stick with the mp3 format, problem is I will have no way to re rip my cd's and dont want to be stuck with an inferior and larger file size format. Also when I have used QT6 to rip a song into mp4 (at 192) it is basically the same file size as the mp3 at the same bitrate. I thought that mp4 were susposed to be around half the size of the equivalent mp3 file as well. Ok any help or input will be greatly appreciated.

swayed
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If you have noway to rerip your CDs (what, you don't own your own CDs?) then why are you even asking the question? Rerip them before you sell them. Or do you not own them in the first place?
 
Did you even read what I posted? or did you just type the first smart ass comment that came to mind, i am moving and the cost to ship around 2000 cd's is immense believe me i looked into it, the cost to ship my car alone is 3000 $US and yes i do own my own cd's and the question was should i re-rip into mp4 using QT6 before i move so that I may get a head start with the new format or just stay with mp3.

swayed
 
lol, mp4 is NOT a replacement for mp3. it's a marketing format for sellers to have secure downloads. do youself a favor and leave them as mp3s
 
MP3 is much more compatible and will be for a number of years to come. There are currently no portable music players available that play MP4s. Why don't you just stick all your cds in the trunk of your car and ship them with the car?
 
don't even think of mp4 right now, your fine with mp3 and bitrate your using is great, think of how long it would take to rip all songs into mp4.....oh and why wont you be able to re-rip them? they are on your computer right? do you not have a cdburner, get an external one if not, or just an ipod.
 
Originally posted by MacBandit


READ people. You are the second person to ask why he can't rerip them. He's moving and can't ship all the cds because of expense. Therefore he's selling the cds and will not have them to rip in the future.
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edit: don't want anyone to think i'm a flammer just because I defended myself.
 
You know, IF HE IS SELLING THE CDS, HE HAS NO LEGAL RIGHT TO KEEP THE MP3s. I think this is a very important point everyone is missing. What he is doing is illegal.
 
Originally posted by swayed
Did you even read what I posted? or did you just type the first smart ass comment that came to mind, i am moving and the cost to ship around 2000 cd's is immense believe me i looked into it, the cost to ship my car alone is 3000 $US and yes i do own my own cd's and the question was should i re-rip into mp4 using QT6 before i move so that I may get a head start with the new format or just stay with mp3.

swayed
Click to expand...

No, I'm not being a smart ass. What you are doing is illegal. You can't convert the CDs into mp3s then sell the CDs and keep the mp3s.
 
Originally posted by springscansing


No, I'm not being a smart ass. What you are doing is illegal. You can't convert the CDs into mp3s then sell the CDs and keep the mp3s.
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are you sucking up to Arn or what? sheesh. he's asking a question, not asking for your moral outrage. so why don't we just assume that instead of SELLING the CDs, he's keeping them all in STORAGE for an indefinite period. and then the thread can address the issue.
 
An old story, but bear with me so I can make my point...

Years ago, I liked the primitive but fun Nintendo (and arcade game) named Trog. But I wanted to play it on my Mac since I didn't have a Nintendo system. So I downloaded a NES emulator and a copy of Trog that someone had ripped from the game cartridge, went to a game store, bought a copy of Trog, threw it in the closet, and then played the game on my Mac.

I thought I was setting a good example, but almost everyone I tell this story to laughs at me for buying a game cartridge I had no plans to ever use. Is it so unfashionable to stay on the legal side?

I advise swayed to throw away (not sell) the CDs, keep the MP3s, and live happily and guilt-free ever after.
 
First of all, yes, it is illegal to keep the mp3s of CDs you aren't going to own. So don't bother selling the CDs and keeping the mp3s, unless you are willing to risk piracy.

Second, I'm assuming you cannot find a way to transfer ALL 2000 CD cartridges for free. If you still want to bring ALL the CDs, you will have to bring only the CDs themselves, and not the cartridges, and store them safely to prevent scratches. If that doesn't work, but you still want to bring your favorite CDs, find as many of your highest favorites and save as many of them as you can. For the other CDs, if you sell them, delete the mp3s as well.

Third, swayed, the benefit of being able to keep the CDs would be having the ability to convert them to MPEG-4 audio, once available (rumored for January...), so you save a lot of space on your computer. Don't bother converting MPEG-1 (or two, in some people's cases) audio to MPEG-4. Rather, reconvert from the CDs.

