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iPod Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 bit AAC?

D

davydavy

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 26, 2011
60
4
Just wondering if anyone actually uses this any more?

Does anyone agree that now is the time to finally remove this checkbox from the iTunes summary page? With devices hitting 64GB these days I don't see this as a useful feature any longer.
 
Well that and transcoding something that's already been encoded always hurts quality.
 
If the base iPod Touch/iPad/iPhone were 64GB I'd agree. But since the former starts at 8GB and the latter two still start at 16GB I'd say the removal of that check box would be a bad idea.

However it'd be nice if you could select the bitrate it converted to instead of being stuck with 128kbps.
 
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I still use it. I find it very useful to be able to put my would be 12GB library on my 8GB iPhone. That way I don't have to carry my iPod classic everywhere.

I don't see why they'd remove it - it's not like it's inconveniencing the people that don't use it.
 
It's been horrible for me, auto-converting from Apple Lossless. Some of it has come through really bad, sound completely altered. I do not mean nuances like audiophiles argue about, but weird noises. I quit using it and made a 256 copy of everything so I'd at least save some space compared to lossless for phone use.

Maybe it works better from higher bitrate mp3. I'll never know.
 
davydavy said:
Just wondering if anyone actually uses this any more?

Does anyone agree that now is the time to finally remove this checkbox from the iTunes summary page? With devices hitting 64GB these days I don't see this as a useful feature any longer.
Click to expand...

No, it shouldn't be removed. I use it and I'm guessing a lot of other people with large music collections do to. If you find it useless, then just ignore it.
 
Fresh Tendrils said:
No, it shouldn't be removed. I use it and I'm guessing a lot of other people with large music collections do to. If you find it useless, then just ignore it.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly, along with other points made above.
My iPod Touch is 'only' 32GB (the 64GB simply wasn't available to me), but it's enough if the music that I've ripped under Apple Lossless is transcoded to 128kbps. My iPod isn't just used for music, I have games and photos etc too. I'd like the oppotunity to choose 256kbps though.
 
JAT said:
It's been horrible for me, auto-converting from Apple Lossless. Some of it has come through really bad, sound completely altered. I do not mean nuances like audiophiles argue about, but weird noises. I quit using it and made a 256 copy of everything so I'd at least save some space compared to lossless for phone use.
Click to expand...

As a software developer, I'm not happy with the implementation at all. There should be a choice what bitrate to convert to (with my ears, 128KBit is noticable worse than CD, at 160KBit I'm not sure if I can hear a difference, at 192KBit any difference is gone), an option which music to convert (converting 132KBit to 128KBit is nonsense), an option to keep to converted music in a hidden place because conversion takes so long.

And most importantly: When you turn this feature on, all your higher bitrate music disappears immediately from your iPod, which is just bad because now you have to wait until everything is converted. The software should convert your music bit by bit and only remove higher bit rate songs when the lower bit rate song is available, so that you can leave your Mac at any time with an iPod full of music.
 
Truffy said:
My iPod Touch is 'only' 32GB (the 64GB simply wasn't available to me), but it's enough if the music that I've ripped under Apple Lossless is transcoded to 128kbps. My iPod isn't just used for music, I have games and photos etc too. I'd like the oppotunity to choose 256kbps though.
Click to expand...

I still use it (on my 32gb iPhone) for the same reasons -- it saves me a few gigabytes I can use for apps. There are a lot more games I might leave on my iPhone if I had extra space (e.g. when I get a 64GB iPhone), so for now, I'm content to have 128kbps audio on my iPhone. I haven't noticed that it's been too bad.
 
This should be made selectable or at least Bumped to Itunes Plus 256KVBR, its an old setting left over from old Ipods.
 
Yeah this is a really useful feature. I've unticked this box now that I've upgraded to a 64Gb 4S, but I used this on my old 32Gb phone up to now, it was the only way I could fit my music collection on to the phone.

As far as I know, I think the 16 and 32Gb iPhone variants are still the biggest sellers not to mention the millions of 8/16Gb iPod Nanos out there, so what would be the point in removing it? As others have said, it's not harming anyone.
 
I use it to fit my whole music collection of 120GB on my seven-year-old iPod whose hard drive I just upgraded to 40GB. I'm way less particular about audio quality on the go than I am at home. :)
 
It's very useful for syncing my iPad with my Apple Lossless music collection, so I'd hate to see it removed. I would like the bitrate to be selectable though, or at least bumped up to 256kbps.
 
Its a good idea when I synchronize music with my ipod shuffle especially cuz i have everything in my itunes library in apple lossless.
 
Not with only a pathetic 16GB nano being released for the past 3-4 years and nevermind the shuffle that got a 2GB downgrade. Then the touch has been sitting on 64GB for 2 years.

The 128kpbs conversion is the only way I can squeeze what I want onto the Nano and still have some breathing room...the shuffle should have it on by default, 2GB is a joke these days even for a screen less player.

If you are lucky you can get 250 songs on the shuffle without conversion. I can run through these songs in a hurry if I'm using one on of my picky days.

File sizes get larger they don't get smaller, my opinion is apple should update the capacities so we wouldn't have to use the conversion option.

I really hate it when people think their needs are the universal needs of others and while I'm aware that my high capacity needs are in the minority why is these feature hurting you?
 
davydavy said:
Does anyone agree that now is the time to finally remove this checkbox from the iTunes summary page? With devices hitting 64GB these days I don't see this as a useful feature any longer.
Click to expand...

No. I use it to get all my music on my 64GB iPhone, otherwise it wouldn't fit. It's fine in the car, although at home I use lossless. I would say that they should offer 128 and 256 kbps downsampling though.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only one wishing that you could choose the bit rate here, I have about 40% of my music in lossless format - and I'd like that to transcode to 256 for use on iPod and iPhone. I don't think that keeping two separate libraries is the answer (unless iTunes is managing it ala SD / HD video)

I wonder where that setting for 128 is stored? If it was in a plist then perhaps you could simply change it?
 
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