Recompressing AAC and Visuals Problem

[ecirwin at mac.com]

> Is there away to reduce the bit rate of an AAC file from 192 to 128 
> without
> losing the quality of the track?
>
> Also, why is it that my visuals are not filling up the whole monitor 
> when I
> turn it on. The display is smaller than the actual monitor.
>
> Thanks :)
>
> Sam

Sam,

You are going to lose some quality by ripping down to 128 from 192.  
There are people here and elsewhere that will think you are nuts and 
tell you to never do this.  I would say that you should experiment with 
it and see if you notice the difference.  If the reduction in quality 
is noticeable to you, then there is no way to reduce the bit rate to 
128 from 192.

For experimentation, you will just need to change the settings in 
iTunes preferences.  Change the encoding settings so that they are at 
128 AAC.  Select the songs you want to change and then select 
Advanced/Convert Selection to AAC.  That should down sample the file to 
128.

Now do your listening tests to determine if this is acceptable.  My 
listening environments for AAC or MP3 files are not up to esoteric 
levels, so I don't mind the loss in quality.  If I really want to 
listen to music critically, I pop in the CD and crank up the home 
theater.   The car, the computer, and work are generally the places 
where I listen to the ripped files.

As for the visualizer problem, I have no idea.  I am running a TiBook 
400 with OSX 10.3.2 and don't have the problem.  I am assuming that the 
visualization is not in the iTunes window, but that the whole screen 
goes black but the visuals just don't fill the screen.  If the visuals 
are in a window, just click on Visualizer/Full Screen.  Other than 
that, i don't have an answer for you.

Eric