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Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?

I have an entire collection of music in WMA9, but would LOVE to get an iPod. I've been told that MC9 can convert from WMA9 to MP3 on the fly, during sync. Any comments on how well this works, and what the resulting files sound like on the iPod?

Any other programs/solutions to the WMA/iPod incompatability?

And, as a reach, any plans for future support of WMA by Apple?

Thanks,
Matt
[420 byte] By [welcher] at [2007-11-9 12:50:51]
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# 1 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
It can convert it. I would say that you'd want to convert the songs from WMA to MP3s then load those MP3s up to the iPod.

It takes too long to do on-the-fly conversion during a sync/upload. Better to do it once.

As far as the quality, dunno. You're going from one lossy format to another lossy format. From what I understand that's not a good idea. Better to re-rip to MP3.

I personally don't think Apple will ever support WMA.

Adam
ashawley at 2007-11-15 17:21:56 >
# 2 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Adams right. You're probably going to notice a significant drop off in quality going from WMA to MP3. And besides, it's not the ripping that takes all that long, it's the friggin' encoding that takes the majority of the time--and you're going to have to do that anyway to convert from WMA to MP3. I would strongly recommend reripping, and then encoding, rather than changing formats...It's not going to take you THAT much longer to start from scratch, and IMHO the results will definitely be worth the slightly extra time...
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:22:57 >
# 3 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Thanks for the replies, fellas. Bottom line, though, is that I am not going to re-rip all 400-some CDs into MP3. It would take a lot of time, and either take a lot of extra disc space, or be significantly inferior in sound to the WMAs I have.

Dunno what I should do, then. Looks like the iPod is not the solution for me. Bummer. I'm left with the Zen. Yuck.
welcher at 2007-11-15 17:24:02 >
# 4 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Man, I really hate to say this, but if reripping isn't an option, you're probably better off with the zen. I think you're going to be very dissapointed in sound quality going from WMA directly to mp3. However, if you decide to rerip and encode to mp3, we can help you get outstanding sound quality--in fact I don't think they'll be any worse than your WMA files...
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:25:07 >
# 5 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Thanks for the input. The only way for MP3 to sound as good as WMA is to encode at a higher bitrate. Which means bigger files.

So, I'll hafta have bigger files, and spend a ton of time getting those bigger files. Question is, is using the Ipod instead of the Zen worth it? It just may be, actually.
welcher at 2007-11-15 17:26:07 >
# 6 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Well, you're not going to get an unbiased opinion here. ;)

Really, I love the iPod and would never consider switching so, well, that's that.

I also don't really think WMA is going to make it in the end. That's my uneducated opinion. Too many people mistrustful of MS's dominance.

Adam
ashawley at 2007-11-15 17:27:06 >
# 7 Re: Anyone us MC9 to move WMAs to the iPod?
Yeah, have to agree with Adam on that. I don't see Ogg Vorbis, or even AAC making it either (But I'd give AAC the better odds between the two).

Personally, I'd rerip and get the ipod--I think it's worth it, if it will get you into an ipod instead of a zen, but it's just my lowly opinion...
dmt1 at 2007-11-15 17:28:11 >
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