And, theoretically, an MPEG-4 audio file at one fourth the bitrate of the MPEG-1 audio file (.mp3) takes up a quarter of the Hard Drive space, and has no quality difference. You said one half. :)

springscansing, MacBandit, medea, it's all cool.

Basically, I would echo what was said about keeping the mp3s the way they are, for now, until you feel the need to convert them to MPEG-4 audio. I also feel bad that you can't take you entire Library with you.

But, think of it this way: You're better off having the CDs you really like, even if it's a few, rather than not having any at all. :cool:
 
Originally posted by King Cobra

springscansing, MacBandit, medea, take you Fredding flamepiss contest out of the poor guy's request for information. Honestly, I was just going to look over the thread quickly, but you guys seem to make him feel real miserable. So, this time, I'm purposely making you look bad.
mad.gif


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Hey leave me out of that. I admit I should have read what he said. I just have a problem with people replying to a thread before actually reading it and that is how I took the reply initially. I was in no way flaming either I was simply trying to correct someone without getting vulgar as some have. I will remove that post now that I realize that I was at fault for not comprehending what was being said.

I have in no way called any one names and I think that those who do single people out and call them names have no business here.

I asked this before but is there no way that you can put your cds in your car and ship them with the car?
 
First I would like to apologize if someone took my reply as a "flame," for some reason it's ok to accuse a guy of piracy but not to defend what you meant in a post.
Piracy is absolutely not and should not be an issue here, if the guy wants to rip the cds and then sell the originals then fine, hes not selling the duplicates to make money so there is nothing morally wrong with that, at least he got the mp3's from an actual album that he purchased rather than download them online. I have a rather large collection of films on videotapes that I recorded from originals and people record stuff off the TV all the time and no one ever thinks of that as piracy in day to day life unless your trying to make money of it, so why give the guy a hard time. And who here has never made a compilation tape before? I know I have and I'm not in the least bit ashamed of it nor should I be, get over it. Swayed don't worry about keeping the mp3's, but as far the the actual cd's go maybe you could save some money by taking them out of the jewel cases and placing them in a cd binder? And what MacBandit said about the trunk makes sense too, unless your not allowed to store anything in the car when shipping it? Also if you have the songs on your hard drive if you have a burner you can just make new cds and delete them off your HD and format them again into MP4 when it is more widely used.
 
Originally posted by medea
Also if you have the songs on your hard drive if you have a burner you can just make new cds and delete them off your HD and format them again into MP4 when it is more widely used.
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This will result in MP4 sound files of lesser quality then the original MP3. The great thing about MP4s is having better sound quality with the same size as an MP3. This allows you to choose a lower bit rate resulting in a smaller sound file of equal quality if you choose.

I'm sorry about my reply to your previous post I guess I was tired and didn't read your post in enough detail. So yes I'm at fault of what I accused you of. The thing in my mind that made your post a flame was your language. Avoid using vulgar words when replying to someone.
 
Off topic question:

Swayed has payed for the CDs, and the record companies have made out big time, and the artists have gotten their scraps.

He currently has the fair use right to burn his music to MP3, and do with those what he desires.

There is no EULA, License, or caveats on an audio CD.

When he sells them to a record shop, the bloodsucking RIAA fatcats, and the artists don't see a dime.

So, while it may be immoral in some perspectives, as swayed has bought the music rights, why would it be illegal for him to sell the physical CDs and keep the MP3s?

On topic:

While MP4 has some promise, don't do it for the storage space. A $120GB drive is less than $150, and should hold 35,000 songs (my 32,000 song library is about 109GB). I would suggest you get two, one to use, and one as an exact copy backup.

If you're goal is drive space, just buy more drives...they're damn cheap. The time to re-rip 2000CDs is immense, and the application support isn't there yet.

If you're doing it for the quality, get the same pair of drives, and re-rip, but continue to use you MP3 collection until iTunes, and any other apps/players you use support MP4.
 
Originally posted by King Cobra
And, theoretically, an MPEG-4 audio file at one fourth the bitrate of the MPEG-1 audio file (.mp3) takes up a quarter of the Hard Drive space, and has no quality difference. You said one half. :)
Click to expand...

Just to back you up, this is what I was going to say.

Encoding into AAC (the audio in MPEG-4) is FAR smaller BUT you have to remember to 1/4 (as per King Cobra's info) the bit rate. If you encode at the same bit rare it is going to be the same size because you are still saving the same amount of information per second.

