[Hoggy]

Hi everyone!

Can anyone with a good technical knowledge of iTunes give me step by step by step instructions on how I copy High Quality tracks to a SD card.

I'm pretty good on most PC programs, but I struggle on iTunes with authorize-de-authorise etc. etc. etc.

2: 5GB SD cards ready and waiting!

Thanks in advance

Hoggy

 

[Rog]

Sorry I can't help you and would also be interested to learn

But I thought I read somewhere that you could only use 2gb cards. I may be wrong of course and I wait to learn

 

[rapidcool]

Hi everyone!

Can anyone with a good technical knowledge of iTunes give me step by step by step instructions on how I copy High Quality tracks to a SD card.

I'm pretty good on most PC programs, but I struggle on iTunes with authorize-de-authorise etc. etc. etc.

2: 5GB SD cards ready and waiting!

Thanks in advance

Hoggy

Im glad you asked that Hoggy been wondering about that for a while,If someone does know can they tell me if its the same procedure for adding a hard drive via the ami?

thanks

Rich

 

[Warburton62]

Hoggy/Rapid - not sure I have all the answers but I think the following may be useful from my experiences.

1. If you have DRM protected material (eg most itunes purchases) I am pretty sure you can't just copy them onto an SD card and play in car. You would need to play via AMI on an "authorised" ipod device.

2. Quality of recordings (eg CD rips) depends on how you have set up your itunes to do this - you can choose different formats and sample rates in itunes options. What you can't do, AFAIK, is improve the quality of what you already have ripped.

3. Easiest way to put music onto SD is to drag and drop copy the native ripped files (MP3, ATTRAC etc) by folder onto SD cards. You can then just navigate around the SD card using the screen. You just need to identify where on your PC, itunes (or other media player) is storing them. Clearly, notwithstanding point 1. above

4. I have no idea about transferring play-lists, I don't use them much but I believe it can be done.

This may be of now help at all, but thought I would share

 

[MikeW]

Hoggy/Rapid - not sure I have all the answers but I think the following may be useful from my experiences.

1. If you have DRM protected material (eg most itunes purchases) I am pretty sure you can't just copy them onto an SD card and play in car. You would need to play via AMI on an "authorised" ipod device.

2. Quality of recordings (eg CD rips) depends on how you have set up your itunes to do this - you can choose different formats and sample rates in itunes options. What you can't do, AFAIK, is improve the quality of what you already have ripped.

3. Easiest way to put music onto SD is to drag and drop copy the native ripped files (MP3, ATTRAC etc) by folder onto SD cards. You can then just navigate around the SD card using the screen. You just need to identify where on your PC, itunes (or other media player) is storing them. Clearly, notwithstanding point 1. above

4. I have no idea about transferring play-lists, I don't use them much but I believe it can be done.

This may be of now help at all, but thought I would share

OK with regard to DRM protected files you are correct, you cannot copy straight to a SD card and play in car. I bought some ripping software off the net for about a tenner and used it to rip all DRM tracks.

For the orginal poster (and I am assuming you have a SD card reader on laptop or PC)........Insert SD card. Go to My Computer.......double click SD card. Now go to My music.......iPod music.......identify folder or files you want to copy to SD card........point at folder or files.......right click.......copy..........go back to SD card in My Computer.........right click.........paste.

To be honest, I only used SD cards and/or Juke box briefly as it took so long to keep copying over music, I simply bought a lead and plugged iPod into Aux port in centre arm rest console and listened to music on Aux.

 

[rapidcool]

OK with regard to DRM protected files you are correct, you cannot copy straight to a SD card and play in car. I bought some ripping software off the net for about a tenner and used it to rip all DRM tracks.

For the orginal poster (and I am assuming you have a SD card reader on laptop or PC)........Insert SD card. Go to My Computer.......double click SD card. Now go to My music.......iPod music.......identify folder or files you want to copy to SD card........point at folder or files.......right click.......copy..........go back to SD card in My Computer.........right click.........paste.

To be honest, I only used SD cards and/or Juke box briefly as it took so long to keep copying over music, I simply bought a lead and plugged iPod into Aux port in centre arm rest console and listened to music on Aux.

Thanks for the reply guys!!

Rich

 

[Hoggy]

Thanks for the advice, I will try tonight.

I think using the iPod via the MMI looks the best bet!

Hoggy

 

[CarbonCopy]

This is going to bore you to death lol

You can drag and copy straight from your iTunes library on to a SD card - I'm pretty sure that up to 32 Gig cards are supported - although for the price of two decent SD cards you can get a 320 or even 500 Gig portable hard drive if you have the AMI.

As Warburton has already stated, if your tracks were ripped by iTunes at a low bit rate e.g. 128 kbps, there is nothing you can do to improve the quality other than re-rip them at a higher bit rate. iTunes will rip at up to lossless quality - the only down side is that you will soon fill up a regular ipod with lossless tracks. I'm pretty sure that iTunes syncs tunes to your ipod at the same quality they were ripped at.

The iTunes library is generally located at C:\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music and the tracks have .m4a file extensions. You can copy anything from your full collection down to individual tracks.

iTunes dropped DRM some time ago so any tracks you have purchased recently will be DRM free, and be of the higher 256 kbps bit rate. I think DRM is only an issue for tracks that you have purchased from iTunes more than a year or so ago. Tracks you have ripped from CD shouldn't be a big problem.

