Anyone keeping their iTunes music as AAC or converting to MP3? Is this illegal?

[Mallow]

I love my version 2.61 winamp and my custom skins. I'm not about to stop using it b/c the music I am now buying comes as AAC. Are you people keeping songs as AAC or converting to mp3? I am converting all my songs to mp3. However, AAC is encrypted and it is against the law to break encryption right? Anyone correct me at anytime.

Anyhow, I convert my AAC files to mp3 by:
1. Burn them to CD
2. Use iTunes to rip them ("import") to my music library as mp3

Now as far as I know I have stayed within the term limits of my contract while buying this song. Anyone have knowledge to suggest otherwise? I haven't broken the encryption except with the program provided by mac (iTunes) and used it to burn to a CD, within my right. I then ripped it... sounds all good to me

 

[TitanDiddly]

I don't see why you couldn't do that.

 

[pulse8]

I don't care about the legalities, but it's only going to be even less than the already bad quality it is.

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Yea, the quality just gets worse when you do that. Why not download it from a different site like allofmp3?

 

[Mallow]

That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

PS. How can the quality go down? This is digital to digital, not analog lol. As long as the bit rate is equal or higher you shouldn't lose quality?

 

[PliotronX]

Ew, transcoding.... my ears hurt just thinking about it I don't think it's against any law, but it may go against the DMCA I'm not sure. As long as you're not distributing it, you should be fine. I haven't used iTunes so I have no experience, but does the AAC input plug-in play iTunes files?

 

[cpals]

Seems like too much work to me.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

 

[Mallow]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

My point is this is digital media... quality can't "degrade" as long as you keep the bit rate at or above the original. Granted the original bit rate of AAC might not be the best but I don't get what your saying.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: Mallow

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

My point is this is digital media... quality can't "degrade" as long as you keep the bit rate at or above the original. Granted the original bit rate of AAC might not be the best but I don't get what your saying.

Look up the difference between lossless and lossy compression types.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Mallow

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

My point is this is digital media... quality can't "degrade" as long as you keep the bit rate at or above the original. Granted the original bit rate of AAC might not be the best but I don't get what your saying.

It's lossy digital. Try converting a jpeg to bitmap and back again repeatedly and see what happens.

 

[PliotronX]

Originally posted by: Mallow

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

My point is this is digital media... quality can't "degrade" as long as you keep the bit rate at or above the original. Granted the original bit rate of AAC might not be the best but I don't get what your saying.

That is true that digital doesn't degrade like analog does, but with lossy compression there is a generational degradation even if you recompress a 320Kbps MP3. It will not be the same as a compressed version of the original. The lossy compression has to throw away data that it deems unnoticeable (to a certain extent) according to a psychoacoustic model. When you have content that has already been altered by a lossy compression scheme, data must be thrown away again to achieve the target bitrate. This is oversimplified, but you can Google more info. But hey as long as you can't hear it, don't spoil a good thing

 

[theNEOone]

ohh, "i'm l33t and i have lossless music files and you are teh loser because you use mp3"......omfg whatever it's a goddamn song. get over yourselves

=|

 

[dartworth]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

Seems like a waste of time and space to me...

 

[Anubis]

why not upgrade winamp to 2.91 or winamp 5, you can use that skin with wa5 and it will be the same

get an acc plugin and your all set

 

[Snuffaluffaguss]

TextMy point is this is digital media... quality can't "degrade" as long as you keep the bit rate at or above the original. Granted the original bit rate of AAC might not be the best but I don't get what your saying.

You don't know much about audio compression do you? There is a substance signal compression and the sound quaility will be evident. If you think you can't hear anything, get some better speakers.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

Seems like a waste of time and space to me...

How so? It certainly isn't more of a waste of time than burning AAC files to a CD and then rerip them to an mp3. I'd never have to do that because I can just convert directly to an mp3, AAC, OGG and WMA without a problem.

 

[Mallow]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: Mallow
That is another thing... it doesn't sound bad to me. Sounds just like a 160Kbps mp3, which is fine by my standards. I'm not one of those 256Kbps weirdos. My ears aren't refined enough to tell the difference I suppose.

