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Konradx

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2005
288
1
Toronto, Canada
Hi, a friend of mine bought a how so speak Italian audiobook, and wants to listen to it in her car which supports MP3 cds. How can she convert these files into Mp3..so she can fit them all on ONE cd, instead of a bunch.

Sorry if this has been asked b/f, my friends in a hurry

Konradx
 

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Jun 10, 2006
7,094
1,567
If your friend is using iTunes, tell her to take the selected audiobook under iTunes, highlight (click) it, go to "Advanced" and click "Convert Selection to MP3". That should do the trick. :)
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,366
979
New England
If it is a M4P (i.e. protected track from iTunes), you'll have to do it in a couple of steps.

1) Burn the audiobook to an audio CD-R.
2) re-rip to MP3 using any tool you like

Otherwise, zwhaler's approach works fine if your default encoder is set to MP3.


B
 

Konradx

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 19, 2005
288
1
Toronto, Canada
If your friend is using iTunes, tell her to take the selected audiobook under iTunes, highlight (click) it, go to "Advanced" and click "Convert Selection to MP3". That should do the trick. :)

Wont work. Says cant convert protected drm infested media or something or other:( She doesn't own an ipod and wants to listen to them in her new car. Burning them to CD-R would take a bunch of cds, but i guess its the only way..unless their is some easy free software outtheir or something?
 

jim.arrows

macrumors regular
Dec 11, 2006
193
233
Wont work. Says cant convert protected drm infested media or something or other:( She doesn't own an ipod and wants to listen to them in her new car. Burning them to CD-R would take a bunch of cds, but i guess its the only way..unless their is some easy free software outtheir or something?


Tunebite or Noteburner can do it, though both cost $$. Not aware of a free solution, but that's not to say one doesn't exist.
 

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Jun 10, 2006
7,094
1,567
Wont work. Says cant convert protected drm infested media or something or other:( She doesn't own an ipod and wants to listen to them in her new car. Burning them to CD-R would take a bunch of cds, but i guess its the only way..unless their is some easy free software outtheir or something?

Yeah, I realized it wouldn't work when I remembered it was probably purchased with DRM on it. I guess a CD is your only free option (assuming you have black CDs lying around)
 

kevinliu4

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
160
0
can someone be kind enough to explain this in detailed steps. i tried burning some m4ps to disc and then ripping them into mp3s. this obviously didn't work as all i was doing was trying to convert m4p from a cd instead of my hard drive. m4p is still protected regardless if it is on my hard drive or cd. what am i doing wrong??

thanks.
 

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
can someone be kind enough to explain this in detailed steps. i tried burning some m4ps to disc and then ripping them into mp3s. this obviously didn't work as all i was doing was trying to convert m4p from a cd instead of my hard drive. m4p is still protected regardless if it is on my hard drive or cd. what am i doing wrong??

thanks.

When you burn them to disc, you have to use iTunes and burn them as an Audio CD rather than a data CD See iTunes->Preference->Adavnced->Burning.

Once you have an audio CD, you can rip it back as mp3's just as you would any other music CD.
 

stevep

macrumors 6502a
Oct 13, 2004
876
4
UK
You don't have to burn cd's. Open iMovie, create a new project, add a single photo, then add the audio track as your soundtrack. Go to the Share menu and save the project as a QuickTime movie, choosing advanced options and selecting AIFF audio. Then drag and drop into iTunes. You can then convert it to mp3 if you want, from iTunes.
 

kevinliu4

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
160
0
When you burn them to disc, you have to use iTunes and burn them as an Audio CD rather than a data CD See iTunes->Preference->Adavnced->Burning.

