Comparison Among AAC, M4A, M4P, M4B And M4R

What is AAC?

Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC, is a MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group) audio standard first adopted as part of the MPEG-2 family of standards. Like its predecessor, MP3, AAC is a Lossy Compression format capable of delivering relatively high quality at relatively low bitrates. There are actually two AAC specifications. In addition to the MPEG-2 version of AAC, there’s a newer specification developed for MPEG-4. This version is normally found in the MP4 Container, either with or without accompanying video.

How to Convert AAC to MP3?

What is M4A?

Audio-only MPEG-4 files generally have a .m4a extension. This is especially true of non-protected content.

How to Convert M4A to MP3?

What is M4B?

Audio book and podcast files, which also contain metadata including chapter markers, images, and hyperlinks, can use the extension .m4a, but more commonly use the .m4b extension. An .m4a audio file cannot “bookmark” (remember the last listening spot), whereas .m4b extension files can.

How to Convert M4B to MP3?

What is M4P?

MPEG-4 files with audio streams encrypted by FairPlay Digital Rights Management as sold through the iTunes Store use the .m4p extension. iTunes Plus tracks are unencrypted and use .m4a accordingly.

How to Convert M4P to MP3?

What is M4R?

The Apple iPhone uses MPEG-4 audio for its ringtones but uses the .m4r extension rather than the .m4a extension.

How to Create iPhone Ringtones?

How to sync iTunes music m4p with Windows Phone 7

“I have 5.81 GB (approximately 1200 songs) in my iTunes. How do I transfer ALL of those songs to my Windows Phone 7? I want EVERY song I have in my iTunes on my Windows Phone 7. What is the best way to go about this?”

If you want to play iTunes music M4P, M4A, AAC on your Windows Phone 7, you just need to use some software to convert iTunes music to Windows Phone 7 compatible format and then transfer the output files to your Windows Phone 7. The following guide is going to show you how to remove DRM copy protection from iTunes music, convert DRM iTunes music M4P to MP3, M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3 and sync iTunes music to Windows Phone 7 using TuneClone Audio Converter.

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the iTunes songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone Audio Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format, etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed at the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, Right click the playlist you just created and choose “Burn Playlist to Disc”.

5. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning.

6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

After you get the output music files, connect your Windows Phone 7 to computer via the USB cable, drag and drop the converted music to the music folder, then you can play the iTunes M4P music on your Windows Phone 7 at ease.

Mac M4P Converter – Convert iTunes Protected AAC to MP3 on Mac OS X

The following article shows you how to convert iTunes DRM protected AAC (M4P) to MP3 on Mac OS X using TuneClone M4P Converter for Mac.

Why Use TuneClone M4P Converter for Mac?

Basically, when you purchase music from iTunes Store, they are actually DRM protected content (protected AAC or say M4P) and you will not be able to play the M4P files on MP3 players which do not support their formats. In such case, the option is to Burn those tracks to a CD and then Rip them once again to the Mac HD wherein the DRM will be removed and you will get the tracks in (DRM free) MP3 format. After this you will be able to transfer them to a memory card or to most MP3 players or mobile phones.

In case you have purchased a great amount of music from iTunes Store, you can go ahead and use TuneClone Mac M4P Converter which acts as a Virtual CD-ROM drive on your Mac, and lets you remove the DRM element without having to waste actual CD’s.

Step by Step: Convert M4P to MP3 Using TuneClone M4P Converter for Mac

Step 1. Download TuneClone M4P Converter for Mac and run it.

Note: During the startup, a virtual CD burner will be installed, which will be used to convert iTunes music files. The authorization of administrator will be needed to install TuneClone virtual CD burner.

Step 2. Make settings in iTunes (iTunes 9 or above)

Create a new playlist and add the songs you are going to convert.

Right click the playlist you just created and choose “Burn Playlist to Disc”. Or you can click the “Burn Disc” button at the bottom right corner of iTunes interface.

In the pop-up dialog of “Burn Settings”, you can make settings as highlighted below:

Note: You need to tick the “Include CD Text” option to perserve the music metadata such as name, artist, album names.

Step 3. Start to burn

Click the “Burn” button to start burning. After the burning get started, TuneClone Mac M4P Converter will automatically convert the iTunes music to MP3 files. You can open the TuneClone manager screen to check out the burning status.

Tip: You can easily get the output MP3 files on your Mac machine by clicking the “Reveal in Finder” button on the manager screen.

Note: The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert music files automatically. It is especially easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

How to Transfer iTunes M4P M4A AAC to Zune HD?

