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Topic: On-the-fly transcoding for iPod (Read 5787 times) previous topic - next topic
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On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

So, I've finally got my 30GB iPod. I couldn't be happier with it. My music collection is almost entirely FLAC, though some files are MP3 or Musepack. The best format for the iPod, from what I ascertain, is AAC, for audio quality, and disc space and battery life efficiency. I knew the limitations of iTunes, and thought I could work around that with the multitude of software available, transcoding on-the-fly as music is transferred.

Seems I was wrong.

I've been battling with various software, on Windows and Linux, to do what I want it to do.
First, I thought foobar2000 would provide a great solution, with foo_pod. Problem: foo_pod only supports foobar2000 0.8.3, and having tried it after 0.9.2, I cannot possibly use it. I'm so used to 0.9, and it's set up exactly how I like it. Why hasn't this component been updated yet?! I looked into foo_dop, and may well go back to it, but it lacks too many features (like album cover conversion and an ability to manage my iPod, not just send tracks to it).

So, I thought I'd try what Linux has to offer. Firstly, Amarok (which was highly recommended to me by a close friend). This is a fantastic player, when you get all the bits together. I also think it would do what I want, if only I could configure it better. Unfortunately, its iPod options go so far as 'transcode to preferred format for device' or 'don't bother'. Here lies to problem: I want to use AAC, and there's no where that tells me what Amarok thinks this 'preferred format' is, or how to change it. Also, the transKode script (required for transcoding on-the-fly) only supports the encoders it wants to (i.e. FAAC). I'd rather use NeroAAC with WineHQ (you really must listen to the two to realise how incredible/rubbish NeroAAC/FAAC is).

So then I looked at Rhythmbox, Listen, and Banshee. All use gstreamer, so no option for NeroAAC. Besides that, I'm having a hell of a time getting AAC encoder plugins to be recognised on gstreamer - seems Ubuntu has very limited 0.10 gstreamer plugins (these apps are ignoring 0.8, though it is installed). I also found that Listen wouldn't read my FLAC tags, and found nothing with googling to help me.

So, I'm pleading with the Hydrogenaudio community: please help me get mobile music! There must be someone with a similar FLAC -> AAC path. Ideally, I want to avoid what seems inevitable: transcode my entire collection to AAC on my HDD, then transfer with [insert an iPod management app here]. This really doesn't seem like much to ask to me!

All help appreciated,
Smiler

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #5 –
I've always said that it's too bad that Apple does not allow the on-the-fly transcoding option in iTunes to be used with anything other than the Shuffle. I could imagine having stuff in the lossless ALAC format and transcoding it to AAC for use on an iPod. One would have to have a pretty fast computer to make this practical, though - my Pentium M laptop only manages 14x for AAC encoding, considerably slower than transferring already-encoded files.

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #6 –
Quote from: neomoe on
Quote from: hiwaycallin on

Quote from: smiler on

Quote from: neomoe on

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/sveta-portable-audio.htm

Thanks very much for this. Does exactly what I needed! Just a shame it's not free.

Media Monkey will do this and it is free.



the free standard version does not.

http://www.mediamonkey.com/download.htm

I guess you're right ... the free version syncs to ipod, but you need to shell out the $20 to get on-the-fly transcoding

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #7 –
As a quick follow up:

I've now abandoned this method. My collection doesn't take up all that much space when encoded as AAC (certainly not compared to FLAC! lol) and I had issues with third party software writing the iTunesDB file. When I used Sveta to transcode and transfer the music, I had some duplicate entries. I also couldn't add album art without confusing the iPod - it kept showing the wrong picture for each track. Thus, I copied the music off (using ephPod, so I didn't have to encode to AAC again), 'restored' the iPod (i.e. blank it) and transferred back using iTunes. Now that I have a bonefied iTunesDB file on the iPod, all works beautifully.

I wouldn't recommend using third party iTunesDB writing applications from my experience. It should be remembered that Apple don't release this information: all these applications determine their methods by hacking/reverse engineering, and can easily become outdated with each firmware/iTunes update. For this reason, I doubt I'll ever use an application other than iTunes to write to the iPod now (unless Apple release these details, as unlikely as that is). This doesn't stop me, however, writing scripts to control iTunes .

I hope someone can learn from my experience.

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #8 –
[deleted]

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #9 –
Mediamonkey is well worth the $20  (for 2.x versions or $35 for lifetime).
 

On-the-fly transcoding for iPod

Reply #12 –
Yes, that's true. Although you can use the in_!mpg123-plugin from otachan which supports album replaygain.
Btw, somewhere the developer said that they want to include this feature in a future version...

Big_Berny

PS: I use MP3Gain to adjust the volume of my mp3s.