itunes: Why Should We End This Way

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Sticky
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Post by Sticky »

The bit torrent and new lossless stuff I'm way behind on. When I buy from iTunes, it's an AAC format. It's proprietary, so you have to burn a disc to copy it. It's a pain, but it's worth it. Maybe it's a connection speed thing? The sound samples are .m4p (mpeg 4), but I'm not sure about the PC side. I'm stuck on a Mac and just get what they give me. As for storage, I guess I take it for granted. Just bought a 500GB Firewire drive for home and have unlimited (to me) space at work. The work I do makes for some real big files.

catchya,
Sticky

Sticky
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Post by Sticky »

Dear God, I haven't been in a rockin' band since I don't know when. :shock:

scalzunfield
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Post by scalzunfield »

I love this song--best thing Jay's done since Son Volt Incarnation #1. I'm encouraged by the simple fact he managed to pick up the electric again.

Lawrence Fan
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Post by Lawrence Fan »

Sticky wrote:You're way beyond me on sound compression. Apple's .AAC format is supposed to be lossless. I'd be interested in your thoughts, because I don't like proprietary software, it always turns into a hassle. Storage is cheap though, a dollar a gig?
Not sure I quite follow you, Sticky. If anything you should be waaay ahead of me when it comes to sound technology, with you being a rockin' dude with a band and all :). What I understand to be true is that the file formats for iTunes downloads is something called .m4p, which I *assumed* to be a newish form of .mp3. So I naturally *assumed" it was lossy. I don't know what .AAC is, although I've heard of it. Is it supposed to be a lossless format that they use to produce the .m4p formats I mentioned?

Anyway, the few downloads I've made from iTunes (when they had the Pepsi bottle cap promo going) were all of the .m4p format and I don't recall having a choice in the matter.

So basically I was wishing that iTunes could play .flac or .shn files, a la bit torrent downloads, which *I've been told* are lossless formats. I am assuming you know all about bit torrents. SUPPOSEDLY the latest version of Winamp supports playback of .flac files, but I have yet to check this out.

ANYWAY, in a nutshell....

...I really dig the iTunes interface and wish it supported more file formats.

Now I need to go check out all those settings again and see if I missed something, and if I did try to come back here and save some face.

As to storage, yeah it's pretty cheap, but I'm really strapped for cash. It's just that I am right now feeling the crunch of filling up my 40 GB and 80 GB drives with torrent downloads. I've already moved a lot off onto CD (don't have a DVD burner) but I'm still running on a combined 8 or 9 GB free disk space, and I can't risk ripping off any more blank CDs from work...i think they're watching me already! ;)


-gk-

Sticky
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Post by Sticky »

You're way beyond me on sound compression. Apple's .AAC format is supposed to be lossless. I'd be interested in your thoughts, because I don't like proprietary software, it always turns into a hassle. Storage is cheap though, a dollar a gig?

Lawrence Fan
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Post by Lawrence Fan »

Sticky wrote:Hey there LFan, iTunes has always supported .AIFF format on the Mac side, but you have to set it as a preference. Doesn't it support .WAV on a PC?
Okay, you got me on a technicality. :)

Yes, .wav files are lossless, but I was referring to flac or shn files, which are compressed AND lossless.

The only thing keeping me interested in mp3's is limited disk space. I started heavy with iTunes about 6 months ago and I'm up to about 2300 titles in my iTunes library. I know people with lots lots more, but those 2300 take up a lot of room when compared to the volume of non-musical data that I have to keep on my machine for work purposes (a single geo-referenced image file can be anywhere from 48 MB to about 160 MB, and some counties in western states can have over 600 images for complete county coverage, not to mention multiple counties. Mapping is basically a hard drive HOG!)

-gk-

DS
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Post by DS »

I just sampled it. Dang!!! I like it.

Sticky
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Post by Sticky »

Hey there LFan, iTunes has always supported .AIFF format on the Mac side, but you have to set it as a preference. Doesn't it support .WAV on a PC?

Lawrence Fan
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Post by Lawrence Fan »

Just to add: Even though I don't download from iTunes, I really, REALLY like it as an mp3 player. So, if iTunes ever started to support playback of lossless file formats (like Winamp does) then I would get rid of every multi-media player I have in favor of iTunes. As it is my quicklaunch menu on my taskbar is dominated by multi-media application icons.

iTunes has a great product going, they just need to start weening themselves from the mp3 and m4p mindset. It really is disturbing.

-gk-

howfast
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Post by howfast »

i dig it too

there is now an email alerts feature on itunes for artists you like

we'll see how that works out

Hank Snow
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Post by Hank Snow »

Thanks for the heads up. Great song. I buy a lot from iTunes, really dig it.

grainpulp
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Post by grainpulp »

Yeah, exactly.... but a soon to be rare Jay cover song or two will suit me fine.

Lawrence Fan
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Post by Lawrence Fan »

If they offered lossless file formats I would, but for the amount of bandwidth it take to do that I doubt they could offer albums or CDs for any kind of value.

-gk-

grainpulp
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Post by grainpulp »

Hey thanks man.... I guess the iTunes music store is growing on me, but only for these sorts of things. Trust me, I'll never buy an album off of there, but, well, I've never liked compilations.... so Jay and the Bottle Rockets track will do me for now.

howfast
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itunes: Why Should We End This Way

Post by howfast »

it is now on itunes for you to buy

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