If you need to convert from any of apples proprietary formats, the dBpoweramp Music Converter will do so. Their cd ripper does a good job of ripping cds too.
> A point worth mentioning - for future CD imports, change the import setting in itunes preferences to MP3
If by 'import', iTunes means what everyone else calls 'rip', then I'd strongly advise importing/ripping CDs to a lossless format (e.g. LAME), if iTunes offers one (if it doesn't, get a media manager that does).
Ripping CDs is tedious, and you really only want to have to do it once (especially if you're ripping a collection). If you rip to a lossless format, you can then compress to whatever format is best suited to the player in hand. As player storage capacities increase, you can then re-compress to a higher bitrate, or adopt a better compression algorithm (when a better one appears).
Getting a media manager to do batch format conversions should be straightforward; in MediaMonkey, you just select the tracks you want (which can be everything in the library), and tell it to compress, and where to compress to (i.e. a parallel directory, leaving the originals untouched). Any decent media manager should behave similarly.
Hard disks are cheap. Take advantage of them, and save yourself future tedium.
> Music I have that has not been transfered through iTunes is ok but, any music that has been purchased through iTunes or where my cd collection has been imported throughiTunes does not play.
That could be one of two reasons:
i) digital rights management applied by iTunes for downloaded or ripped CDs
ii) compression format: AAC vs MP3; it's likely that your car system can't play AAC
The former you probably can't do anything about. The latter can be solved by compressing to a suitable format; find out what formats are supported by your car player; MP3 & Windows Media Audio (WMA) are commonly supported. This format issue is a good reason to rip your CDs to a lossless format, and then compress them to suit the player...
The other alternative is to get a car system that does allow iPod docking...
Not sure it's a DRM issue - apple downloads have been DRM free for some time now - see here.
If it's a format issue then there's no need to rerip, just convert using something like dbPoweramp Music Convertor, foobar, J River Media Centre or mediamonkey.
I thought that iTunes tracks were now DRM free. However, there exist several products that claim to remove the DRM from older stuff. I will only purchase DRM free music/audiobooks, as I want to be able to play them on any of my media players/computers.
A few years ago I bought a couple of audiobooks that were only available in DRM protected Windows media format, which only played on the computer where you downloaded them. The subsequent hassle of installing Windows on a virtual machine and removing the DRM, so I could play them on my media player made me vow never to buy DRM content again.
You can upgrade all your old DRM purchases (that have been made available DRM free) in the itunes store if you wish. It will go through and check what is available from the purchases you have made and you can choose which you want to upgrade. The cost each I think is the difference between a DRM and iTunes plus track - 20p
No, I wasn't either. I should have been clearer that my two reasons were speculation on the theoretical problems that might be encountered...
> If it's a format issue then there's no need to rerip, just convert
Agreed; if you have existing compressed audio, and not the uncompressed audio, then just convert the format. Even if you have the CD, but not the lossless rip, if you're happy with the quality of the compressed audio, just convert the format.
I was commenting on the CD ripping issue, and the advantages of ripping to lossless format.
iTunes is a champion of music, video downloading services. The user-friendly iTunes makes downloading music, videos quick and hassle-free. You can purchase your favorite video music from iTunes, But a pity that it can only be played on Apple players because of the Apple DRM protection.
What if I want to watch iTunes movie on other portable players like Zune, PSP, Creative Zen, Sony Walkman, Cell Phone, Blackberry, HTC, Gphone, etc, play iTunes movie with windows media player, Win amp, edit it with windows movie maker or share them with our friends? This text will show you some methods or programs that remove DRM off of the iTunes protected files. Please note that using programs might be illegal in the country where you are living, make sure you know what you are doing before downloading and using them.
