What does iTunes do to MP3 files?

[ruffas]

I have seen so many MP3 players that will not play so-called MP3 files created by iTunes.

What does it do, can you fix it?

Ruffas

[Russell]

I have seen so many MP3 players that will not play so-called MP3 files created by iTunes.

What does it do, can you fix it?

Ruffas

Some of them like the Napster-branded Samsung player are just trying to force loyalty to their music service, which obviously will not work.

This Wired article explains it well. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,60729,00.html

[Janak Parekh]

iTunes uses the Fraunhofer MP3 encoder, so I don't know why you're having that problem -- do you have your MP3s set to VBR? In that case, you might want to turn it off. Have you made sure to force MP3 importing, not AAC?

Russell, that article has nothing to do with it. That discusses the fact that WMA files don't play on the iPod.

--janak

[Russell]

iTunes uses the Fraunhofer MP3 encoder, so I don't know why you're having that problem -- do you have your MP3s set to VBR? In that case, you might want to turn it off. Have you made sure to force MP3 importing, not AAC?

Russell, that article has nothing to do with it. That discusses the fact that WMA files don't play on the iPod.

--janak

Janak... yes, the article does have something to do with it because it addresses the issue that mp3 services and download services are not all compatible.

[Janak Parekh]

Janak... yes, the article does have something to do with it because it addresses the issue that mp3 services and download services are not all compatible.
No, it's not the same thing. ;)

ruffas is asserting that if an end-user encodes music using MP3, i.e., from their own CDs, the resulting MP3s don't play on many commercial music players, i.e., that somehow iTunes is violating the MP3 format. (Unless I'm misunderstanding his point, in which case I'll stand corrected.)

The article talks about the fact that if you buy music from Napster, et. al., it is downloaded in WMA, and the iPod doesn't support that (it only supports MP3s and AACs). BTW, these aren't "MP3 services" -- you cannot get MP3s from any of them.

The former is a format consistency issue, which would imply a bug or misconfiguration somewhere, whereas the latter is a differing formats issue, which is by design.

--janak

[Gary Sheynkman]

Janak, do you think that the reason why they dont use MP3s that are cross compatible is because they dont have the ability to make secure mp3s that would work everywhere :?:

[Janak Parekh]

Janak, do you think that the reason why they dont use MP3s that are cross compatible is because they dont have the ability to make secure mp3s that would work everywhere :?:
First off, let's not draw conclusions of iTunes-generated MP3s too quickly. For example, I am listening to an iTunes-encoded MP3 right now in WMP9, without any problems whatsoever.

Second, since MP3 is an established standard, "secure MP3s" don't make sense. These files are being generated by ripping a CD. No CD ripper/encoder requires you to make "secure" or "incompatible" tunes, be it MP3, AAC, or WMA. I ripped most of my CDs into AAC format, and they're not "secure" -- I can copy them and play them on any computer of mine. Only the music purchased through the iTunes Music Store has the DRM wrapper.

So, I can't draw a conclusion because I don't think the presuppositions are true. Based on my earlier questions, we need more data before we can draw a conclusion as to what's going on.

--janak

[Russell]

ruffas is asserting that if an end-user encodes music using MP3, i.e., from their own CDs, the resulting MP3s don't play on many commercial music players, i.e., that somehow iTunes is violating the MP3 format. (Unless I'm misunderstanding his point, in which case I'll stand corrected.

--janak

I believe Ruffus is asserting that many commercial players won't play iTunes music out of the gate and not just because they encoded a song themselves. Again, this sticks with my earlier point I made that many of the music services are trying to force people to either buy their players for compatibility or to force loyalty to their service (which the article addresses). Although I used the Napster-Samsung service/player as an example, the same goes with iTunes and the iPod. If you want the simplest use possible with iTunes, the best thing to do is to get the "most compatible" player, which just happens to be the iPod.

Apple says it right here on their Web site http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93377. Believe me, it is no mistake that people will have problems playing iTunes songs on their mp3 players if they are not iPods.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61476. here is another.

[Janak Parekh]

I believe Ruffus is asserting that many commercial players won't play iTunes music out of the gate and not just because they encoded a song themselves.
But what do you mean by "iTunes music"? You have to be a lot more precise than that. I guess we'll have to wait to hear a clarification from ruffas, but there are several kinds of music formats that iTunes works with:
MP3 and MP3 VBR;
AAC non-DRM;
AAC DRM (i.e., from iTunes Music Store);
AIFF They might also support WAV.

In any case, the first one on the list is standard MP3. I've encoded music with iTunes, using MP3, and used it on a number of playback programs without any problems. The second and third won't work on any player other than the iPod (although Winamp can now play AAC).

Apple says it right here on their Web site http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93377.
All this says is that iTunes itself will not work with digital music players, i.e., it won't appear in iTunes. It has nothing to do with the music formats iTunes uses.

Believe me, it is no mistake that people will have problems playing iTunes songs on their mp3 players if they are not iPods.
Again, it depends on what you mean iTunes songs. If you're talking about purchased music, then absolutely -- iTunes Music Store doesn't use MP3 at all.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61476. here is another.
This just lists formats that the iPod supports.

--janak

[Zack Mahdavi]

Janek is right... iTunes supports all non-DRM media types (except for WMA) and the AAC Digital Rights Management codec.

Anything ripped in mp3 format in iTunes is completely compatible with any music player.. I play my iTunes ripped CDs on my Pocket PC all the time.

Make sure in Preferences, you have iTunes rip to mp3 and not AAC. Your friends who can't play your files are probably using a player that doesn't support AAC.

I can't stress enough that AAC is a non-proprietary codec unlike WMA. So any non-DRM AAC file will play on just about any player that supports AAC. However, iTunes Music Store songs play only on iTunes and iPod as apple hasn't licensed its version of DRM yet.