Confused about Apple Lossless and m4a files

I have Itunes set to import music files from CD in the "Apple Lossless Encoder" format. I notice that it makes
.m4a files. Are these in fact lossless? Are these mpeg4 files? Is mpeg4 lossless?
Thanks,
John

John,
if you get info on a file it will tell you what kind it is, in this case Apple lossless. The difference between importing a song this way and regular AAC or MP3 is size. Lossless is roughly 10MB per minute, AAC and MP3 is about 1MB per minute, so a 4 minute song lossless is about 40MB compared to 4MB.
By importing a song as lossless, you don't lose any of the song, whereas AAC and MP3 throw out the stuff you don't really need to hear and enjoy the song, thus the reason it is alot smaller in size. You can increase the bit rate that you import your songs in using AAC or MP3, making them larger, but not by much.

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Just bought a Nikon d750 and confused about adobe LR4 and PS6 support for the RAW files. I have DNG 8.7 but wondering if LR and PS will import direct soon Thanks for any advice

Just bought a Nikon d750 and confused about adobe LR4 and PS6 support for the RAW files. I have DNG 8.7 but wondering if LR and PS will import direct soon Thanks for any advice

Support for the Nikon D750 was introduced in the latest version of LR 5.7 and ACR 8.7 on Novemder 18th 2014.
Further updates to LR 4 were stopped when LR 5 was released on June 9th 2013. No further updates for bug fixes and new camera support.
Nada, LR 4 will never support Nikon D750. The Nikon D750 was introduced into the market in September 2014 some 15 months after further development of LR 4 was discontinued.
You can use the Adobe DNG program (free download for the package) to convert the Nef (raw) files from your Nikon D750 to the Adobe DNG format which will permit you to import those into LR 4. This is the crutch provided by Adobe to allow for the processing of raw files with outdated versions of LR and ACR.
You can also update the ACR plugin for PS CS6 to version 8.7 which can also work with the raw files from the D750. For direct support in Lightroom you will need to upgrade (paid) to version 5.7.

Why are my mp3's and m4a files no longer recognized?

All of a sudden, 95% of the 10,000 music tracks in my iTunes Library has become unplayable. It concerns mp3 and m4a files with music that I purchased and ripped over the years. Wifi syncing to my iPhone 4s made it worse: now the Music app on my iPhone won't play them either.
All tracks added before Mid September 2012 are dead. They can be seen in the library and metadata can be read in iTunes. But when I click on the file, nothing happens. Newer files do play normally, though. MP3's that were not located in the iTunes library also still are playable.
I tried opening the files with VLC player, Quicktime and even on a windows machine. All I get is a message that songitle.mp3 cannot be played because it's format is not recognised.
It has been over a week since I first noticed the problem and I spend many late hours. What is going on? Has Spotlight messed with my music's metadata? Is Apple denying me access to my own files? HELP!
What I tried:
- restore files from Time Machine backup: same problem
- play files on other machines: same problem
- repair a file with MP3 Scan+Repair. It says: ERROR: Unknown file format!
- decrypt HD by disabling FileVault: no improvement and Time Machine won't work anymore (Stupid)
- do a fresh install of Mountain Lion: no improvement
- restore files from Carbon Copy Clone: same problem (has Spotlight done this while indexing the external HDD?
- boot from the Carbon Copy Clone (turned out impossible due to the Verbatim external drive that won't boot-should have tested that before I ran into trouble )
- find solutions in apple discussions, google etc for almost ten days: no solution
What struck me in Console
Some messages in Console struck me, but did not lead me to any useful clues:
25-11-12 22:33:48,000 kernel[0]: Sandbox: sandboxd(317) deny mach-lookup com.apple.coresymbolicationd
26-11-12 21:06:44,919 sandboxd[970]: ([963]) QuickTime Player(963) deny file-read-data /Users/MyName/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Folder/Album/Song.mp3
25-11-12 22:51:01,030 mdwrite[422]: *** Assertion failure in +[MDKeyRing _copyKeychainAtURL:canCreate:], /SourceCache/Spotlight/Spotlight-707.3/xpc-services/mdwrite/MDKeyRing.m:131
25-11-12 22:53:18,757 mdwrite[525]: Metadata.framework [Fatal]: Couldn't add Spotlight Metadata Privacy password to keychain! [osErr:-50]
26-11-12 21:19:59,863 com.apple.PassXPCService[1166]: PAPassValidator: _signatureIsValid failed to load signature file
Software Versions:
OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
iTunes 10.7 (21)
Quicktime Version 10.2 (603.6)
On iPhone 4S: iOS 6.0.1
Hardware
MBP 13" Late 2011,
2.8 GHz Intel Core\
6 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

