Extremely Low iTunes Bit Rates

All of the music that I purchased from iTunes appears to have a bit rate of 128kbps. I understand that ACC files sounds slightly better at low bit rates. Regardless, this is the absolute lowest tolerable bit rate imaginable. It is only suitable for preview purposes with low quality PC speakers or cheap headphones. I can't believe that Apple would selling warmed over 8 Track Tapes.
Please tell me that I am doing something wrong.
Is the parent file greater that 128 kbps when I choose to burn a CD?
I am prepared to accept some destructive compression but 128 kbps is not functional. Converting ACC files to MP3 would result in even greater loss of quality. Converting the file to MP3 would be necessary for anyone with an MP3 incapable of playing ACC files.
  Windows XP Pro  
  Windows XP Pro  

I actually believe that it probably has more to do with storage space, rather than the record companies.
There's a consensus out there that people basically can't really tell the difference between 128k and 192k rips. And since the vast majority people may not notice or even care, Apple's philosophy is probably "why rip at the larger bit rate, and potentially use up 30% more network storage space, download bandwidth, etc. when most people won't notice".
I happen to strongly disagree with this sentiment, and can absolutely tell the difference between 128k & 192k rips (especially on things like Pink Floyd etc.), but it's apparently not my call.

Similar Messages

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    With the iPod connected to you computer go to the Summary pane for the iPod in iTunes and check the box that says: Convert higher bitrate songs to XX AAC. Select 128 kbps for XX.

  • PROBLEM with 24/96 bit-rate USB DAC that worked fine until I plugged in two

    I'm using a late 2008 15" Macbook Pro that I bought Jan 2009 right before the SD card models came out. Mac OSX 10.6.4 and iTunes 9.2 are installed. I have a Nuforce Icon HDP and a CEntrance DACport 24/96 bit-rate USB DAC (external sound cards) that still work great right now. Note - 16 bit/44 Khz is CD quality, and these 24/96 files are hi-resolution downloads that are closer to SACD or DVD audio.
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    I listened to the new one for a day and it worked fine, but when I plugged in the original test sample into the second USB port at the same time as the new one in order to compare them, the sound became garbled and noisy. This never happened when either one was plugged in by itself. Note, if I make changes to the DAC's bit-rate in Audio Midi Setup I usually close iTunes first and then re-open it when I am done.
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    UPDATE:
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  • Accuracy of DVD player bit rate meters?

    Anyone know why different DVD players would display drastically different bit rates as a DVD is playing?
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    Now, really weird: when I play the very same disc on an older Toshiba DVD player which also has a bit rate meter, it shows average bit rates in the 8.5-9.8 range, with spikes as high as 10.0. I've tried playing the film back twice on the Toshiba and it has frozen twice, at different parts of the movie (and not during chapter breaks or markers). I've read that the max. bit rate for all DVD content (video, audio, subtitles, etc). is 10.08, and the max. for video is 9.8. The film I'm playing has no subtitle or other extra streams, just the single video and audio files.
    I've played the film fine on 5 other DVD players, so maybe it's just the Toshiba. But the bit rate differences are puzzling.
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    Mike Boedicker wrote:
    Anyone know why different DVD players would display drastically different
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    Any system measuring real-time performance is probably doing an estimate.
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  • Bit rate too high DVDSP, build stops.

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              Width and Height: Automatic
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                        Detail Level: 0
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    Starting DVD Build BIG_DADDY_DVD...
    Compiler Initializing...
    Precompiling Project BIG_DADDY_DVD
    Compiling VMG Information...
    Created 8 PGCs in VTSM1
    Created 8 PGCs in VMG.
    1 Menu(s) will be created...
    Compiling Menu PGCs...
    Compiling Menu#1 (Menu 1)...
    Rendering Menu:Menu 1,Language:1...
    Generating Transition: VTSM #01, VOB #1...
    Writing VIDEO_TS.VOB
    1 VTSs and 1 Titles will be created...
    Compiling VTS#1 (Big Daddy compress video)...
    Muxing VTS_01_1.VOB
    Video Bitrate Too High
    Build cancelled
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    I tried the same project in IDVD and it worked like a charm the first time

    There is still a DVDSP Forum - it's under Final Cut Studio at https://discussions.apple.com/community/professional_applications/final_cut_stud io
    Select "refine this list" in the blue button to nake it easier to find DVDSP related issues.

  • If I have converted my purchased iTunes songs to a lower bit rate what will happen when I join iTunes match? Will they match up or will these be stored as duplicates of the same song?