This guide is going to show you how to remove DRM protection from iTunes music, convert DRM protected iTunes M4P to MP3, M4A to MP3, AAC to MP3 and transfer iTunes music to Zune HD. First, let’s take a look at the video/audio formats Zune HD accepts:

Video Support:
WMV
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
H.264 video
DVR-MS

Audio Support:
Windows Media? Audio Standard (WMA) (.wma)
WMA Lossless
Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov): .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM
MP3 (.mp3)

So, if you want to play DRM protected iTunes M4P, M4A, AAC music on your Zune HD, you just need to use TuneClone Audio Converter to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format and then transfer the output MP3 to your Zune HD.

Now let’s take a look at how it performs to convert the iTunes music to MP3 format for Zune HD using TuneClone Audio Converter:

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.

2. Add the iTunes songs to the playlist.

3. Launch TuneClone Audio Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format, etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed at the bottom left corner of the interface.

4. Switch to iTunes. In iTunes, select the playlist you just created and click the “Burn Disc” button.

5. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning.

6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

7. After you get the output music files, connect your Zune HD to computer via the USB cable, drag and drop the converted MP3 files to the Zune Software, then you can sync the iTunes M4P music to Zune HD with the help of Zune Software at ease.

Extracted from http://www.tuneclone.com/transfer-itunes-music-to-zune-hd.php

M4P converter – convert protected AAC to MP3 WAV WMA

Are you annoyed by iTunes DRM? Do you want to remove it because you want to play the iTunes music on non-Apple MP3 players like PSP, Zune, Creative Zen, BlackBerry, PS3, iriver, Walkman, mobile phone MP3 player, etc, use it as background music in a home video, or anything else that DRM limits it to do? Many people know you can remove the DRM from iTunes music by simply burning the song to a CD, and ripping it back over, losing very little quality (if settings are correct):

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD. You cannot select the “MP3 CD” option since it requires the DRM protected iTunes music files be converted to unprotected MP3, WMA or WAV files.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes to import the music tracks on the burned disc as MP3, WMA or WAV files.

And the method I am going to introduce does the same exact thing but you will not need a CD-RW disc, a CD ROM drive, or even need to burn anything! It’s that simple. Let’s show you how to perform this.

We are going to be using a program called TuneClone M4P Converter. TuneClone M4P Converter is basically a program that acts as a virtual CD drive that allows you “burn” MP3 from iTunes and “rip” it. TuneClone “lies” to your computer saying that you have a CD-RW drive that it will burn to (like Alchohol 120%). You can use this to move your library of M4P DRM protected music to the MP3 format that you can use on any player out there worth its salt. This is a useful tool for anyone looking to break their relationship with the iPod. The best part is that it maintains all of the music file’s metadata. Below is the step by step tutorial that shows how it works:

1. Create a new playlist in iTunes.
2. Add the protected songs to your playlist. Since iTunes burns the protected music with TuneClone virtual CD drive, there is no limit as to music length so long as you have enough hard drive space.
3. Launch TuneClone M4P Converter. Click the “Settings” tab. In the pop-up window, you can specify output folder, output file name format, output format (WMA, MP3, WAV), etc for the output files. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the interface.
   
4. In iTunes, click the “Burn Disc” button.
5. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning.
   
6. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

 

Content Source: M4P converter – convert protected AAC to MP3 WAV WMA – Bukisa.com

AAC to MP3 Converter – Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3

Author: terry007

AAC to MP3 Converter is a DRM removal for converting iTunes to MP3, AAC to MP3, M4A to MP3, M4P to MP3 for playback on non-Apple MP3/MP4 players and mobile phone players including Zune, PSP, PS3, BlackBerry, Creative Zen, iriver, Walkman, Pocket PC, Xbox, Nokia, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Google Phone, etc.

Q: Why Use AAC to MP3 converter?

A: When you purchase music from iTunes Store, they are actually DRM protected content and you will not be able to play the protected AAC (M4P) files on MP3 players which do not support their formats. In such case, the option is to Burn those tracks to a CD and then Rip them once again to the computer hard drive wherein the DRM will be removed and you will get the tracks in (DRM free) MP3 format. After this you will be able to transfer them to a memory card or to MP3/MP4 players.

In case you have purchased a great amount of music from iTunes Store, you can go ahead and use AAC to MP3 Converter which acts as a Virtual CD-ROM drive on your PC, and lets you remove the DRM element without having to waste actual CD’s.

How to: Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3 Using AAC to MP3 Converter?

Step 1. Create a new playlist in iTunes and add the iTunes/AAC/M4A/M4P songs to the playlist.

Step 2. Download and install AAC to MP3 Converter. Run it. In the main interface, click the “Settings” button. In the pop up window, you can choose the output folder, output file name format, output format (actually you can choose MP3, WMA or WAV), etc for the output files.

