Finally On The Streaming Bandwagon

[Supercronopio]

Originally Posted by 1KW

apple lossless is a newer version of AIFF and is better

The only benefit ALAC will get you is smaller files. It is a more recently developed Apple codec, but not a newer version. They were designed with different purposes. See Below:

"Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was co-developed by Apple Computer in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File Format (IFF, widely used on Amiga systems) and is most commonly used on Apple Macintosh computer systems.
The audio data in a standard AIFF file is uncompressed pulse-code modulation (PCM). There is also a compressed variant of AIFF known as AIFF-C or AIFC, with various defined compression codecs.
Standard AIFF is a leading format (along with SDII and WAV) used by professional-level audio and video applications, and unlike the better-known lossy MP3 format, it is non-compressed (which aids rapid streaming of multiple audio files from disk to the application), and lossless. Like any non-compressed, lossless format, it uses much more disk space than MP3—about 10MB for one minute of stereo audio at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a sample size of 16 bits. In addition to audio data, AIFF can include loop point data and the musical note of a sample, for use by hardware samplers and musical applications.
The file extension for the standard AIFF format is .aiff or .aif. For the compressed variants it is supposed to be .aifc, but .aiff or .aif are accepted as well by audio applications supporting the format."

"Apple Lossless (also known as Apple Lossless Encoder, ALE, or Apple Lossless Audio Codec, ALAC) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music.
Apple Lossless data is stored within an MP4 container with the filename extension .m4a. It is not a variant of AAC, but uses linear prediction similar to other lossless codecs such as FLAC and Shorten.[1] All current iPod players can play Apple Lossless-encoded files. It does not utilize any digital rights management (DRM) scheme, but by the nature of the container, it is thought that DRM could be applied to ALAC much the same way it can with other files in QuickTime containers.
Apple claims that audio files compressed with its lossless codec will use up "about half the storage space" that the uncompressed data would require. Testers using a selection of music have found that compressed files are about 40% to 60% the size of the originals depending on the kind of music, similar to other lossless formats. Furthermore, the speed at which it can be decoded makes it useful for a limited-power device such as the iPod.[2]
The Apple Lossless Encoder was introduced as a component of QuickTime 6.5.1 on April 28, 2004 and thus as a feature of iTunes 4.5 and above. The codec is also used in the AirPort Express's AirTunes implementation."

[jdubbs]

Originally Posted by Waboman

I have an iMac. I find myself ripping certain songs twice. One in 320 kbps MP3 (iPhone) and the other in WAV (streaming). This can be a pain and does take up a lot of room. Right now I'm ripping some CDs using Apple Lossless.

The next version of iTunes (v9.1) is supposed to do automatic conversion to 128 Kbps AAC when syncing iPods and iPhones. Meaning you can maintain just one copy of your music (in Apple Lossless or some other higher-quality format) which then gets downsampled on the fly to a smaller file for your portable device.

It's due out next week supposedly.

[Dj_AmTraX]

Originally Posted by jdubbs

The next version of iTunes (v9.1) is supposed to do automatic conversion to 128 Kbps AAC when syncing iPods and iPhones. Meaning you can maintain just one copy of your music (in Apple Lossless or some other higher-quality format) which then gets downsampled on the fly to a smaller file for your portable device.

It's due out next week supposedly.

That would be a nice welcome. I have all my music in AIFF.

[jdubbs]

Originally Posted by Dj_AmTraX

That would be a nice welcome. I have all my music in AIFF.

I maintain two copies now and it is inconvenient. My entire library in Apple Lossless on my iMac (which is connected to my McIntosh system), and a subsection in AAC on my MacBook, which I use to sync to my iPhone, iPod, and (soon!) iPad. I'd love to rip everything once in Apple Lossless and then just copy files between my two computers as needed. In theory iTunes 9.1 should let me do that.

[Waboman]

Originally Posted by jdubbs

The next version of iTunes (v9.1) is supposed to do automatic conversion to 128 Kbps AAC when syncing iPods and iPhones. Meaning you can maintain just one copy of your music (in Apple Lossless or some other higher-quality format) which then gets downsampled on the fly to a smaller file for your portable device.

It's due out next week supposedly.

Thanks for the heads up, jdubbs. I just downloaded iTunes 9.1. This should be much more convenient than what I was doing.

[jdubbs]

Be forewarned: the first time you sync your iPod/iPhone with automatic conversion enabled takes a lonnnnnnng time. Each track takes several seconds to compress, and it re-syncs any tracks you previously synced to your device. I have 1700 songs on my iPhone, and it took over an hour to do the first sync. Subsequent syncs should go much faster given that iTunes will only need to compress new tracks. Syncing goes faster with iTunes as the foreground/active app, and much slower if minimized to your dock or taskbar.

[Supercronopio]

5 hours for me!