You're welcome: I am happy you are thinking along.
We may me on to something: I could not access my account on Sep 11 and did a restore from TM. It did not go too smoothly, but it worked. That's when I decided to pick up the habit of making carbon clone copies again.
Now if something would have been wrong with the songs in the iTunes/Music folder, it must have been copied just as wrong to the carbon clone. Hence the reason why my backed up songs won't play. So you could be right that the files were probably messed up Mid September and not just two weeks ago.
But why haven't I noticed it before? Probably because all the music I like to hear is in my iPhone, that apperently doesn't do to many wifi syncing? It is strange though that for two months I could still play the music on my iPhone.
What did happen just before I could not play them anymore, was the iOS update to 6.0.1. My phone's battery was draining fast and it became hot. Maybe the phone's Spotlight had to re-index? I don't know.
FV was there since Jan, when I set up this machine. I did not run some kind of utility particularly on my music files.
I think you are wise to stick to your OS version as long as it works well. Upgrading usually comes with some issues.
About my setup:
I started out on another MBP (mid 2009) with 10.5. Upgraded to 10.6 then to 10.7. Had some kernel panic issues, but solved them.The machine got stolen in January and I got my current MBP (late 2011) with 10.7 on it that I upgraded to 10.8 this summer. I started using FV in Jan with the new machine. The theft made me wonder if I shouldn't be more Utilities I use ever so infrequently:
Onyx
Drive Genius
ClamAV
Carbon Copy Cloner.
Syncing/Backup takes place to
Time Machine (full drive)
iCloud (limited data)
SugarSync (limited data)
Dropbox (limited data)
Google Drive (limited data)
Carbon Copy Cloner (full drive)
Other things:
I put a hardware password on my laptop and a use Prey tracking software (not that it helped me to find back my old laptop btw)
I can't remember what utility I was running at the time of the lockout in September. Maybe there was something like Drive Genius running when I had to close my MBP and leave. But since the music on my TM has the same problem, the whole lockout may not be the reason of the corrupted songs.
Perhaps I should just accept my losses. I found an older backup with the oldest 90% of the songs that work. It's just that I am curious to know what went wrong to keep it from happening again.
About moving to another forum: what do you think would be the best choice? OS X Mountain Lion?

Walkman app not showing my downloaded podcast mp3 and m4a files

Hi all,
Hope someone can help me with an Issue on my Z3 Compact running Lollipop 5.0.2 firmware.
I have a Music folder on my SDCard which contains all my music files in subfolders and all these files appear in the Walkman app just fine.
I also have two folders called 'Podcasts' - one on the internal storage and one on the SDCard which contain mp3 and m4a files which I have downloaded using 3rd party apps.
I would like to listen to these podcast files using the Walkman app - but they will not appear in Walkman - even if I try the Folders options.but it still will not show either of the Podcast folders.
The weird thing is it lists voices and sounds / voices rom two different SatNav folders which are stored on the SDCard - but not the podcast folders!!
It even lists a folder of foreign language audio mp3 files - but not the podcast files.
The podcast files appear fine in PowerAmp whic even shows the tags and descriptions etc....So, why not Walkman?
I even tried unmounting and re-mounting the SDCard to see if it would rescan - but still nothing.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Solved!
Go to Solution.

