Just making sure I have it straight AAC is protected M4p

[anthlover]

Just making sure I have it straight .m4p is AAC protected/drm

In Itunes it Offers an option to convert to AAC which is superfllious if they are already.

------------------
******* Another silly thought. While we are all responsible for keeping our Data an in this case music backed up, I was wondering what Provision Apple I tunes makes for our Purchased music. Can one Re-Down Load. Some poeple feel that AAC 128kps is great, others like other AAC rippers or even lossless AAC option in Itunes.

Thing is once you download it have you not lost quality by converting? Or does Apple re-download for you in your newer formats, e.g. lossless.

The sitution is sort of Analgous to DigiCams. One often leaves their Camera on Highet Res, Lowest Compression in case they want to print or blow up a shot, while most of the time the snaps are emailed around @ low res.

[huskerchad]

Apple uses m4p for protected ACC files (bought from the store) and m4a for AAC that you encode yourself.

You can not use iTunes to directly convert m4p to anything, so quality loss is not an issue there.

You can burn a data CD of the m4p files; this preserves them exactly in the condition that you bought them in case anything happens to your hard drive.

You can also burn an audio CD of the m4p files; no quality has been lost from the original m4p, but if you re-import that CD as something else (like mp3), the quality will start to degrade.

AFAIK you can not re-download songs that you have purchased and downloaded before (without paying again), so make sure to back up.

[anthlover]

Download lossless or higher bit rate etc.

[huskerchad]

I have not heard of any new formats from the iTunes store except for 128Kbps AAC, but maybe I missed one of the recent announcements?

[anthlover]

Lossless
MP3
And different bit rates above and below 128kps

And of course (names escape me now) but alternative rippers that some people feel sound better.

[huskerchad]

Yes, all those things are available, but that is for your own encoding. If you download 128Kbps songs from the iTunes store, re-encoding them (which isn't even directly possible) isn't going to make the quality better.

[miklb]

And let me add, from my own dilemma, that .m4a and .m4p are not interchangeable with windows .aac.

[anthlover]

I'm late to the Tunes parts except supporting endusers with Podworks and thier Ipods...

I was tempted to Load Up a Tungsten E with an xtra SD card Ihad for fun but no time before my trip to convert my new library of tunes to CD/Regular mp3.... Maybe next time. Or Maybe I'll get a little Pod eerr mini ipod..

Thanx for all the feedback.