iPod Connectivity To A 500

[Mark Elvin]

So, in idiots terms, what do I need to do with my iPod to make it compatable with the Blue & Me?

At the moment I have a mix of ripped from CD tunes & iTunes.

[Suasexed]

What format do you rip your CDs to? MP3 or AAC? Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Import Tab to check. If it's MP3 it will work fine. If it's AAC then depending on whether Scrogg was correct in saying Blue&Me doesn't suppoer AAC then they won't play. I'm sure in a future software fix AAC will be supported.

Regardless as to whether AAC is supported, iTunes tracks purchased from the iTunes store containing DRM will not play. It's the same with all protected music.

If the music has been purchased from iTunes in the 'Plus' format - higher bitrate and no DRM - depending on whether Blue&Me supports AAC, they'll play back fine.

If you want to make sure EVERY song you have on your iPod works with B&Me you'll have to make sure ALL your music is in MP3 format (or one of the supported audio formats - MP3 being the universal format - best to stick with that) and anything which is in a different format needs to be converted to MP3. The only problem with doing this is that by converting to MP3 you will lose some of the audio quality.

[Mark Elvin]

I import from CD in 160kps MP3, so that should be OK, still don't understand the iTunes bit though, tech idiot here.

[Suasexed]

Right, in that case, all the tracks you have ripped from CDs will work fine.

It's the iTunes tracks where things get a bit hazey. If Blue&Me does support AAC then you will be able to play some of the tracks purchased from the iTunes store, but not all.

For the last few years pretty much all digital music sold through all online digital stores came with what's called DRM (Digital Rights Managment) ...basically copy protection to stop you from sharing your music, transfering tracks to loads of computers and burning multiple copies onto CD. These can only be played back on Apple certified software and hardware. This means that regardless to whether B&Me supports AAC, protected iTunes tracks will not play.

However...

Last year some of the record companies decided to offer DRM-FREE music to some of the online music retailers, this include iTunes. Not all of the music iTunes sell is DRM-free. Music from iTunes which doesn't contain DRM/copy protection is called an 'iTunes Plus' track. These are 256kbps AAC files (as aposed to 128kbps AAC for DRM protected files). If you have the 'Kind' tab showing on the iTunes browser you will see a label which says 'Purchased AAC audio file'. Provided B&Me supports AAC, these iTunes 'Plus' tracks should playback fine.

So basically, until we know whether Blue&Me supports AAC we can't know for sure if CD-ripped AAC tracks or unprotected, DRM-free AAC iTunes tracks will play back.

[Mark Elvin]

All clear now (I think) thanks for that "idiots guide".

So basically anything that says "Protected AAC" will not play.

[Suasexed]

Originally Posted by Mark Elvin

So basically anything that says "Protected AAC" will not play.

That's correct, provided Blue&Me supports AAC. If it doesn't support AAC, it won't play anything you've bought whether it be standard, iTunes Plus or CD ripped AAC audio files

[tonywalk]

Cross posting into this thread as it' more appropriate...

As I understand it Blue & Me is based on Windows Mobile so I've just done some testing on my T-Mobile MDA Vario II with the recent (for T mobile) Windows Mobile 6 upgrade.

I can report that both versions of M4A play correctly on it so there may be a fair chance provided the Blue & Me media player is the same.

For the record the tracks were Remember Me - British Sea Power (ripped) and Love Me Like You - Magic Numbers.

Now all I need is a Windows Mobile 500 :absolutely furious emoticon:

Regards,
Tony.

[Scrogg]

After yesterdays confusion in this thread, I checked again today and can now confirm that Blue & Me will play .mp3, .mp4, .wav and .wma files.

It will not play tracks downloaded from iTunes.

[Suasexed]

I thought it would play .mp4 / AAC files. Scrogg, just so you're away, some iTunes tracks arn't copy protected (as explained above) those should play fine.

[simon_hill]

As a kind of update:

If anyone didn't know (as I didn't) and was worrying about converting all their AAC files from hundreds of CD to MP3, I found if you just right click, there's an option to convert them to MP3. It takes a while, but you can select all your tracks at once. After 10 mins I'm down 35 tracks, with 1634 to go. Think I'll go out for a drive in the car and leave itunes chugging away.