Jerry, you made my day!! And I can assure you, there are many more the likes of me who have profited from your explanation. I often wish some one in the group would give a talk just on some of those pulldown menus which daily confront a person and elicit more questions the more one actually learns about the computer - a bottomless pit!. I will save your answer in my MacGroup tips as well as forward it to my Gmail account where I archive technological stuff under different labels - up there in the wild blue yonder of cyberspace. Marta On Jan 24, 2005, at 12:37, Jerry Ethington wrote:
> And while I am at it again - my encoder for importing music into > iTunes is set to Mp3 encoder. Should I change that to AIFF?? Not > knowing what actually either does,? I wonder? whether someone could > clarify this mystery. > Marta > > I think everyone's confusing AIFF format with AAC format.? Crash > course in terrible nasty acronyms for the day: > > AIFF = Audio Interchange file format.? Essentially, this is what is > actually recorded on a CD.? If you import a CD into iTunes using AIFF > format, you'll get exactly what was on the CD so it will be absolutely > top quality, every bit as good as the original CD, but the resulting > files are HUGE.? Typical songs are around 50 MB, typical CDs are > around 600-700 MB.? These will fill up a hard drive in a big hurry, > and an iPod in an even bigger hurry.? Unless you are a serious > heavy-duty audiophile with real good hearing and real good audio > equipment, you probably don't want to store stuff in this format - it > just eats up too much disk space. > > MP3 - this is a compressed audio format.? It takes up a LOT less disk > space, and most people can't tell much difference between the > compressed MP3 version of a song and the original version from a CD.? > This is the most common format, and the most portable - all the little > flash memory based MP3 players use it, PC users can use it. > > What Apple developed a couple of years ago for the iPod/iTunes is the > newer AAC format - Advanced Audio Codec.? It is a newer software > technology than MP3, and compresses music quite a bit more than MP3 > does while keeping about the same sound quality.? I've read a boatload > of tests by audiophiles with way better hearing than my old ears and > way better audio equipment, and the consensus seems to be that a song > encoded with AAC at 128kbps sounds about as good as an MP3 encoded at > 192kbps - so for the same sound quality, AAC will eat about 1/3 less > disk space than MP3.? It isn't quite as portable as MP3 format - PC > users may have to install iTunes to listen to it, and there are few > portable players other than the iPod than can play AAC songs.? It > saves tons of disk space though, so Apple pushes AAC format for the > iPod - you can cram more music into the iPod since a song uses less > disk space.? Songs you purchase from the iTunes music store are in AAC > format encoded at 128kbps. > > Bottom line - if the portability of the music is important to you > because you want to use the songs with other players than the iPod or > want to share music with PC users that may not have iTunes installed, > use MP3.? If you want to save more disk space both on your Mac and > your iPod, use AAC format. > > I'd say most people with iPods use the default AAC format at 128kbps > these days.? Most people can't tell any difference between music > compressed at this rate and the original CD.? Songs end up using about > 5MB of disk space, so even the original 5GB iPod can hold around 1000 > songs with music encoded this way.? If you want still better sound > quality, you can encode using AAC at 192kbps - the test reports you > can read on the web say even audiophiles have trouble telling the > difference between a song encoded this way from the original CD. > > Hope this answers all your questions, Marta, have a fine day..... > > Jerry > -- > > Jerry W. Ethington > 245 Hawkeegan Drive > Frankfort, KY 40601-3912 > (502)223-5489 > (502)682-2607 cellular > jethington at mac.com > > "Quando omni, flunkus moritati." > (When all else fails, play dead.) | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 25. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