@harryw66
You should contact the devs
http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/WALKMAN/Walkman-Beta-Test/m-p/953659#U953659
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)

I was so excited about apple pay and now setting it up hoping to replace a wallet within next year or so and then boom 8 cards you are done! Come on Apple 8 cards is that what you call wallet replacement?

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Tee Man wrote:
On the TV news was a report about Apple iPhones and iPads were unsecure. Has apple adressed this? What does apple recommend?
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The latest version of iOS (7.0.6) fixes the problem. Update your phone if you're not already running 7.0.6.
I get email from Contacts in my address book. The email is not really from them. Is this the issue at hand?
No. That has nothing to do with it. That's called "spam".

Unable to import mp3 and m4a files

I have mp3 and m4a files that I'm trying to import into iTunes (and then add to my iPad). When I try to add them, I see a very quick "Processing Album Artwork" and then nothing happens.
The files work on the PSP I'm getting them from, on VLC on the Mac, and on Google Music Beta. (In fact, Google Music automatically uploaded them from the iTunes library.)
Searching for advice found years-old threads on various Mac support sites suggesting that I repair the files using "MP3 Scan+Repair," but that utility didn't find anything wrong with the files. I tried rebuilding a few of the files anyway, but to no avail.
The files are not DRMed; they were originally ripped from CDs I own, mostly using iTunes. (This was done at least 2-3 years ago.)

My problem seems to have randomly resolved itself. I went and imported a couple of files on a new playlist, and they appeared with tags and everything. Then I tried importing the rest just by dragging the folder into "Music," and it appeared perfectly fine.
So, I don't think this was the issue since the tags worked fine today, but I'm good now!

I'm horribly confused about student licensing and commercial use

As the title says I'm horribly confused about student licensing and using it for commercial use.
I currently have a Student Licensing version of Adobe Creative Suite 4 that I purchased through my school's journeyEd portal.
Seeing how CS5 is now out I was browsing looking at prices (why not upgrade while I'm still a student, right?) and while browsing I bumped into one source that says that Student Licensing can not be used for commercial purposes, and this is when the confusion started. I remember reading before that we are able to use student licensing for commercial purposes, okay time to google search. I found one Adobe FAQ that says I can. .
http://www.adobe.com/education/students/studentteacheredition/faq.html
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Yes. You may purchase a Student and Teacher Edition for personal as well as commercial use. "
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http://forums.adobe.com/thread/314304
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"[CS Rep] : [My name], I would like to inform you that Adobe Student and Teacher Editions are not allowed for
commercial use.
[CS Rep] : However, you can upgrade your current software to a normal upgrade version, and you can continue
using it for commercial purpose.
[Me] : Then is the FAQ page mistaken? Because it is very misleading if it is. But thank you for the information.
[CS Rep] : You are welcome.
[CS Rep] : I apologize for the misleading information in the FAQ."
. .And after that, I went back to being confused.
SO my questions are. . . Can I or can't I use my Adobe Creative Suite 4 student licensing for commercial purposes? and If I purchase a Student Licensing of CS5 can I use that for commercial purposes as well?
Sorry for the long post, I just want to be perfectly clear on what I can and can not do with my purchase.

The rules differ in various parts of the world. In North America you can use it for commercial work.
There are no student/academic upgrades. The pricing is so low that in many cases you're better off buying another full student license but you are eligible for upgrade pricing for commercial versions once you're out of school.
You may not transfer the student license in any way.
Bob

Difference between AAC and m4a files, converting from AAC to useable format

Does anyone know the difference between AAC and m4a files? iTunes has an option to use an AAC encoder to compress CD files, but this creates an m4a file not an AAC file. I just got some actual AAC files and iTunes cannot read these, is there a way to convert from AAC to a format that iTunes recognizes? Thanks

iTunes uses AAC data wrapped in an MPEG 4 container file. If you got some *.AAC files, and they're just raw AAC files, then you need to wrap them in an MPEG 4 container. The only way I know to do this is using the foobar 2000 program. You can find more information at http://www.hydrogenaudio.org and http://www.foobar2000.org

Why is my file "Apple Lossless" and not ACC or Mpeg?!?!?!?! HELP!!!

