scrannel

I have both itunes and Musicmatch. Problem with itunes is that it's prefered format is not MP3s but Mac's proprietary MPEG-4 Audio File format. You can convert them to Mp3, but I find MusicMatch far easier to use. I believe you can still download a free version. You just download, or rip your CD and you have MP3. Then of course, you have the File Protection to get around on the downloads. Burning them to CD (and ripping them back) strips off the protection. Maybe the File Protection is what's keeping them from working.

garyatadych

Creating your own MP3 CDs

You can use iTunes to create a data CD with the music stored in MP3 format. MP3 is a high-quality, Internet-standard encoding method. You can listen to the MP3 CDs you create on special consumer CD players or on your computer.

You can store over 12 hours of music, or about 150 songs, on a 650 MB CD-R disc.

1.

Choose iTunes > Preferences, then click the Burning button at the top of the window.

2.

Choose MP3 CD as the Disc Format, then click OK.

3.

Select the playlist containing the songs you want to burn to the CD, and make sure all the songs you want to include on the CD have a checkmark beside them.

You can only burn a CD from the songs in a playlist, and only checked songs are included. For instructions on creating a playlist, click "Tell me more."

If the playlist contains more songs than will fit on one CD, iTunes will burn as many songs as fit on the CD. You may want to move some of the songs to a new playlist, and then burn each playlist to a separate CD. (You can see the size of the selected playlist at the bottom of the iTunes window.)

4.

Click the Burn Disc button in the upper-right corner of the iTunes window.

5.

Insert a blank CD-R disc and click Burn Disc again.

If you plan to only play the CD using your computer, you can also use a CD-RW disc. To play it on a stereo, use a CD-R disc.

If your playlist includes songs in formats other than MP3, they will not be burned on the CD.

The songs sound as good on the CD as they do in iTunes. Songs you download from the Internet may be encoded differently, so their quality may be different.

For information about buying CDs, choosing import options, or creating an audio CD or data DVD, click "Tell me more."

Fritz Hier

I thought MP3's would not play in the '05's; I have not tried on mine though.

scrannel

Just to be sure about this: are you saying that your original playlist starts out in MP3 format? Or will iTunes automatically convert the regular iTunes downloads? I think if you already have non-protected MP3s you can do this, otherwise iTunes will not convert. (Unless you remove the protection by burning and ripping). Is that right?

Hoonose

They won't with NAV and the single CD, at least not yet.
They work fine with the 6 disk changer CD.

JmpnJckFlsh

After working with itunes until very late last night, I conclude that you are correct...Itunes does not automatically change their MPEG-4 files to MP3 files, and will not burn MPEG-4 files to an MP3 CD. I know that MP3 CDs can be made with itunes, but I don't know how you get the file conversion done.

But, I did discover that my itunes downloads are not worthless for converting to MP3 tracks...I burned several itunes downloads to an audio CD as suggested above, then had MusicMatch read/rip that audio CD into MP3 files at 128kbps. From there, it was easy to burn an MP3 CD that played on my Bose six CD audio system just like any other CD. My plan is to next upgrade to MusicMatch Plus for faster copying and to get title tags off the internet.

chadwick

iTunes works great for making MP3 CDs, but there are a few of things to know about it:

1. Set your Burning Disc Format to MP3 CD in your properties dialog (on the Advanced tab in newer versions of iTunes).
   
2. Only files in your iTunes library that are MP3 file types can be burned as MP3. If you've been importing your CDs in AAC or other format you'll need to convert them. You can do this in iTunes by selecting a group of songs, right-clicking on them, and choosing Convert Selection to MP3. You can also see what type the files are by right-clicking and choosing Get Info (and you can do this for multiple files, too).
   
3. If you've bought songs from the iTunes music for they are AAC formatted files with a digital-rights management layer called FairPlay. iTunes won't let you convert files like this to MP3 (because that strips the DRM ability from the file). However, there are some third-party tools that will do it and then you can do what you wish to the files. These utilities let you do it without having to burn them to an Audio CD and import them into another music program, so you can save some time and quality loss.
   

Hope this helps.

AMF

Ibtm

CAVetteKerry

I buy most of my music on iTunes and then burn an audio CD.
I use MusicMatch to rip the audio CD to MP3s.
If you use MusicMatch to rip MP3s, make sure you set the Processing level to "Very High". It defaults to "Normal". It makes a big difference in sound quality and it doesn't change the size of the MP3 files.

You can change the processing level by going to:
Options - Recorder - Settings
Click the Advanced button
Under MP3 Recording, change the Processing Level to "Very High"

chadwick

One of the software packages that strips the FairPlay DRM from iTunes purchased files can be found here: http://www.hymn-project.org/ - This is actual legal just as long as you don't redistribute the files to other folks.

SH_Eng

After reading all this yesterday, I decided to try it last night. Ripped and burned with Windows Media player. When I went to burn them to CD, it asked if I wanted to play them on a normal CD player or on a computer (MP3 format). Chose "computer" and saved them to CD. Played fine in C6. Only issue I had was some play at higher or lower volumes so I need to adjust for each song. Still nice to get so many songs on one disc.

PimpDadd

Argh -- I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.... I've done this exactly where I burned a cd with 150 mp3's from Media Player as a data disc 4 different times and none have worked..... even tried slower burning speeds and just Windows XP cd burning.... maybe its my TDK 700MB Media? I'll try Itunes next....

UPDATE: ITunes Works

Hoonose

Does it play on your computer, and just not the car?
Are you sure that your car unit is supposed to play MP3's?
The '05's with NAV will not!

scrannel

iTunes will, I believe, burn MP3 cds if the MP3s are not copy protected. Right click, click "properties", click "license" and it will tell you.

Hoonose

That's why I stay away from iTunes, iPods.
To think that you need permission to do whatever you want with your music!
MP3's are NOT direct digital copies of the music, and we never had to ask to copy off of FM radio, or copy cassette tapes, now did we?

JmpnJckFlsh

Thanks for the tip.

You must have MusicMatch Plus...my MusicMatch Basic doesn't have provision for changing processing quality on the Advanced tab, only for changing "Recording Quality". You can change from "CD Quality" (128kbps) to "Custom Quality" which allows you to increase bitrate to 320kbps. File size must be humongus and recording S-L-O-W at 320kbps, but maybe at 192kbps, quality will be about maxed out for car use.

CAVetteKerry

oops
You're right but it's worth the $20+ to upgrade, IMO
(I think if you pay ~ $40 you get free upgrades for life)

I'm very picky about the sound quality and MusicMatch was the easiest solution for a modest price, with good quality

The audio system in the C6 is lower quality than I'm used to but I think it's good enough to tell the difference.

PimpDadd

U P D A T E
------
For some reason, burning an MP3 CD in Windows XP or Media Player 10 WILL NOT WORK

Installed ITunes 6 -- Went to properties and Clicked on MP3 CD (Note: Not the Data CD or Audio CD)

Works like a CHARM on my New C6 Z06's NAV!!!!

PimpDadd

2006 NAV's DO PLAY MP3's! Its funny though as the MP3 CD's I made in Windows and in Media Player all work on my home DVD/MP3 player, just not the car.... ITunes is the way to go!

BillyClub

Ther is a Freebe program out there that will make the volume the same on all MP3's on a disk (or at least very close). Name of program is MP3Gain. Worked very well for me, no more playing with the volume control.