Apple Lossless extension

If I import an aiff file to Apple Lossless, the file extension is m4a and the "Kind" is MPEG-4, same as AAC.

Is that correct and can someone explain why?

Posted on Oct 26, 2005 11:03 AM

21 replies

Ralphjh Author

Level 2

230 points

Oct 27, 2005 9:49 PM in response to slowth

Interesting. I deleted all of the iTunes plist files located in my home Preferences folder and the result was the same as before. Initially, I wasn't using the latest version of iTunes so I downloaded version 6.1, deleted the preference files again and still got the same result. Strange!

Oct 27, 2005 9:55 PM in response to slowth

Just to double check myself I did the same thing, and got files of exactly the same size. Something odd is going on, we've just got to figure out what it is.

Ralphjh Author

Level 2

230 points

Oct 27, 2005 10:03 PM in response to slowth

sloth-I did as you suggested and the 2 AIFF files are now exactly the same size. Do you suppose that the playlists have something to do with the change in file size? I'll do some more experimenting and hopefully will get the answer.

slowth

Level 1

100 points

Oct 27, 2005 10:31 PM in response to Ralphjh

Yes, I think somehow the location of the playlist directory or some other type of data related to your playlist(s) are increasing the file size from the original.

I really don't know enough about file directories and data management to specifiy exactly what is happening, but that is my best guess. This is a very interesting situation.

Regardless, it doesn't seem to be a major concern. I think everything will be fine when you need to convert the Apple Lossless back to AIFF in the future.

Ralphjh Author

Level 2

230 points

Oct 27, 2005 10:41 PM in response to slowth

If I repeat the above scenario with an AIFF file that resides on my hard drive, the final AIFF file is again larger than the original. I did not use a playlist for this encoding.

What I did notice, however, was that when I imported a track from the CD, the resulting file extension was aif (3 letters) and so was the final encoded AIFF file. In the case of the files on my hard drive that are giving me the apparent problem, they all have an aiff extension (4 letters) while the final encoded AIFF file is again the 3 letter extension of aif. I can't imagine why that would make a difference.

Anyway, thanks for your input. I Think I will call it a day (night) and work on it tomorrow.

Ralphjh Author

Level 2

230 points

Oct 28, 2005 9:55 PM in response to KirinRiotCrash

Hi Kirin, I just saw your message. Yes, I am using 6.0.1.

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Apple Lossless extension