I am having the hardest time getting my ITunes to copy so my 550 can play them. I understand about mp4 and mp3. I just don't know how to convert it to the mp3. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Travis

 

I have not tried to do a massive download from my Itunes library; but I know you can download songs not purchased on ITUNES as MP3 files. Then you can copy them over.
Itunes purchased songs must be downloaded as music files and then converted. This is Apples feeble attempt to protect the copyright of hte music.
Let us know if you have a solution. there are a lot zumo guys out here....

 

There are a few software packages that will convert your apple AAC files to MP3 or other open formats (this is, of course illegal) - SoundTaxi comes to mind. You can also burn your AAC files to analog audio (CDA format) in iTunes and then rip them to MP3 from there. Both of these methods result in a loss of quality as far as the audio itself. However, with all the road noise on a bike I find that not to be too much of a problem.

 

Another thing to keep in mind, unless you've actually paid for the individual songs you generally can't burn them to a CD, nor can they be played by a device that the subscription service hasn't "authorized" to play them.

Thank the RIAA and Digital Rights Management technology.

If you've actually paid for the rights to burn them to a CD you'd be better off doing that, then ripping them back to unprotected MP3's that can be played by any device. Most services provide the original files in 192k format or better, so burning to a CD then ripping back to 128k or better MP3 results in negligible audio loss. And as jjsanta already pointed out...with all the other ambient noises you'll hear while riding, it wouldn't matter much anyway.

Good luck.

 

I couldnt figure any of this out,little to poor computor skills here,lolI had my 15 yr old load 12 CD's onto the i-tunes program on my comp,he clicked on edit,importing,then chose mp3 encoding,loaded all 12 cd's into i-tunes,they were changed into a mp3 format,then he loaded them onto a 2GB SD card to play in the zumo,right now with 12 cd's loaded on the card ,it is only taking up 1/3 of the space on the card. seems to me watching him do all this at the speed of light,lol the mp3 format seems to really reduce the size of the original song. i have yet to try them out,but he issures me they will play perfectly,who am I to dought this LOL

 

The easiest way I've found is to burn them to CD, then use Windows Media Player or Audiograbber (free) to convert the CD tracks to mp3.

 

out of curiousity i walked out to the truck and pluged in my 550,the SD card seems to play very well concidering the earing aide size speaker on the zumo car mount,guess the kid knew what he was doing.