    If I have converted my purchased iTunes songs to a lower bit rate what will happen when I join iTunes match? Will they match up or will these be stored as duplicates of the same song?
    I ask because I primarily use my work laptop which has limited space so I usually convert my purchases to 160k from 256k in order to save space. I want to sign up for iTunes Match but I'd like to know before I do so I can understand how I will have to set up my library.

    crichton007 wrote:
    What I may do is start a brand new library there, copy my tracks from my work laptop using Home Share and then the script to get things in sync before starting over again there too.
    Why create a new library? Just add the tracks from the laptop to the existing library on the Mac.
    crichton007 wrote:
    I was just hoping to hear definitively whether or not there was some sort of intelligence built into iTunes Match that would match these up...
    How do you mean? If you down-convert purchased tracks you've fundamentally changed the files so iTunes can no longer recoginize them as "purchased." And, indeed, they no longer are since they are brand new files. Of course these new files will only be "matched" or "uploaded."

  • HT204406 how do I download higher bit rate songs from itunes match to replace the lower bit rate I have on my itunes library?

    I have itunes match and I have about 500 songs that were ripped at 128kbps. I have been tolf that I can replace them via itunes match to improve them to 256 or 320?
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    Sid,
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  • After I download a 256 kbps song using ITunes Match, how do I get it to play on my computer at the higher bit rate once I turn ITunes Match off again?

    After I download a 256 kbps song from the cloud using ITunes Match, how do I get it to play on my computer once I turn ITunes Match off again? I have been using ITunes Match for awhile now to increase the bit rate on songs to 256 kbps.  Once I download the songs at the new bit rate, I turn off Match because I want to eliminate duplicates. Usually there is no problem. This time, however, 278 of my songs lost their file association and were unplayable unless I locate the song files within my computer.  These are songs purchased from Amazon.  In order to play them again in ITunes (Match is now off), I must locate each song file individually (I've tried to do it in bulk but have not succeeded) but now the bit rate has returned to the lower number BEFORE I matched the song.  I should have never used Match in the first place. Any ideas, anyone?

    I discovered that the NEW 256 bit file does reside on my computer, in the ITunes files (My Music/ITunes/ITunes Media/Music.  So I can bring the songs back as 256 kbps, and I have been successful now at locating more than one file at a time, by clicking on the "find other missing files" tab in the popup window.  Previously, I'd been going back to my Amazon files, and not only was I unable to bring back a 256 version, but the popup window would not locate similar files.  So while I wish ITunes Match would automatically associate the ITunes Match file, at least I can retrive the file association without hours and hours of work.

  • Different bit rates in the same itunes library

    I would like to rip some CDs in Lossless Format and some others let say in 192KBs because of quality reasons. Could I change just the import settings before I import the CDs according to my needs and will iTunes maintain the Lossless format for the already imported CDs after I've switched to a lower bit rate and vice versa? Thanks for the replies!

    Yes. Changing import settings will not affect music already in your library.

  • Re-sync at lower bit rate

    decided to re-sync my downloaded music at a higher bitrate , and by doing so i used up nearly all of my available storage space on my phone.  I would like to return to the lower bit rates for my entire collection of downloads, but not finding any tools to do this, any thoughts?

    kiho - You got it! As you probably noticed, "Convert" in iTunes actually means "create a new copy." After conversion, you will have both versions in your library, so if you don't want the 320s any more, delete them. If you have playlists with the 320 versions in them, you can manually replace the songs with their new lower bitrate counterpart - that does not happen automatically. -Ed.

  • Converting Bit Rate of iTunes Purchased songs

    I am in the process of converting all my music files to 112 bit to allow for mores space on my iPod. However, the songs I have gotten of iTunes through the music store are protected and it won't allow me to convert them . My method of converting the songs is to select them in itunes and then go to the pulldown menu "Advanced" and then to select "Convert Selection to AAC" and subsiqently convert the bit rate. Is there any way to convert the "protected" songs to a smaller bit rate?
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    Robert
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    TD

  • How do I reduce the bit rate when listening to iTunes preview of songs ? It is eating up my bandwidth

    I like to listen to music previews on my iphone before I decide to buy. But this is eating up my bandwidth. Even the previews are at 256 kbps. This is 4 times higher than Amazon which is 64 kbps. Is there any way to set my access to a lower bit rate, or adjust it to mono or anything ? The bandwidth cost is killing me. Thanks in advance.

    For existing tracks, see:
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  • How do I convert Ineligible (low bit rate, language lesions) to be eligible

    I have a huge amount of language lessions that are 64kb encodings.  They are absolutely fine for my use.
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    Thanks guys.  It apparently works to simply convert to AAC 128kbs.  The genre lable seems to be OK as Books & Spoken.
    There were some bumps along the way, ending up with 3 of each lesson at one point! .. But I think this is all going to work just fine.
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  • Very Low Bit Rate!!!

    Ok, iTunes is not the best program of the computer planet music, far away…
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    Is the file stored in iTunes as a music file?
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    I understand why you don't want to do this sort of messing around, but nfortunately at this stage in the release there are still lots of these sort of issues, most of which will likely be resolved in the next few updates.
    If you don't want to do those steps then another option would be to turn match off until these issues get fixed. Obviously, we have no idea of timescales (or if that particular issue will ever get addressed). There are enough people being affected by it that I'd be surprised if it isn't a reasonably high priority though.

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