Once you have an audio CD, you can rip it back as mp3's just as you would any other music CD.

my preference is already set to audio cd. i have the songs in the itunes music library and then from the "file" menu, i am selecting "backup to disc". is this wrong? all i got the first time was a cd of m4p files so that's no good.

what if i do this in the finder? ie drag the files into the blank cd folder and press "burn disc". is this the correct method??
 

kevinliu4

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2006
160
0
brilliant...just wasted another blank cd. screw it, i'll buy the original cds tomorrow.

i started downloading music from itunes 2 weeks ago to try it out. now i realize how limiting it is. this is what you get for downloading stuff legally. i should follow the old adage, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. i'm sticking to cds for now.
 

swiftaw

macrumors 603
Jan 31, 2005
6,328
25
Omaha, NE, USA
my preference is already set to audio cd. i have the songs in the itunes music library and then from the "file" menu, i am selecting "backup to disc". is this wrong? all i got the first time was a cd of m4p files so that's no good.

what if i do this in the finder? ie drag the files into the blank cd folder and press "burn disc". is this the correct method??

NO, backup to disc creates a file backup, not an audio CD

You need to create playlist, then highlight the playlist and select the Burn Disc option in the bottom right corner of the itunes window. This will create an Audio CD which you can rip back to iTunes as mp3's
 

dogg

macrumors 6502
Jul 9, 2008
369
212
Scotland
I am running iTunes 8.0.2 on an MBP. What on earth has happened to the option to convert tracks to MP3?

All my tracks no longer even show the Create MP3 option.

Any idea's?
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,224
4,304
Sunny, Southern California
I am running iTunes 8.0.2 on an MBP. What on earth has happened to the option to convert tracks to MP3?

All my tracks no longer even show the Create MP3 option.

Any idea's?

Go to, if on windows: Edit>Advanced>Importing. You will see a drop down menu Import Using>>> You should see MP3 encoder and settings.

If on a Mac, Mac>Preference....
 

dogg

macrumors 6502
Jul 9, 2008
369
212
Scotland
Go to, if on windows: Edit>Advanced>Importing. You will see a drop down menu Import Using>>> You should see MP3 encoder and settings.

If on a Mac, Mac>Preference....

Thanks for the quick response.

My problem is that in the past if i wanted to convert any tracks, on already in AAC format to MP3, i would use the Create MP3 Version option, by right clicking on the individual track or using Advanced...etc

For some reason that option is no longer available.

I have re-installed iTunes but still no fix.

Any more thoughts.

If must be something simple but i am at a loss.
 

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Thanks for the quick response.

My problem is that in the past if i wanted to convert any tracks, on already in AAC format to MP3, i would use the Create MP3 Version option, by right clicking on the individual track or using Advanced...etc

For some reason that option is no longer available.

I have re-installed iTunes but still no fix.

Any more thoughts.

If must be something simple but i am at a loss.

I think, but I'm not sure, that the "Convert to ..." option will allow you to convert to the default format you have set in your iTunes preferences for ripping CDs. Go to preferences and see what setting you have. If it's set for AAC you probably won't get the "Convert to..." menu choice since the files are already AAC. Try setting the ripping preference to MP3 and see if you get the menu choice back.
 

rhett7660

macrumors G5
Jan 9, 2008
14,224
4,304
Sunny, Southern California
Thanks for the quick response.

My problem is that in the past if i wanted to convert any tracks, on already in AAC format to MP3, i would use the Create MP3 Version option, by right clicking on the individual track or using Advanced...etc

For some reason that option is no longer available.

I have re-installed iTunes but still no fix.

Any more thoughts.

If must be something simple but i am at a loss.

Also, are you trying to re-rip protected files? Someone correct me if I am wrong but I don't think iTunes will let you do that? IE m4p to aac/mp3. That might be the problem you are having.
 

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Also, are you trying to re-rip protected files? Someone correct me if I am wrong but I don't think iTunes will let you do that? IE m4p to aac/mp3. That might be the problem you are having.

iTunes will not let you re-encode protected tracks, for example convert them directly from protected AAC to another format, such as MP3 (which would be unprotected). That's why people are suggesting the OP put the tracks into a playlist, burn the playlist as an audio CD (which you can do, and would have no protection), then re-rip the audio CD into the format of choice (such as MP3).

You can do this because converting to an audio CD sheds the DRM. The downside to this method is you're converting an already compressed file two more times (AAC --> audio --> MP3), and there's a quality loss associated with each conversion, but I bet it won't matter that much for spoken word stuff (How to Speak Italian audiobook).
 
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