To me it's not a point of whether or not I can tell the difference, it's more of a format thing. If mp3s fade out and something else comes along, you have to rerip every CD you own or rebuy any thing you've bought online.

All my stuff is lossless which means if another format comes out or takes over, I can convert my files to either another lossless format or compress them for a portable device, and not have to worry about the quality degrading.

Seems like a waste of time and space to me...

How so? It certainly isn't more of a waste of time than burning AAC files to a CD and then rerip them to an mp3. I'd never have to do that because I can just convert directly to an mp3, AAC, OGG and WMA without a problem.

So I don't get what program you are using to convert to all of these formats. And the only reason I'm going from AAC to CD to MP3 is to be totally legal and not crack the encryption of the AAC, if it has encryption.

Also, if all your stuff is "lossless" what format are you saying is so damn high and mighty?

 

[Mallow]

Originally posted by: Anubis
why not upgrade winamp to 2.91 or winamp 5, you can use that skin with wa5 and it will be the same

get an acc plugin and your all set

I like the simplicity of 2.61.... the new winamp is bloated and annoying.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Mallow

Originally posted by: Anubis
why not upgrade winamp to 2.91 or winamp 5, you can use that skin with wa5 and it will be the same

get an acc plugin and your all set

I like the simplicity of 2.61.... the new winamp is bloated and annoying.

thats understandable but 2.91 isnt bloatd at all its just like 2.6 with some upgrades so it runs better


and 5 isnt that bloated either, not nearly as bloated as wa3 in classc mode it looks like wa2.x, it loads just af fast also

 

[MDE]

There is an iTunes plugin for Winamp5, but i don't know if it'll work on 2.x

 

[Mallow]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Mallow

Originally posted by: Anubis
why not upgrade winamp to 2.91 or winamp 5, you can use that skin with wa5 and it will be the same

get an acc plugin and your all set

I like the simplicity of 2.61.... the new winamp is bloated and annoying.

thats understandable but 2.91 isnt bloatd at all its just like 2.6 with some upgrades so it runs better


and 5 isnt that bloated either, not nearly as bloated as wa3 in classc mode it looks like wa2.x, it loads just af fast also

Maybe it was wa3 I used that was so entirely bloated it made me revert back to 2.61. I'll give wa5 a try this week. Hopefully they did debloat it as you say

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Mallow
I love my version 2.61 winamp and my custom skins. I'm not about to stop using it b/c the music I am now buying comes as AAC. Are you people keeping songs as AAC or converting to mp3? I am converting all my songs to mp3. However, AAC is encrypted and it is against the law to break encryption right? Anyone correct me at anytime.

Anyhow, I convert my AAC files to mp3 by:
1. Burn them to CD
2. Use iTunes to rip them ("import") to my music library as mp3

Now as far as I know I have stayed within the term limits of my contract while buying this song. Anyone have knowledge to suggest otherwise? I haven't broken the encryption except with the program provided by mac (iTunes) and used it to burn to a CD, within my right. I then ripped it... sounds all good to me

Ive been doing that since day 1, so i can use other media players to play the files.

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: Mallow
How so? It certainly isn't more of a waste of time than burning AAC files to a CD and then rerip them to an mp3. I'd never have to do that because I can just convert directly to an mp3, AAC, OGG and WMA without a problem.

So I don't get what program you are using to convert to all of these formats. And the only reason I'm going from AAC to CD to MP3 is to be totally legal and not crack the encryption of the AAC, if it has encryption.

Also, if all your stuff is "lossless" what format are you saying is so damn high and mighty?[/quote]

probably FLAC or MA
http://flac.sourceforge.net/&e=7421
http://www.monkeysaudio.com/

but pulse8's point in this whole thread is moot because you're buying your songs off iTunes which means you can't rip it.

 

[Mallow]

Well... as long as my no0b ears can't tell the difference between loss-less 256Kbps and lossly 160Kbps I will go on blissfully with my process. I fully understand that in order to go from 256Kbps to 160Kbps you must "lose" some data but honestly I don't miss it. I have decent speakers on my computer and in my car and to tell you the truth, to hell will lossless music!