“Apple today released iTunes 4.5, which allows you to convert WMA songs to AAC format so they’ll play on the iPod. In typical Apple fashion, this is the hard way to do things, as the iPod would support WMA naturally if they just let it (Apple turns off this feature in the iPod bios). But give Apple credit: A file transcoded from WMA to AAC will sound like crap, so the company can point to the sound quality difference as a reason to stick with its proprietary format,” Paul Thurrott writes for Paul Thurrott’s Internet Nexus. Full article here.
In an article dated January 9, 2004, Thurrott wrote, “Exclusive: HP Working to Get WMA on iPod – HP’s blockbuster deal with Apple will have one exciting side effect, I discovered today. The company will be working with Apple to add support for Microsoft’s superior Windows Media Audio (WMA) format to the iPod by mid-year. You heard it here first.” More here.
No word on whether Paul is reconsidering his position that the HP ‘iPod’ will play the “superior” WMA format. Looks like it’ll play WMA format music after it’s been converted to AAC, that is. Also, Thurrott provides no hard facts supporting his assertion that “a file transcoded from WMA to AAC will sound like crap.”
Users with a Windows machine and browser (or using Safari’s Debug menu to set the User Agent to “Windows MSIE 6.0” will see this from Apple on the iTunes Import webpage:
“If you
AAC is SUPERIOR to WMA.
Even PC World Found AAC to outperform WMA by a wide margin on listener tests and technical tests:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,64123,pg,1,00.asp
Thurrott is just the most blindly biased ass of all time. How ANYBODY could champion the MS Monopoly as a personal cause is beyond me. If this were 1938, he’d be on the side off the Third Reich for sure. It’s always easier to go with the majority. Especially when you’re as intellectually dishonest and emotional as this twirp.
Hello people! When the hell is someone going to make a “FairPlay” for windows media files?? Surely if they can do it to AAC they can take on M$. Surprised that no one is going for the obvious target. I’m still waiting…
I just visited Thurrott’s site for the first time and I can’t help but feel somehow infected by it. What a creep. I think it’s amazing that somone has a site dedicated to so much hatred…what’s he so defensive about? I can’t believe anyone would PAY him to write…BTW – love the “our own O’Reilly” comment…hehe…too funny.
I like Van Halen. They’re a proper and exceptionally silly good time rock band.
Anyone who takes them seriously is an idiot though.
Turdott’s got krisky kreem all over his face and it didn’t come from donuts.
On another vein, I doubt if wma to aac will sound bad; it all depends on the encoder. If it sounds reasonable, iPod Windoze users will have to keep two versions of their music, wma for the crappy jukes and aac for the iPod. The question is: which copy will they dump when the HD becomes crowded?
“[…] so the company can point to the sound quality difference as a reason to stick with its proprietary format”
AAC is not proprietary. AAC can be licensed by anyone and used in anything, just like WMA (unprotected).
Of course, adding FairPlay makes it proprietary where protected-WMA can be licensed. But we’re not talking about the “protected” variations.
Turd-rot does it again, without fail. I suppose he would be letting us down if he didn’t have some drivel to spew every time Apple makes MS look even worse than it does all by itself.
tclash: “Our very own Bill O’Reilly?” WTH are you talking about? He’s one of the rare independent voices on talk radio today, dishing out to both the Dems and the Pubs…. Sheesh….
No, Thurrott is like our very own Al Franken. He has no need for any facts and he’s always full of baseless insults and propaganda.
Hey, the Jester idea is COOL. MDN, can we have a section dedicated to Thurrott’s antics and other FUD? Anyone here a graphic artist and willing to draw a cartoonish Paul Thurrott Jester for the funnies section?
Hey!
Whaddya say we create a new meaning for the word “Thurrott”, in the same way that “Santorum” has been redefined by his critics (google it).
Let’s get some suggestions for the new definition and using the word in context.
e.g. Thurrott: A noxious fart that escapes in segments rather than continuously.
“Sorry about the smell, but I promise that is the end of that Thurrott.”
Windoze Media is an audibly inferior codec. Compared to other codecs at the same bitrate Windoze Media always has more audible artifacts. Thankfully, users of iTunes don’t have to settle for Micro$oft’s inferior codec. They can instead use AAC or mp3.
With Van Halen from their first album in ’78 to present…look at the evolvement in their music and musicianship. I take them very seriously…yes they were fun and silly the first four albums, but I have yet, even today, to see a stage show beat their 1984 tour.