Step 3. Back to iTunes. Click the “Burn Disc” button. In the pop-up window of “Burn Settings”, select “TuneClon Virtual_CD-RW” from the “CD Burner” drop-down list, click the radio button next to “Audio CD” and tick “Include CD Text” option. Click “Burn” to start burning. Note: You can check whether TuneClone virtual CD drive is successfully installed and where it is installed in the bottom left corner of the TuneClone interface.

Step 4. Upon the completion of burning the disc and encoding the music, you can open the TuneClone manager screen to show all the converted music files. To locate the output folder, simply click the “Folder” tab on the interface.

About the Author:

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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – AAC to MP3 Converter – Convert iTunes AAC M4A M4P to MP3

How to play iTunes DRM protected AAC/M4P music on Creative Zen

Zen is the first Creative player that supports unprotected AAC format, so you can enjoy up to 8,0001 of your favorite CD tracks that you’ve ripped through iTunes software. Zen also supports iTunes Plus tracks from the iTunes store, in addition to MP3 and WMA music tracks. It is also compatible with music subscription services such as Napster To Go and Rhapsody.

However, as the music purchased from iTunes Store is encrypted with DRM, you cannot directly play it on your Creative Zen. iTunes allows you to burn the protected AAC(M4P) files to CD-R or CD-RW disc to make a standard audio CD:

1. Insert a CD-R or CD-RW disc into your CD-ROM drive.
2. Burn your playlist to make an audio CD.
3. After the audio CD is successfully burned, insert the disc into your CD-ROM drive again. Then you can use iTunes or Windows Media Player to import the music tracks on the burned disc as MP3 or WMA files.

Or you can get some software to help you. I use TuneClone M4P Converter to do this. Though not free, it is very well worth a try. It generates a virtual CD drive to help to remove DRM from iTunes and convert the M4P music to MP3 or unprotected WMA format, which is compatible with your Creative Zen.

Here is the tutorial as to how to use TuneClone to convert iTunes M4P to MP3.

How to convert iTunes protected AAC (M4P) to WAV

In previous posts, I talked about how to convert iTunes DRM protected AAC (M4P) to MP3, convert DRM protected WMA to MP3 and convert Rhapsody music to iTunes with TuneClone. In this post, I will show you how to convert iTunes M4P to WAV with TuneClone M4P Converter.

It is very easy to complete the burning (in iTunes 8 ) and encoding (in TuneClone) process. You only need to choose TuneClone virtual CD drive as the CD burner in iTunes. The best three parts are:

1. well preserves the ID3 tags information;
2. works great for batch converting iTunes playlist;
3. no need for real discs.

The only difference from converting iTunes M4P to MP3 lies in that, when you make settings in TuneClone, you need to choose “WAV” from the “Output Format” options.

How to convert iTunes 8 protected AAC(M4P) music to MP3 with TuneClone

More than two months ago, I wrote a tutorial entitled How to convert DRM protected iTunes M4P music songs to MP3. In that post, I introduced two ways to convert iTunes M4P (protected AAC) music to MP3. With the release of Apple iTunes 8, the second method of converting iTunes M4P music to MP3 with TuneClone isn’t applicable. So, I’d like to post the step by step tutorial about how to convert iTunes 8 protected AAC or say M4P music to MP3 with TuneClone here:

Note: To Remove DRM from protected iTunes M4V Movies/TV Shows, please take a look at this Full DRM Removal Software Review in the first place.

1. Download TuneClone from http://www.tuneclone.com and install it.

TuneClone is fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. A virtual CD drive will be installed. This virtual CD-RW will be used to convert music files.

2. Make settings in TuneClone

Click the “Settings” button at TuneClone. In the pop-up window, you can specify the “output folder”, “output filenames”, “output format”, etc. for the output files.

Note: Apart from MP3, TuneClone also allows you to convert iTunes M4P to WAV and unprotected WMA.
Tip: You can get the output protection removed music folder by clicking the “Folder” button after the whole process.

3. Make settings in iTunes 8

Create a playlist, and then add the files you want to convert into the playlist.

After you have created the playlist ready to be burnt, click the “Burn Disc” in the bottom right of iTunes.

In the pop up window of “Burn Settings”, make the settings as highlighted below:

4. Start to burn

Click the “Burn” button to start burning.

After the burning gets started, TuneClone will automatically convert the music file to MP3, WMA or WAV. You can open the manager screen to show all the converted music files.

The most important step is to choose the CD burner. Then the software can convert the music files automatically. It is exceedingly easy when you want to batch convert lots of files.

You may also show interest in:

How to convert DRM protected iTunes M4P music songs to MP3
How to strip DRM off iTunes music on Windows and Mac
TuneClone V1.20 download