“iTunes 4.5 just completed transcoding the WMA portion of my music library, or about 700 songs. It took the application 5 hours to do this, on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz system with 768 MB of RAM. That seems a bit excessive, but hey, you only have to do it once,” Paul Thurrot writes for Paul Thurrott’s Internet-Nexus.
“A number of people wrote in, taking exception to my ‘sounds like crap’ comments about transcoding. As I suspected, however, none of these people had actually spent time transcoding,” Thurrot writes.
Thurrott then goes into some depth about transcoding, writing that his “personal experience with transcoding is actually pretty vast.” And he can’t resist throwing in the line, “I’ve switched from the iPod to a Dell DJ,” to explain why he has to transcode so much.
Thurrott writes, “I’m happy to report that the [iTunes 4.5 WMA to AAC transcoding] results are decent within the confines of the limitations of transcoding. Yes, there are obvious issues with tinniness, but these are more obvious with headphones, and less so from the PC speakers. I haven’t listened to every song, of course, but I do have a selection of three songs I’ve set aside specifically for testing purposes, and I’ve been analyzing how they sound compared to online store-purchased WMA and AAC originals. They exhibit the same issues I’ve described again, but… you know, they’re not horrible. Unless you’re an audiohphile, I guess. The end result, of course, is that I’m still surprisingly positive about iTunes 4.5. Good stuff.”
Full article here.
Thurrott: “about iTunes 4.5. Good stuff.”
I think I’m going to have a heart attack. He liked it?!! I guess there’s still hope for people like him!
And I care what he thinks why?
This is news why?
Why, why, why do you continue to post his crap.
I suspect MDN is soely responsible for his continued relevance.
“I’ve switched from the iPod to a Dell DJ,” wrote Thurrott. That’s like switching from DVD to VHS. What’s next, Thurrott switches from Windows XP to Windows 3.1?
I think I figured it out. MDN and Thurrott are the same person playing both sides against the middle. Sheer genius. It’s the only explanation.
theloniusMac,
If you don’t want to read it, why did you click it? Some of us like to read Thurrott’s lunacy through the MDN prism. It is entertaining for us. If you don’t, just ignore that headline and move to the next.
MDN has written before that they keep their enemies close and try to expose inaccuracies when they occur. It’s one of the reasons why I like this site. Keep the Thurrott stuff coming, MDN – even when it’s shockingly complimentary of Apple. Perhaps Thurrrott is turning to the light? Too bad about the Dell DJ, Paul.
Just had a duck after reading his “Good stuff”
quote. He just took his first step off and away from the throne of fools, but I’m still skeptical that he may be building us up for something. Yeah right!!!…I’m sure we
all should switch from our iPod to a brick DJ, just because of
time spent transcoding. Being an anyawnist, he probably had to turn his iPod back in after his testing time was up.
Thurott needs to go back to school
700 songs @ 3.5 megabytes a piece(that’s my average)
= 2.5 gigs of files
2.5 gigs / 300 minutes = 8 megs/per minute
8/megs /perminute = 2 1/3 songs per minute
that doesn’t seem so bad now does it, considering he is using a single thought at a time pentium.
More Thurrott blah blah blah “look at me I’m really technical”. What a conceited arse.
Of course the idiot chastises users for giving him grief about his “sounds like crap” comment, but none of them having converted anything either. What a dunce! He’s more guilty than the those that griefed him in the first place for writing such a stupid comment before actually trying it out. Journalism? Goof – definitely!
As for the Dell DJ, let him rock on all he wants and demonstrate to the world, “it’s hip to be different” attitude with that clunky device. Nerd! Moo!
So, I’m confused. Did he do this transcription BEFORE he made the sounds like crap comment? Or after?
And if it was after, why is he belittling the people complaining and pinning those complaints on THEIR lack of transcription, when he hadn’t done any himself? What an asshole.
jfbiii,
I could not agree more.
WTF? He said it sucked yesterday…
They could slap a couple of turntables on the DellDJ. They would fit.
‘As I suspected, however, none of these people had actually spent time transcoding’
Then he admits he didn’t either.
I suspect that MDN keeps commenting on Thurrott for the same reason that people slow down to rubber-neck at auto accidents. It’s just so horrible you can’t resist, plus it’s an affirmation of how lucky we are not to suffer the same fate.
He transcoded from wma to aac WHY? it said he went from an iPod to a dell DJ. Why would he need to transcode?
cpr86 – that thought was ricocheting around my head too. I think he was caught out lying.
Exactly. DULL DJ doesn’t play AAC. Lying sack of shit.
SB
“700 songs. It took the application 5 hours to do this, on a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz system with 768 MB of RAM. That seems a bit excessive”
2.3 songs per minute. Sounds pretty good, but not fast enough for him. The problem of course is the application, not his mighty PeeCee.
And there’s is a HUGE difference between someone e-mailing him to take issue about the quality remark when they may or may not have tried it, and a journalist ( milk squirting from my nose) giving a negative review of something he hasn’t even tried. What an arrogant loser.
I normally don’t click on the link to his BS but I did this time. I scrolled down to see what else he commented on and it is amazing how much space is devoted to the Mac. I guess the more he writes about Mac the less time he has to contemplate how to put a positive spin on all the Windoze viruses…
Thurrot actually switched from the Dell Dj to the iPod, that is why he transcoded. But he is so much deep into bashing Apple that subconsciously he refused the idea and wrote the opposite.
Thurron sports an iPod but he is in denyal and keeps calling it “my Dj player”.
In the end, he is still the same old moron.
We don’t need/want punks like Thurrot using an iPod; if I saw it, I would feel compelled to save the poor thing from such a horrible fate…
He states:
“I’ve now ripped my entire CD collection to disk at least three times, once in WMA format to the PC, once in MP3 format to the Mac (with iTunes), and once to MP3 format to the PC.”
What? First he started with WMA, Then MP3? Or are these not in the right order? MP3 has been around so long, it seems weird to start with WMA and then decide, no I’ll do MP3 instead. Okay, so he saw the error of his ways? But why do it once for the Mac and once for the PC? Does he not know how to transfer files?
Then he continues with: I used to use a Microsoft audio conversion tool to move files from 160 Kbps MP3 format to 64 Kbps WMA … More recently, I converted my 250+ iTunes Music Store-purchased Protected AAC songs to CD, then re-ripped them back to the PC in 128 Kbps MP3.”
This is all the same paragraph, which makes it confusing. He first says he ripped his entire collection three different times, but now he’s talking about “Transcoding” songs left and right. Nice flow.
“In all the transcoding I’ve done, the results were similar regardless of the formats. The resulting songs are generally tinny sounding, with muddy bass.”
64 bit WMA to AAC? What is this nightmare? Is it iTunes fault if the sound isn’t that great, or is the source material? Why even waste your time writing this drivel? If you are serious about music, you need to rip your CDs to a high quality MP3 (160+) or AAC (128 minimum). If you have to “Transcode” from MP3 or WMA to AAC I would hope your source files at least have a high bit rate. If your music library contains nothing but 64-bit WMA files, my guess is you’re not very serious :/
“I’ve switched from the iPod to a Dell DJ…”
His FUD contract with Microsoft required him to do so.