I have the factory MP3 player in my RX8. It will play uncompressed audio files (regular CD's) and MP3's.

Many songs on my computer are in AAC format. This is because I imported many of my friends songs from her iTunes library. I also purchased many songs from iTunes and they bear the name Protected AAC's.

I want to make MP3 CD's for my car. I need to make the AAC files into MP3's. iTuned does have a function that will change the AAC's into MP3's....but it makes you do it 1 at a time and it copies it right next to the original file. So there is a duplicate that you have to search for after to erase it.

The protected AAC's will not change their format. they are locked somehow. If I knew that I was not going to be able to play the songs I purchased from iTunes in my MP3 player.....I probably would not have purchased them.

Does anyone know of an application that will crack a protected AAC?

 

Yes, the copy protection was cracked a while ago. Since iTunes is made to work with iPods and other devices that can't be easily upgraded, there are apparently no plans to make a backwards compatable "fix" for the copy protection being broken.

I don't use iTunes, so I don't have a url for you, but a google search should help.

 

There is a LAME encoder plugin. It basically streams whatever files into LAME. You can do encoded AAC, AAC, CD, etc. etc. Some argue LAME is a better encoder than the one in iTunes. I'm not an audiophile, so I can't tell the difference.

The iTunes Lame plugin will do an entire play list, however it creates duplicate files. So, whate I suggest doing is making a smart playlist set to File Type = AAC (or whatever the long name is) and running the plugin. I don't know if it will copy a comments field, but you could do a bulk comments field edit and add "Converted" then, to delete either the AAC or MP3 duplicates, do a smart play list with "Converted" in the Comment and a file type of "AAC" or "MP3" (or whatever the long name is). But, like I said, I don't know if it will copy the comments field over.

You can get the plugin from Blacktree

 

I guess you do know that when you burn AAC files you can play them in any CD player.

 

Lame is lame. AAC files do sound better, however Lame can sound better if encoded at a higher bitrate.

I think the 128-bit standard is too low.. I wish everyone would encode at 190.. I hear too much crap in the background in alot of songs.. sounds like gurgling or water running..

But don't use iTunes, god knows we have enough standards already...

 

I meant people think it is better than iTunes MP3 encoder. So, yeah, AAC is better but MP3 CD players don't play AAC, so LAME is supposedly one of the best MP3 encoders to use.

But, screw it if you can hear artifacts at 128 KB/s MP3 and you want to turn an AAC into an MP3 for an MP3 player. You are taking a lossy compression, decompressing it, then recompressing it. You're just SOL. But even then you'd probably bitch about the audio quality that most MP3 players audio chips provide. But, like I said, I can't tell the difference B/T a 128 k mp3 and a CD (might be my speakers or something, though).

I guess FLAC was designed for a reason after all...