I am considering ripping all my iTunes music to CDs and then loading the songs into Zune software on my PC as MP3s so I can stream to my 360.

1. Do I have to burn the CDs in a special way in iTunes to get them into MP3s?

2. Is there any way to get the song title and artist information to also transfer (I don't want to have just a bunch of track numbers).

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm...if you just want to stream, doesn't it allow you directly connect to 360?

Do you have an iPod, if so then just connect it to your 360 and you can stream with track listings.

go bucks.

When you say iTunes music, do you mean music purchased through the iTunes store or music you ripped with the iTunes program?

Please look up Connect360.
I use it to stream my music off of my iMac OSX 10.2 straight to my XBox. Works great and I have 2 XBoxs connecting to it.
-Evangelo2

1. Yes, there are options within iTunes that let you select the bitrate and the type of file you will be ripping your cds into. I have chosen to go with MP3 as it was the lowest common denominator between my media devices.

2. Yes, iTunes has the ability to automatically locate and append Track, artist, album info.

Once you have all of that done, set up WMP 11 to share your iTunes music library.

FourDoor, if he is talking about burning purchased iTunes music to a CD and then re-ripping it to strip the DRM, then iTunes would not automatically add the proper information to the track. Perhaps it would work if he left the cd in and re-ripped immediately, but I would need to try that out myself.

Ahh... Sorry, I missed the part about this being iTunes DRM'd purchased music.

If iTunes does not recognize your newly burned iTunes purchased music on an audio CD for auto tagging for re-ripping, then I would suggest using MediaMonkey to add your tags: http://www.mediamonkey.com/download.htm

Edit: Here is a quick article on MediaMonkey - http://lifehacker.com/software/album-art/alpha-geek-whip-your-mp3-library-into-shape-part-iii-metadata-233336.php

I have used MediaMonkey to tag and add album art to my entire audio collection.

When you say iTunes music, do you mean music purchased through the iTunes store or music you ripped with the iTunes program?


yes, music I have purchaed from iTunes.

Perhaps it would work if he left the cd in and re-ripped immediately, but I would need to try that out myself.

I've done this before, and it worked for me. As long as you don't eject, iTunes will keep all of the song information when you re-rip. If you eject the CD then you'll lose all of the info.

If you are just trying to strip the DRM from your iTunes library, go to http://hymn-project.org/ and download QTFairUse. Its legal freeware that will strip the DRM from any iTunes purchased music. This will only work with files on a computer registered to work with your account on iTunes.

Once the file is in a non-protected AAC format, you can highlight the songs you want to convert and right click within iTunes to convert them to MP3's. You should then be able to bring them into WMP11 without any problems. One note: if you are using Zune, you should be able to get any non-protected AAC files into that software. For some reason Zune works with AAC files, while WMP won't without downloading special codecs for AAC. I have both Zune and WMP on my computer and its incredibly frustrating that Zune works within AAC, but WMP doesn't initially.

When burning CD's to strip the DRM, you lose audio quality by ripping to disc's and then converting them back into MP3's.

i would personally use wmp11 over the zune software.... wmp11 can do the same thing the zune software can in terms of streaming to the 360 (being the zune software is built on wmp11 base). the only reason to run the zune software is if you have a zune player.

i would personally use wmp11 over the zune software.... wmp11 can do the same thing the zune software can in terms of streaming to the 360 (being the zune software is built on wmp11 base). the only reason to run the zune software is if you have a zune player.

Actually, when using iTunes I've found the Zune software to be much more user friendly with AAC files than WMP. I think a lot of it has to do with the format of music you own on your computer. I'm not sure why, but when I import AAC files into WMP, the ID tags are completely lost and I have to input all of the information again. Zune picks up the tags without any problem. Maybe its just my set-up. If it is, then WMP would most likely be the way to go.

This mess is the reason I

1. Don't buy music from iTunes (or any other music with DRM for that matter).

2. Always rip to MP3, which will play on just about any device.

Ok, am I missing something?
I have a bunch of ITUNES songs and have not been able to import them into WMP 11. Nor can I share directly from ITUNES. I assumed that since MS allowed the 360 to share AAC's directly from an IPOD, they would see the songs in my library. I would like to stream them to my 360 as well. I have set up the 360 to share the catalog from ITUNES, but I can't see the songs on the playlists. Please explain this as if you are dealing with a caveman...(cause you are...)

i would personally use wmp11 over the zune software.... wmp11 can do the same thing the zune software can in terms of streaming to the 360 (being the zune software is built on wmp11 base). the only reason to run the zune software is if you have a zune player.


are you kidding me? the library in wmp sucks.

the zune interface and library is better than itunes and WMP, i dont own a zune (i have 3 or 4 ipods though) and i still use the zune software as my main audio library/player.



but to the OP. strip the DRM with the software listed up there ^ and leave it AAC, or convert to mp3 if you like, but zune and the 360 will play the AAC just fine after you strip the DRM

Can somebody confirm for me, does the XBox360 recognise .aac files stored on your main PC? They never show up when I open the Music part of the dashboard. These are songs Ive ripped myself straight off the CD, at 224kBps.
Any ideas?
Im currently using Windows Media Connect 2 to stream to the 360 as I hate the interface in WMP11.

Can somebody confirm for me, does the XBox360 recognise .aac files stored on your main PC? They never show up when I open the Music part of the dashboard. These are songs Ive ripped myself straight off the CD, at 224kBps.
Any ideas?
Im currently using Windows Media Connect 2 to stream to the 360 as I hate the interface in WMP11.

It depends on the software you are using because the software decodes the file. The 360 just plays the stream its receiving from the computer's software (WMP, Zune, etc.) therefore it doesn't matter to the 360 if the stream is from an AAC file. The only MS product I've seen that actually decodes AAC files (.m4a), without installing additional codecs, is the Zune software. If you want to stream AAC files to the 360 with a minimal of fuss, my suggestion would be to download and use the Zune software. I also loath the interface in WMP.

KevinG, I think the above should answer your question as well.