iMac G5/iTunes/CD Ripping Question

jacob woottenjacob wootten
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I went to the Apple Store in Novi, MI and I was playing around with iTunes and re-importing songs on the iMac...with AAC I was getting about 20x and then I switched to MP3 and imported a song and got 30x, tried it again later and got about 19-21x with either one. I know these are set to automatic processor, so does that anything to do with it, or not. So basically what I'm saying is: If I have it set to highest processor setting will I be able to encode at 30x off the hard drive (or possibly a firewire CD-RW drive)? Thanks a bunch!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    proxyproxy Posts: 232member
    Based on the Macworld test (which encodes a 45 minute song at 160kbps in mp3) it seems to encode at about 23x. Not sure what it'll do with AAC though. Hopefully I'll be able to find out next week when my 1.8 G5 17" 1gig iMac arrives:-) My 800mhz 15" G4 iMac encodes 192kbps AAC at 6-7x. Can't wait to test ripping a CD with them side by side.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    auslanderauslander Posts: 183member
    Is the MacWorld test a process from a CD. CDR or from HD? My G5 2.5's maximum encode speed from a CD yesterday (my first test) was 19.3x. I'll have to try encoding from the HD at some point, but I think there would be quite some disparity between access speeds using CD/DVD/HD drives, and also disparity even between CD and CDR (depending on CDR colour/transparency etc)
  • Reply 3 of 6
    proxyproxy Posts: 232member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by auslander

    Is the MacWorld test a process from a CD. CDR or from HD? My G5 2.5's maximum encode speed from a CD yesterday (my first test) was 19.3x. I'll have to try encoding from the HD at some point, but I think there would be quite some disparity between access speeds using CD/DVD/HD drives, and also disparity even between CD and CDR (depending on CDR colour/transparency etc)



    I always assumed that Macworld would simply be ripping from the CD as that's what most users would be doing. But according to their speedmark page they do this:



    'iTunes 4.1

    AAC encode from Audio CD

    Convert AAC files to MP3 from Hard Drive'



    ...which strikes me as a bit odd. So the results I quoted above are not the rip speeds from CD as I previously thought. Sorry.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Strange, they purposefully convoluted the benchmark.



    Seems like a better benchmark would simply be time to rip a regular CD with a typical number of tracks.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    auslanderauslander Posts: 183member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by dfiler

    Strange, they purposefully convoluted the benchmark.



    Seems like a better benchmark would simply be time to rip a regular CD with a typical number of tracks.



    The problem with that is that the condition of the CD (i.e. scratches/reflections etc) will often affect ripping speed. That's basically why I wondered how they conducted these tests as there are so many variables. Even the colour of the CD/CDR can affect ripping speed, depending on the CD/DVD drive doing the ripping.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Of course being reading from an optical disc will affect the benchmark. That's why it's better to read from a real disc rather than devise a test which has very little to do with real world use.



    Of course, you'd have to use the same disc for each session. Granted, disc readability could deteriorate, but at least the benchmark would give you a clue as to how fast iTunes can actually import on a particular system.
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