Windows Media Player 11 will also rip to lossless so if the main source of your collection is CD you could rip directly on to a SD card or portable HDD.

I stream audio directly from my HDD to my surround system so I ripped everything to WMA Lossless in the first instance and just import tracks/albums at lower quality to my iTunes library for use on the ipod. Sounds long winded but it's not really and you always have a perfect quality track if you need it.

I've never messed with play lists other than on the ipod so I can't offer any advice there I'm afraid other than to say that I would think that the play list would point to the location of the track at the time you created it i.e. you would need to create the play list based on the tracks already on your SD card or portable HDD. I'm going to play with that later and let you know how I get on

Finally, as you all say thank god, I tend to buy tracks from Play.com - most of the tracks cost the same or less and the vast majority are 320 kbps MP3's (near CD quality) and are DRM free.

Hope even a little bit of that helps.

 

[CarbonCopy]

Having spent some time looking for easy ways to create playlists I came across this little beauty:

Playlist Creator 3

It's a free download - although I'm going to donate because I think it's awesome - and it is so easy to use. Literally drag and drop.

I started out by copying some wma, mp3 and m4a (iTunes) files onto a SD card to test with. I put Playlist Creator on one side of the screen and Windows Explorer on the other and started knocking playlists out like no tomorrow. I'm not certain which playlists are supported by the Audi system but I am 99% sure m3u's are, you can select this at the bottom of the page. Choose the root directory of your storage device as the save location and give your play list a name. BINGO!!! Simply drag the folders or files you want to include into the Playlist Creator window to add them.

If you intend to use your iTunes music you will have to move the m4a file type to the active side of the list under >Settings>File Type

I seem to recall someone on the forum once saying that if you start the playlist name with a symbol e.g. underscore, it will always appear at the top of the list when you are viewing your media - might be worth bearing in mind.

Have fun,

Kev

 

[Hoggy]

Thanks Guys

I'm learning fast

 

[Warburton62]

This is going to bore you to death lol

iTunes dropped DRM some time ago so any tracks you have purchased recently will be DRM free, and be of the higher 256 kbps bit rate. I think DRM is only an issue for tracks that you have purchased from iTunes more than a year or so ago. Tracks you have ripped from CD shouldn't be a big problem.

Not bored at all Carbon Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Seriously, I did not realise itunes purchases were DM free now!

For those old enough - ahem! I am minded of the "Not the Nine O'Clock News" sketch, where Mel Smith is trying to buy a G R A M O P H O N E from Rowan Atkinson. "Do you want Dolby" "Yes" - "How many Dolbys do you want?"

 

[rapidcool]

Having spent some time looking for easy ways to create playlists I came across this little beauty:

Playlist Creator 3

It's a free download - although I'm going to donate because I think it's awesome - and it is so easy to use. Literally drag and drop.

I started out by copying some wma, mp3 and m4a (iTunes) files onto a SD card to test with. I put Playlist Creator on one side of the screen and Windows Explorer on the other and started knocking playlists out like no tomorrow. I'm not certain which playlists are supported by the Audi system but I am 99% sure m3u's are, you can select this at the bottom of the page. Choose the root directory of your storage device as the save location and give your play list a name. BINGO!!! Simply drag the folders or files you want to include into the Playlist Creator window to add them.

View attachment 480

If you intend to use your iTunes music you will have to move the m4a file type to the active side of the list under >Settings>File Type

View attachment 481

I seem to recall someone on the forum once saying that if you start the playlist name with a symbol e.g. underscore, it will always appear at the top of the list when you are viewing your media - might be worth bearing in mind.

Have fun,

Kev

Kev,

Very impressive,you have been busy with yer time off lol.I thought my troubles where all sorted but its not for the Mac

Rich

 

[CarbonCopy]

Not bored at all Carbon Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Seriously, I did not realise itunes purchases were DM free now!

For those old enough - ahem! I am minded of the "Not the Nine O'Clock News" sketch, where Mel Smith is trying to buy a G R A M O P H O N E from Rowan Atkinson. "Do you want Dolby" "Yes" - "How many Dolbys do you want?"

Hahaha - good stuff Warburton

I think they dropped it when they made everything iTunes plus.

I did spot another problem with using music from an iTunes library when I was messing last night - I think they use a different method to regular ID3 tagging and when you copy you loose some of the information - need to play a bit more to confirm that.

Thing is nowadays that storage is so damn cheap that you can afford to keep a lossless library.

Hope that bit didn't send you off

Kev

 

[CarbonCopy]

Kev,

Very impressive,you have been busy with yer time off lol.I thought my troubles where all sorted but its not for the Mac

Rich

Oh bugger - sorry Rich - never thought about Mac's

The quest for a perfect solution continues

It's a shame because it is so simple.

 

[rapidcool]

Oh bugger - sorry Rich - never thought about Mac's

The quest for a perfect solution continues

It's a shame because it is so simple.

Oh well,mac's v window pc's strikes again,if its that easy may have to dig out the old laptop and crank it up again

 

[CarbonCopy]

I did spot another problem with using music from an iTunes library when I was messing last night - I think they use a different method to regular ID3 tagging and when you copy you loose some of the information - need to play a bit more to confirm that.

Having played a bit more it doesn't look like a big issue - all the major ID data is copied. I just wondered as Windows 7 warns that some of the file properties can't be copied - just ignore the warning and all is good.