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the move to 128 bit rate?

F

FortWorthMac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 29, 2008
708
36
the parched earth of North Texas
Hello all,

Just simply wondering if the move to 128bit rate songs is reversible. In other words, can I uncheck the option and revert back?

My 32MB phone is getting low in space and I need to try and free some up.

Thanks
 
Unfortunately not. You can do it, but the quality lost when converting down to 128 can never be reacquired.

If you keep the original source mp3's on your computer (outside of itunes, to play it safe), then you can just add those back at a later time. Hope that makes sense.
 
FortWorthMac said:
Hello all,

Just simply wondering if the move to 128bit rate songs is reversible. In other words, can I uncheck the option and revert back?

My 32MB phone is getting low in space and I need to try and free some up.

Thanks
Click to expand...

When you use this option, it creates a copy of each of your music files at 128kbps. That copy is then stored on your phone and nowhere else (so the original music files remain in iTunes at whatever bitrate they are now).

If you later decide to stop using the feature, iTunes would copy the original files back to your phone.
 
Daveoc64 said:
When you use this option, it creates a copy of each of your music files at 128kbps. That copy is then stored on your phone and nowhere else (so the original music files remain in iTunes at whatever bitrate they are now).

If you later decide to stop using the feature, iTunes would copy the original files back to your phone.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. So based on your reply, I can simply check it now and uncheck it at a later day to revert back to the higher quality. Is that what you are saying?

David
 
FortWorthMac said:
Thanks for the reply. So based on your reply, I can simply check it now and uncheck it at a later day to revert back to the higher quality. Is that what you are saying?

David
Click to expand...

Yep.

It'll only apply to your phone as well, so if you want to listen to the higher quality songs on your computer, you can do that.
 
The others are correct. The only thing to consider is that it will do that conversion on the fly as it syncs to your phone. This means that depending on the speed of your computer, it will take anywhere from a long time to a very long time to sync that first time (ie. maybe 12-36 hours for ~40 gigs of music). After that first time though, it won't be a big deal, unless you do a complete restore or change a large amount of music.
 
zhenya said:
The others are correct. The only thing to consider is that it will do that conversion on the fly as it syncs to your phone. This means that depending on the speed of your computer, it will take anywhere from a long time to a very long time to sync that first time (ie. maybe 12-36 hours for ~40 gigs of music). After that first time though, it won't be a big deal, unless you do a complete restore or change a large amount of music.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get a decent speed iMac and it's converting 3171 songs and is 600 songs into it.

I have to leave for work in about 3 hours. What'll happen if I need to disconnect the sync before I'm done?
 
FortWorthMac said:
Yeah I get a decent speed iMac and it's converting 3171 songs and is 600 songs into it.

I have to leave for work in about 3 hours. What'll happen if I need to disconnect the sync before I'm done?
Click to expand...

My guess is it will cancel, and stop converting at the point you are at. I would let it finish before stopping it.
 
I've never noticed this option. Where is it? Wonder how much of a space savings it ends up netting. I've got about 17gb of music, mostly in 320. I wouldn't mind losing some quality if I could actually fit all my music on my 16gb iPhone with my apps and photos.
 
zhenya said:
...it will take anywhere from a long time to a very long time to sync that first time (ie. maybe 12-36 hours for ~40 gigs of music)....
Click to expand...

Really? A bit of an exageration don't you think? On a 5,1 MBP running Dual core at 2.4GHz it took just under an hour to convert 2,672 songs to 128AAC.

gage006 said:
I've never noticed this option. Where is it? Wonder how much of a space savings it ends up netting. I've got about 17gb of music, mostly in 320. I wouldn't mind losing some quality if I could actually fit all my music on my 16gb iPhone with my apps and photos.
Click to expand...

You find it under the main "menu" or info tab of your device in iTunes. The same place where you see the image of your iPhone and the serial number, etc...

Just scroll down and you'll see the option to enable 128AAC format.
 
gage006 said:
I've never noticed this option. Where is it? Wonder how much of a space savings it ends up netting. I've got about 17gb of music, mostly in 320. I wouldn't mind losing some quality if I could actually fit all my music on my 16gb iPhone with my apps and photos.
Click to expand...


Well as soon as I clicked the 128 option I went from .1gb free to about 9gb free. So for me that's a noticeable increase.

I so want a 64gb option for an iPhone........
 
Revelation78 said:
Really? A bit of an exageration don't you think? On a 5,1 MBP running Dual core at 2.4GHz it took just under an hour to convert 2,672 songs to 128AAC.
Click to expand...

No, I don't think. I've been using this option since day 1. Core2 iMac @ 2.8Ghz. Perhaps it's because the majority of my music is stored on the iMac in lossless. If most of your library is already 128k or less, then it will take considerably less time.
 
Revelation78 said:
Really? A bit of an exageration don't you think? On a 5,1 MBP running Dual core at 2.4GHz it took just under an hour to convert 2,672 songs to 128AAC.
Click to expand...

I did this for my iPod Nano (older generation) last night after seeing the option in the iPod summary of iTunes after I hooked up the iPod. Finally was able to fit everything on my iPod that stays in my car.

My iMac 2.8 GHz C2D (late '08 model) took 3 hours to convert 1700 of 2700 songs. I had to leave for the night to travel, so I just left the iPod plugged up.

So yes, it can take a while if you have a lot of lossless music stored. The more 192 bit music you have instead of lossless, probably the less time required to convert it.
 
zhenya said:
No, I don't think. I've been using this option since day 1. Core2 iMac @ 2.8Ghz. Perhaps it's because the majority of my music is stored on the iMac in lossless. If most of your library is already 128k or less, then it will take considerably less time.
Click to expand...

If "one's" music was already in 128k or less, why would there be a need to convert to 128AAC, you would lose more than you would gain - think about it.

Lossless, I can understand to a degree, however 12-36 hours is still a bit of a stretch. For the record all of my music is stored in 320K.
 
Revelation78 said:
If "one's" music was already in 128k or less, why would there be a need to convert to 128AAC, you would lose more than you would gain - think about it.

Lossless, I can understand to a degree, however 12-36 hours is still a bit of a stretch. For the record all of my music is stored in 320K.
Click to expand...

Obviously - if a decent portion of your collection is already 128 or less, there is no conversion performed at all. That could be a big reason some people convert faster than others - itunes merely looks at say, 1/3 of their collection, notes that no conversion is needed, and moves on. That'd be very fast.

Again, to convert ~45 gigs of lossless music into ~16 gigs of 128k, my iMac takes ~ 12 hours. If I start it in the evening after work, it will be done sometime in the morning. Maybe it takes 9 or 10 I don't know, I'm sleeping then. In any case, if it takes that long for a dual core 2.8 desktop, I can easily imagine it taking a day or more for someone still using a single core 2ghz or less laptop.
 
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