Some ignorance needing to be overcome:

Facts:

1) Operating with ITunes 4.5 set to import using MP3 encoder
2) Downloaded Album from music store which GET INFO informs is a “Protected AAC audio File”
3) I burn successfully a playlist consisting of the above mentioned album.
4) I include several songs from the above album in another playlist, but these will not play after burning though all others on the playlist do play.

Questions:

Why do I seem per “Get Info” to have received these songs as AAC when I am set up to import as MP3? “Smart Encoding Adjustments” among ITunes preferences has been unchecked.
Why will these songs only play when retained with the original group?

I think "importing" refers to songs you rip from your own CD's. Purchased Apple music is not imported, it is purchased (go figure).

However, burning a CD is another matter. Is your preference in iTunes under "Burning" set for "Audio CD"? This should allow the AAC songs to play on any CD player from any play list.

>>> Is your preference in iTunes under "Burning" set for "Audio CD"? <<<

The answer is YES

Note that a playlist made up of Non-AAC songs with AAC songs will burn playable Non-AAC songs, but no AAC songs. And it will play AAC songs provided I burn the entire Music Store album down load (in this case a 21 song Bing Crosby album).

The problem exists whether I use ITunes or Toast to do the burning.

Is Apple trying to curtail copying of individual songs?

One last and cumbersome thought. What if you now re-import your complete album from the CD, with the setting to import as MP3. Does that allow you to mix these songs, which hopefully are now MP3 and not AAC, with other MP3's?

One last curious thought: have you tried burning some of the Crosby AAC with other AAC's? Might give a clue as to what mix is allowed.

I tried all of the above. In addition I tried downloading (set to MP3) ONE song, which I hoped would qualify as an album and play. It did not. It would not play after burning.

I am afraid I have used the Crosby album so many times (7) as a guinea pig that its seniority may come into play. I am going to go after another new AAC download & re-try all alternatives including all of your suggestions, but I think that research program will be obliged to wait for a week.

Thanks for your interest. If you have any more brainstorms, please pitch them this way & I will try them.

I presume QuickTime 6.5.1 is installed on the Mac in question (?).

On what device are you playing these burned CDs?


> In addition I tried downloading (set to MP3) ONE song,

Downloading how... and from where? Another purchase from iTMS, or an mp3 from alt.binaries.mp3? Either way -- as was mentioned above -- the import settings have no influence at all on downloads, only applies to ripping (and converting)... so "set to MP3" has absolutely no bearing (on anything being downloaded that is).


> which I hoped would qualify as an album and play. It did not.

I don't understand: you hoped 'a song would qualify as an album'?
What does that mean? What exactly are you trying to say/do?


> It would not play after burning.

What burn speed are you running? (I use 2X to be sure).
Again, what device(s) is(are) being used for CD playback?
And just to be sure, the burner in question is Apple approved?
(i.e., internal to the machine when purchased, or external or ?)

I guess we're sure the prefs are set to burn AUDIO disks (not mp3 disks), but that sure doesn't sound like the case. I haven't burned a CD since QuickTime 6.5.1 came out, but -- if the behavior you describe is really happening -- it may be a bug of some kind. I don't think Apple is preventing 'normal' burning, that which doesn't exceed the count limit (seven times per playlist).

Once burned to an audio CD, the resulting file (on the CD) is no longer AAC... protected or otherwise. Reimporting them -- to mp3 for example -- will work, but the sound will be slightly inferior (depending on the original quality and the listeners hearing range, perhaps).

-HI-

>>> On what device are you playing these burned CDs? <<<

ITunes 4.5

>>> Downloading how... and from where? <<<

From Apple Music Store.

>>> I don't understand: you hoped 'a song would qualify as an album'?
What does that mean? What exactly are you trying to say/do? <<<

An album should be an album even it has only one song in it. Please note that I was able to play the full Crosby album of 21 songs & only ran into trouble when I tried to play several songs separately. So I bought one Crosby song from that album and treated it as an album. Without success as noted.

>>> What burn speed are you running? (I use 2X to be sure). <<<

What relevance? All other songs from other albums played OK after having been burned in on the same CD.

>>> Again, what device(s) is(are) being used for CD playback? <<<

Repeat. ITunes.

>>> And just to be sure, the burner in question is Apple approved?
(i.e., internal to the machine when purchased, or external or ?) <<<

Apple’s Super Drive. Quite internal in a 15” IMac with 60 GB HD & 512 MB Ram.

>>> I guess we're sure the prefs are set to burn AUDIO disks (not mp3 disks), but that sure doesn't sound like the case. the count limit (seven times per playlist). <<<

Rest assured that the pref is set for Audio (despite my bafflement I am not a neophyte either with ITunes or Mac OS X). The count limit finally reached 7 for the Crosby album & I quit experimenting with this album.

>>> I haven't burned a CD since QuickTime 6.5.1 came out, but <<<

I am on QT 6.5.1 lest there be any doubt.

>>> it may be a bug of some kind. <<<

That is what I fear and am trying to establish by ruling out all other possibilities.

Many thanks for your input.

LarreeBee

>>> On what device are you playing these burned CDs? <<<

> ITunes 4.5


So, does the CD playback fine on a 'normal' stereo system?
(Sony, JVC, Technics, etc.)

>>> So, does the CD playback fine on a 'normal' stereo system? (Sony, JVC, Technics, etc.) <<<

I don't own a "normal" stereo system with CD capability. Why would one expect these songs to playback on a "normal" stero when it will not do so on ITunes.

I have tossed the test CD's so a re-test as you suggest wiil have to wait until I make another CD & find an agreeable friend with a "normal" stereo system.

> Why would one expect these songs to playback on a "normal" stero when it will not do so on ITunes.

Well,

• I'm just trying to gather facts which (hopefully) may provide clues.
   
• The primary intent of burning a CD is to play it externally, and Apple may not have tested playing back a burned CD (let alone with 'mixed' AAC files) with iTunes 4.5(/QT-6.5.1).
   
• iTunes/QT-6.5.1 itself may be the issue here (software bugs don't have to 'make sense').
   
• A 'nomal' stereo -- unencumbered by iTunes/QT-6.5.1's presence -- might play the CD perfectly.
   
  OR...
   
• This may be something new. A deliberate move by Apple to limit sharing of protected AAC files -- within iTunes -- so that purchased music can't be passed around from user to user on a CD (not via iTunes anyway!). If a burned CD is played on a home or car stereo... that's one thing. But now Apple may be saying "don't try to use iTunes to RE-rip (or even listen to!?) any iTMS purchases, that have been burned on CD." (Indeed, QuickTime 6.5.1 may have introduced a much bigger change than the .01 version increment would typically indicate!). That would be pretty darn heavy... but not (legally) unreasonable.

I dunno... I just work here.

-HI-