Ok, so this is the first time this is happening to CDs I'm importing. These last couple I have done are coming up as "Apple Lossless", whatever that means! And not the ACC or MPEG formats. How do I put it in those and what the heck is happening that my newest imported songs are going directly to this lossless thing?!
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If the default encoder for iTunes has been set to Apple Lossless, songs added to iTunes will be added in this format; you can change this by following these instructions. The procedure is the same for all systems running iTunes 5.0 and newer. To transfer the Apple Lossless files to the iPod shuffle, look at this page.
(9671)

What does Match do to Apple Lossless and AIFF?

I have all my music imported as Apple Lossless. Will I lose quality if I use Match?
Thanks,
Ken

Yes, that it what I said :-)
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When you play back from your computer where the original file is stored you play the ALAC file.
If you download the file to another Idevice from Icloud you will of course have a 256 file, which should be quite adequate for on the go listening.
EG, When I stream to my hi end home stereo useing squeezebox server through Itunes on my Imac it streams full ALAC files, not 256 files. And I am talking about files which were uploaded to Icloud, NOT matched.
I was very careful to verify this before uploading more than a few files.
I don't want 256 streaming to a 70,000.00 system :-)

Very confused about ppi, resolution, and image size...

I have read so much on these things and even posted along these lines here and there, but remain totally confused.
Say the size of my pictures is around 2000 x 3000. Once I download them to PSE, the resolution is 72ppi. Is this default and could I/should I change this?
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First I edit them.
Next I email to family members.
Then I order prints (99% are 5x7 or smaller)
Finally I store them (on computer with CD backup).
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Thank you,
Amy

Amy,
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When I change resolution to 325 px/in., W=7.04" H=5.268"
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2. I enhance the pictures next, leaving sharpening for the last step
3. I save primarily in PSD and/or JPEG. Both PSD and TIFF allow one to retain layers, are lossless, and thus one avoids degradation with sequential editing. JPEG is is a compression format which conserves disk space (in comparison to PSD and TIFF), and is most likely required for your e-mail and your photo finisher. I save some of the JPEG files. I usually elect baseline optimized, and the JPEG allows me to elect quality 8, which is good for my purpose and results in a manageable file size.
4. Right after I download my picture files from the camera, I burn them to a CD (i.e. before I do anything else), and right after I finish the final edits I burn them to CD as well. This is my "film", if you will. If the computer fails or if I should accidentally delete a file from disk, I still have it available.
I am sure that others will post, but that is my current work flow.
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Converting to Apple Lossless and making playlist?

I've noticed that in order to convert Wav files that are already on my computer to Apple Lossless I need to do this in the library and it can't be done in a playlist. The problem is that if I try and create a playlist from the new lossless files I can't. Itunes creates the playlist from the origonal WAV files. Is there now way to bring a wav playlist into Itunes and make it into a apple lossless playlist?
Gerry

Yes, Apple Lossless is roughly 45% smaller than pure WAV PCM files.
Once converted, iTunes will place the Apple Lossless files in your music directory, under the correct artist/album folder. There should be new entries in your library that refer to the Apple Lossless files, and the old ones that refer to the WAV files should remain untouched. If you check your "Added recently" playlist, or sort your library using the "Date Added" category, you should find the Apple Lossless entries.

Confused regarding .VOB, .BUP, and .IFO files

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As for those DVD's you got done at wal-mart, I don't know if they offer it as a service but you would be better getting them as data DVD's with DV files on them rather than DVD format. For those that you already have mpegstreamclip would be my tool of choice, again converting them to DV.

Itunes with Apple Lossless and mp3

I have a Mac mini with iTunes.
How can I configure and the system such that:
- I want to play HD music in my living room so I will have Apple Lossless tracks for this purpose.
- I still want the same tracks in MP3 (because it takes much less space) and sync those on my iPhone.
Obviously I can have different playlists for the HD tracks and MP3 tracks.
Is there an application that can automatically discover newly imported HD tracks and convert them in MP3?
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Confused about Apple Lossless and m4a files

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