CDs import OK to iTunes Windows but not to iTunes MacOS! I have had 3 successive audio CDs with the same problem. They have exactly 20 tracks each, and track 19 claims to be over 14 hours long, and track 20 over 1 hour long. Any clues?

Question

I have an ageing (2006) iMac running OS 10.6.8 with an external LG CD/DVD writer (I've worn out the internal one).  I am not sure whether this is an iTunes issue or a LG issue.
Incident 1: importing a CD with 71 short tracks via iTunes.  Track 24 is listed as 25 seconds long, but (on the first attempt) only the first 10 seconds actually import.  I spotted it immediately as it also blacked out the artwork and refused to let me paste the artwork back in.  A second attempt at the import worked correctly.  ** SOLVED AT 2ND ATTEMPT **
Incident 2: importing a CD with 20 tracks averaging a little over 3 minutes each.  Gracenote did not recognise the disc.  The first 18 tracks showed reasonable track lengths, but track 19 showed 14 hours 43 minutes 21 seconds [!] and track 20 showed over 1 hour [possibly track 20 was showing the length of the entire CD].  The remaining 2 tracks were successfully imported into my other iTunes on a Windows XP machine (where Gracenote *did* recognise the CD) and transferred to the Mac over my internal network.  The next 2 CDs also had exactly 20 tracks each, and also had track 19 showing 14 hours 43 minutes and a few seconds (not quite the same as the original track 19, but close...) and track 20 showing over 1 hour [again possibly the length of the entire CD].
I tried "Get album artwork" on one of the early tracks of one of the CDs, and it came back with an error "Invalid TOC" - this looks to me like the table of contents is getting corrupted (hence the bizarre track lengths reported, and hence Gracenote not recognising the resulting bizarre profile) when there are exactly 20 tracks on the CD.
But a CD with 21 tracks looks OK, and so does a CD with 8 tracks.
I'm putting this one down as ** SOLVED BY USING ITUNES ON WIN-XP AND TRANSFERRING FILES BETWEEN MACHINES ** but I would like to know what is going on!
Has anyone else had a similar problem?

Answer 1

At the lower bitrates that were popular several years ago, like 128, AAC provides better audio quality than MP3. At some point ( the dbPoweramp experts believe it is 160 ) the advantage disappears, and above that AAC and MP3 are sonically equivalent. However, MP3 still enjoys a huge advantage in acceptance and compatibility across multiple players, programs, and phones.
In any case, it hardly appears to be worth the trouble to re-rip your CDs. But don't discard them either!