Easy to use DRM removal and conversion of iTunes music for use on other players
Source from: http://www.howtogeek.com/reviews/tuneclone/
Geek Ranking:
The Good:
Easy to use DRM removal and conversion of iTunes music for use on other players
The Bad:
More features for specific players and extra format conversions would be welcome
| Installation: | 8 / 10 |
| Ease of Use: | 8 / 10 |
| Features: | 7 / 10 |
| Performance: | 8 / 10 |
| Product Support: | 7 / 10 |
Overview
TuneClone Audio Converter is a very easy to use software that convert iTunes M4P, WMA music files to plain MP3, easy to install, and easy to use via a simple user interface. If you’ve purchased a lot of music from iTunes, Yahoo Music or other online music stores back when DRM was included on everything, TuneClone allows you to convert them to other formats and remove the DRM protection so you can play them on all of your portable audio devices. TuneClone Audio Converter doesn’t bypass the DRM, it simulates the burning, ripping and encoding process by installing a virtual CD burner.
Installation
During installation you get a message advising you may be a warning from Windows but go ahead and install it anyway. When we installed this on Windows 7 x64 there was no message but did have one on our 32-bit system.
Features – 8
I nicely laid out interface that is easy to use allowing easy management of music.
TuneClone will show up as a virtual CD-R drive in My Computer.
Convert audio to MP3, WAV, or WMA at different bit rates.
The ID3 information of the files will be kept intact from the original music file.
Ease of Use
After installation on the main interface click on the button to “Open the media player software”.
Once iTunes opens up you will get a message about inserting a blank disc. This is talking about the virtual drive of TuneClone.
You will need to go into Burn Settings and set the drive to the Virtual burner form TuneClone and select your preferred settings and click on Burn.
While the files are encoded into TuneClone there will be a small progress screen on the corner of the screen.
With the Trail version you are only allowed three minutes per track but it gives you enough options to decide if you want to purchase a full license.
The converted files are put into My Music and the TuneClone folder.
Performance
We tested this on a Dell desktop with an Intel Core2 Duo processor and 3GB of RAM and conversions were very smooth. There will be a bit of a spike in the CPU during conversion but memory usage is low. Conversion times will vary depending on the amount of music you are converting but overall one album takes a couple minutes.
Conclusion
I loaded up five albums that I bought from iTunes a few years ago, converted them to MP3 and stuck them on a Creative Zen and they played with no problems. There seemed to be no loss in audio quality and the meta data. The application is easy to use and does a great job removing DRM and converting songs to be played on different portable audio players. One thing that I would like to see is direct support for audio devices built into the user interface allowing you to plug in say a Zune or Zen and transfer the files directly from the app. As it is now though, it does a good job and will save you a lot of hassle if you have a large amount of DRM protected music.
It works with XP, Vista, and we were able to run it fine on Windows 7. You can use the trial version for as long as you want but the restriction is only 3 minutes of the song will be converted. To remove that restriction you will need to purchase a full license for $34.95.
Rating
- Installation: 8
- Ease of Use: 8
- Features: 7
- Performance: 8
- Product Support: 7
