How do I encode AAC for iPod? (Windows platform)

If you paid for QTPro, then you might want to look at Make Mine MPEG 4 (http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/itinfo/makeminempeg4.shtml), which is an AppleScript that allows you to use iTunes and have access to the finer features of QT. At any rate, you can just change the file extension of an mp4 to m4a.

Ah. Sorry. I didn't realize - the reference to QT threw me off. You can't siply change the file extension on the mp4s to m4a?

I don't think there's any real difference between "mp4" and "m4a". "m4p" denote a protected file with DRM from the Apple Music Store. However, I don't think file with the "mp4" extension are recognized by the iPod.

OK, so here's what I did:

1. Extracted some favorite songs from CD to .wav files.

2. Encoded them at 128K using Quicktime (by double clicking on a
wav file, hitting pause, then doing an Export to Mpeg4 audio with
Best quality).

3. Renamed the resulting mp4 files to m4a.

4. Transferred them with Ephpod.

5. Enjoyed.

While I was at it, I also uploaded the .wav file and a .mp3 file
(encoded with Lame --vbr-standard) so I could do my own
listening test. The results surprised me. In some cases there
was no clear winner, they all sounded fine. But in some other
cases the Lame mp3 file was the clear and absolute LOSER. It
created some 'popping' artifacts that were so bad I though my
iPod was malfunctioning.

So it looks like I'll be using AAC for everything. I just wish the encoder had a little more functionality.

Well, a 128K AAC file is the same size as a 128K mp3 file, or
roughly 1 meg per minute of music. The nice thing about CBR is
you can predict exactly how much space is required for a
song/album.

The Lame encoder, using VBR, produces mp3s that are roughly
192K average. I've seen songs that are as low as 160 to as high
as 230.

192K is a 50% increase in size over 128K and on a small
portable, that's a lot.

So if I use 128K AAC, I should be able to get 500 hours on my
30GB iPod.

ech3,
Does QT Pro tag cds you rip as well?

I've encoded 150 or so of my CDs in AAC and I have had excellent results so far. This is what I've been doing:

1) ripping CDs to .wav files with EAC
2) after ripping about 20 or 30, I encode to AAC with Nero 5.5whatever and the AAC plug in. This is very time consuming (I think it is my 3 year old P3 700), so at night I just load them all up and encode while I am asleep.
3) The next morning, I wake up and using a cheap shareware thing, rename the .mp4 to .m4a en masse.
4) I load the songs onto my iPod and name them all manually, which isn't too bad (group name the Album, Artist and Genere, then just delete every part of the file name except the titile and enter the track number.)

I haven't found a way to tag them yet, and unfortunatley EphPod dosen't recgonize the tags if I delete them, so I'm going to need to figure out a tagging solution one of these days. I make sure all the file names are in the same format though. The only downside is it is very time consuming for me, but thankfully I am currently unemployed so I can do it all day. :D

If anyone figured out a tagging solution, please post it. I hear foobar masstagger worked but it dosen't for me.

Ech3 wrote:
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out much about AAC tagging, other than there is no official way of doing it yet.

For now, I'm keying in all the tag data right into Ephpod. That
doesn't tag the file itself, but is saved in the iTunes database on
the iPod.

Just wanted to see if there was any more info on tagging AAC. I use Windoze.

Hi There, :)

I?m new with iPod. I bought my iPod Yesterday. :D

I?m trying to transfer M4A files to my iPod using Ephpod 2.70b, but it doesn?t work. I go to "Add Song", select the "Toto.m4a" file and click Ok. The yellow progress bar completes to 100% immediately and EphPod displays an empty ?Recent? list. No file is send to iPod. I can?t find the file in both hard disk and database. :(

I?ve try to encode from WAV to AAC with FACC 1.8 (and then with PsyTel 2.15). I?ve converted the file from AAC to MP4 with Ivan & Menno 1.9 (it includes MP4Creator v0.9.8.6 ? I can?t find older version). The I?ve renamed the MP4 file to M4A file. And I try to import this file into EphPod.

What?s going wrong ? :rolleyes:

Thanks

Originally posted by am3822
I am sure it must've been answered elsewhere but could you please sum it up for me (and possibly for some others who are a bit buffled):

1. Is mpeg4 the same as AAC?
2. Can the windows version of iPOD (3rd gen) play mp4/aac files without any messing about with the firmware?

Thanks,
Am.

1. AAC is a subset of MPEG4. You can read about it more here: http://www.audiocoding.com/;
2. Yes. The codec is safely in firmware and will not be deleted by reformatting your iPod to FAT32.

Hope this helps!