If you have all MP3s and you can not re-encode all your CDs and you can not keep your CDs, DO NOT re-encode the MP3s. I have been shown in another thread that you lose quality by re-encoding MP3s into AAC and since you are keeping them in high quality you are losing a lot.
 
Originally posted by Nipsy
Off topic question:

So, while it may be immoral in some perspectives, as swayed has bought the music rights, why would it be illegal for him to sell the physical CDs and keep the MP3s?
Click to expand...

Because when he sells the CDs he also sells the rights with them. Therefore he no longer holds the rights to the music that he ripped. Video and Music right to use laws refer solely to one user. That being the owner of the orinal product. If you are no longer the owner then you no longer have any rights to use it.
 
Mate, look at this thread and answer the question asked a few times, why not leave the CDs in the boot of the car when they ship it. 2000 CDs or whatever aint going to make much of a difference copmared to a 1ton car ...
 
reply

First of all I'd just like to clarify something, I made an error in my inital post, I'm going to Costa Rica in Central America not South America. And no I cannot fill to the back of my Land Rover with anything, the paperwork for the vehicle itself is complicated with out filling in additional forms for extra contents let alone the extra freight weight. The main reason for my post was so that while I am gone possibly 2 1/2 - 3 yrs I wanted to "keep up " with things technology wise. The reason I'm selling everything (CD's included) is so I won't have to pay storage, or have to have someone else watch them for me. I will only have a small residence in Costa Rica and may only get back to it maybe once or twice a month. I have to be able to travel very light ie, everything must fit into my Land Rover including supplies and such, I will be living in the rainforest. And yes I do have extra firewire drives and 2 i pods (5gig and 20 gig). In additon to 2 powerbooks.
As it is I have decided to re rip my CD's into aiff format to dvd that way i can reburn to cd later hopefully :) As for the piracy issue, honestly I don't care what any of you think, I paid for the music initially and I will do with it what I please. The purpose of my moving is to study the pain relieving effects of poison dart frog toxin and its aide in helping chronic pain in cancer and terminal patients. I will be spending long hours alone in a lab and the jungle and the music will help things go a little easier. So if you consider me a theif and pirate so be it.

swayed
 
Swayed

A couple of things, if your serious about the cancer thing good luck thats noble work. As for everyone else, very few of anyone on this message board is a lawyer and even if sway is a "pirate" hes the best that i've ever known. Hes already bought the music, I understand the point that he sells the rights but atleast he paid for it initially which is more than the average pirate can say for themselves. Other implications would be that he is moving out of the country so he will not be violating as many american laws (usually more serious) also its not like people are prosecuted for ripping cds to their computer and listening to them, despite ownership. Most complaints that riaa is concerned with usually sharing the mp3s or not buying them, neither of which he does, so hes ok in my book. Perhaps i'm too liberal on this issue but I don't think anything hes doing with the music is wrong atleast morally. bottom line: you bought the music, more than most people, have fun do what you want
 
2 items, the MP4 format pretty much rocks, I am currently doing a full re-rip of all my cd's. The quality vs file size is so worth purchasing quicktime pro

secondly, here's an interesting delima, if say the Public library offers cd's to be checked out, why then can you not make a copy of those cd's you check out?

for the time being, you do own the cd, even when you return them, they are partially yours (communal property)

secondly, you are providing a civic duty of making a backup for the library, if one of the cd's is destoyed, in another owner's hands.

any thoughts?
 
Originally posted by big
2 items, the MP4 format pretty much rocks, I am currently doing a full re-rip of all my cd's. The quality vs file size is so worth purchasing quicktime pro

secondly, here's an interesting delima, if say the Public library offers cd's to be checked out, why then can you not make a copy of those cd's you check out?

for the time being, you do own the cd, even when you return them, they are partially yours (communal property)

secondly, you are providing a civic duty of making a backup for the library, if one of the cd's is destoyed, in another owner's hands.

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Then why do I get in trouble for copying pages out of books and turning them in as my own?

Basically you still don't own them.

I really don't what swayed does. I will not turn him in. I was just replying to other peoples questions on the legality of it.
 
yeah, but that's crediting yourself for other people's works. No where am I saying that I personally recorded the album Blind Faith. However, you can make copies from pages in the book at the library to take home, even quote from them & use parts of them in your report.

So, while we are dicussing MP4's, any idea on how to get them to keep their ide tags while impoting? Or using Quicktime, anyway to mass convert them from a cd to an MP4 file?
 
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