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Professional advice: iTunes to Windows A couple of weeks back, I got this note from a regular reader, Scott McVicker: “I
recently finished compiling my CD collection onto my computer using
Apple's iTunes program. I have an HP computer running Windows XP Media
Center Edition. The iTunes works great within its own confines, but I
have found that if I try to create any type of photo slide show or do
any video editing with other programs, the iTunes files are not
recognized. Is there a way to use these files or convert them so that
Windows recognizes them? Please tell me yes, so I don't hang myself
with a USB cable. I have over 500 CDs and this has taken me months to
finish."
I
gave him two options, neither of which I had tried personally, but
which I knew was possible because of my previous series on digital music
(archived at left).: One was installing the AAC codec that Apple
uses into Windows so it could read the files directly, available here. The other was to convert the files from AAC to MP3, WAV or whatever. That was easy call: dBpowerAMP Music Converter. So here's the deal, says I. I can kill a couple of hours figuring out if this stuff will do the job for you, write it up, and put it on the web site. Or you can take a shot, write it up, and I'll post it. I actually preferred the latter, mostly because I like to see how civilians fare with some of the more complicated advice. Both programs cost money but are available in trial versions. Anyone wants to dig up an open source or otherwise free product, let me know. Here's his report with minor editing. Creepy, he even sounds like me: By Scott McVicker The installation of the AAC codec from 3ivx.com into Windows is the easiest and simplest fix to the problem of importing the iTunes encoded songs into the movie/photo editing programs such as Windows Movie Maker and Photo Show 9. It took only a few minutes to download, install and reboot and then away we go! It seems to have seamlessly integrated with the programs. The only difference is when importing the music files into the editing programs, you have to set the "Files of Type" box to "All Files [*.*] " in order for it to recognize the individual songs in their .aac format. Now with the dBpower AMP program, it gets a little more intense. First off, when the program is downloaded, it doesn't have all the codecs for various formats pre-installed. you have to go to the configuration menu for program through the start menu and once inside, there are tabs where you can see the installed Encoders and Decoders. in the versions tab, there is a link to dBpower AMP's Codec Central where you go and load the individual codecs that you need. They have some really cool ones that allow just about any type of coding or decoding you could possibly need. After downloading, run the application and it installs into the program in seconds. I wound up installing 5 additional codecs beyond the basic install (all of the ones listed under the mp4 category) there are even iTunes and Nero codecs too. I foresee a great use for this program for me in the future when I get around to capturing audio from old cassettes and LP's onto the computer. (but that's a major project in itself just capturing the audio). With the iTunes codec, the old audio could be brought into iTunes in the new format...cool bananas! I haven't investigated theCD writer portion of the program, but it looks just as flexible too. The only downside to the download is that the mp3 codec is a 30-day trial and then the codec expires and doesn't work anymore. You can purchase rights to this for a small fee of 12 bucks or purchase with a full CD writer program bundled for 25 bucks. So that's it in a nutshell. Oh, by the way, one small annoying remainder of a problem I haven't figured out yet. Even after decoding a song with the dBpower AMP and maintaining the artist and song info (another neat feature of the program you can set in the configuration menus), when you go into the Windows Media Player library, the songs can only be found in the unknown category, without and artist name, only the song title. I'll have to work on this, it's one of those aggravating little quirks. (Editor's note: Nice job. There probably is a way to translate, just fool with the tagging options,but remember that you also can do global updates inside iTunes, e.g. import an album, select all the tunes, then add artist name and album name just once and they'll all be updated.) |
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