That is also why we support Apple…they have proved to us their commitment to evolve, and at the same time throw in quality and intuitiveness and futuristicness. Sorry, I suddenly faded out and thought this was a Van Halen forum.
In this era of HD players, superiority can be achieved or inferiority surpassed by getting a better encoder and a higher bitrate, for any given format. Formats are about DRM schemes, not about quality. You can encode an Mp3 to make it better sounding than AAC. That its size is bigger than AAC’s is a non-issue for a 20 Gigabyte player.
Van Halen got turned down by none other than Gene Simmons, but later got discovered by a Warner Brothers exec playing in a cheesy dump bar with only a few people occupied, but they were playing and acting as if they were in Madison Square Garden. Even though they were tiny, they played to change the world and they did.
Apple is doing the same thing.
Who is Thurrot? Is that some kind of disease? No, wait. That was the roadie who stole my underwear after I left the stage and took a shower. Valerie still gets the creeps when I mention that loser.
And the Apple AAC encoder isn’t even the best one on the Mac.
Go to Ovolab and download AACHOO – it’s slower than iTunes, but if you want high quality reproduction in a lossy format, it’s pretty good.
How about:
Thurrot; the tiny, almost inaudible, gasping sound one makes, when one involuntarily vomits, after suddenly opening a container full of rotting maggot-infested meat.
So, I went to the idiot’s site. And I saw in the top of his page some photos, and in one of them is an iMac.
Are we lead to beleive that this guy who HATES all things Apple, actually spent over $1,000 on a system just so he has some form of proof he has used a Mac?
I would bet his hands shake with hate every time he turns the poor thing on.
That reminds me, back in the early 90’s I recall a study that was done to see if people’s feelings had an effect on the computers they used. One team was to always be positive around the machines and the other was to be negative. The team that was negative experienced lots of crashes and freezes. The study did not get into why, like did the machines “sense” how the teams felt about them or was it that the negativity caused people to opperate the machines poorly (i.e., less patience).
In anycase this may explain a lot about Paul’s experiences with Macs � he hates Macs so much that he wills them to crash, thus the kern panic photo.
“If you want to gather up all your music later, iTunes lets you consolidate your library anytime.”
Well, at least if it’s MP3 or “WMA (unprotected)”. And gee, they won’t license their AAC (protected) to anyone else. And if “Apple is playing it fair :”, then One Guy From Finland must think that this refusal to license is a “fair” thing.
Oh. I forgot. You’re all Apple Addicts. Well, since we’re all being fair and Apple iTunes is the best thing around (right?), then show me how easy it is to redownload songs that you lost or accidently erased.
Then we’ll talk about how “fair” Apple is.
NEW Zealand Online Apple Store Runs On Windows
The Mac Observer – USA
The New Zealand edition of ComputerWorld is reporting that the brand new online Apple Store for New Zealand is running on Windows IIS server, and not Mac OS X …
<http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/04/28.1.shtml>
Did that mofo actually use the word crap to describe something?
I think he may have been referring to the PC he was writing his god damn article on.
How does this clown survive?
Duffy, I could be wrong (as iTMS isn’t in Oz yet), but I am sure you are able to redownload the tunes you have ‘accidently’ erased through the Music Store. Can anyone help with this one?
Me, the NZ ‘Apple Store isn’t a bonified Apple Store, or even web site. It is a shop front for an Apple Reseller in NZ. Check the links from apple.com, and you’ll find that NZ isn’t on the list (Oz makes it on there though). It is a bit of a shame though that it is running on a non Mac server, but they are a little behind times in the land of the long white cloud…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Duffy,
In order to “re-download” music you should have made plenty of backups of using iTunes and DVD-R’s, Apple would require one to have stringent DRM and a music client that reports upon one’s music collection (like Napster etc) so that your not simply downloading the music to someone elses computer.
This is a gross violation of our privacy for a lack of simple action on your part. Apple sells the music not rents it. Once it yours, your responsible for it.
It’s this rather liberal DRM additude that makes iTunes the number one seller of online music.
So get off your lazy ass and buy a few DVD-R’s or CD’s. Then again I guess you don’t backup anything else either because your PC is a piece of shit and you can’t get the DVD burner to work.
hahaha
For a guy that hate Mac He sure know the news on apple.