| Matthew Rosewarne on 4 Jan 2007 06:31:15 -0000 |
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On Wednesday 03 January 2007 14:05, Art Alexion wrote: > 1. the amarok-xine engine has its problems, but it plays m4a files nicely. > Hence, it is unnecessary. True, the only downside is that you have to install legally questionable (read: "almost certainly illegal in the US") software which is not available in any standard Linux distribution. To install an m4a codec you would have to get the "faad" software from a non-official repository, and probably extensions/replacements for GStreamer or Xine. > 2. If you convert from lossy m4a to lossy mp3, you will further degrade > the sound quality. Think of multiple jpeg saves. Yes, although the reduction in quality would not be as great if a more modern codec, such as ogg, were used. > 3. Even if you convert to cda (audio CD format) the .cda file only has > the data of the original m4a, and if you convert/rip the cda to mp3, you > will lose even more. Converting to a CD will get you precisely nothing, don't waste time on it. > 4. I'm not sure of this last one, but I have heard that the software in > the iPod itself converts mp3 to m4a/aac on the fly, and avoiding this > conversion by loading m4a/aac files saves battery life. No, the iPod's audio chip is fully capable of playing mp3s, it would be insanity to do it in software. One important note: If the m4a files in your collection are from the itunes music store, you will probably not be able to play them outside of apple products unless you break the copy protection. The Windows/Mac program called "JHymn" lets you do just that, but be aware that even posessing it is illegal in the US. You might potentially be able to circumvent (and possibly legally) the copy protection by burning the songs to a CD and re-encoding them, but that depends on whether those songs will allow you to do that, so you should probably just use JHymn. On Wednesday 03 January 2007 16:48, Kevin Brosius wrote: > Or try gtkpod, assuming you had a ipod as a reason to use iTunes. It > can sync music between your computer and ipod device, and it seems like > it plays music locally. Amarok has built-in support for managing music on iPods, so gtkpod shouldn't be needed for that. Attachment:
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