Burning a disc from iTunes is quite straightforward, as you will see from the information in this section. Preparing Content to BurnThe first phase in the process is to choose the content you want to place onto a disc. You do this by creating a playlist. In Chapter 18, "Creating, Configuring, and Using Playlists," you learned everything you need to know about creating and using playlists, so I don't need to repeat that information here. note
One thing you need to keep in mind as you create a playlist for CD or DVD is the size of the playlist. Obviously, you can't put more music on a CD or DVD than there is room to store files on the disc. How large a playlist can be to be put on a disc depends on the format you will be using. If you are burning an Audio CD, you can get about 70 minutes of music on the disc. If you are creating an MP3 disc, you can store about 210 minutes on a disc. If you are creating a data CD, you can store about 750MB of data per disc. On a data DVD disc, you can store at least 5.2GB of files. When you are creating an audio CD, use the play time to judge the size of the playlist; keep it to 70 minutes plus or minus a couple minutes. For the other formats, use file size (for example, a CD can typically hold 750MB). In any case, use the Source Information area to check the playlist to make sure it will fit on the type of disc you are going to create (see Figure 20.3). Figure 20.3. This playlist contains 1.1 hours of music, which will be just right for a CD in the Audio CD format.The name of the playlist will become the name of the CD or DVD, so if you don't want the current playlist name to be used, change it to be what you do want the disc to be called. (To do this, click the playlist name once and pause. It will be highlighted to show you can change it. Type the new name and press Return or Enter.) tip
Preparing for a Burn SessionNext, configure the burn session during which you will create a disc by opening the Burning pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box. Choose the format you want to use for the burning session by clicking the appropriate radio button (see Figure 20.4). Figure 20.4. Because the MP3 CD radio button is selected, the next CD will be burned in that format.note
If you choose Audio CD, there are two options you can configure. One is the gap between songs, which you choose by making a selection on the Gap Between Songs menu. Your options are none, which causes one song to begin immediately after the previous one ends; 1 second, which places 1 second of silence between tracks; 2 seconds, which places 2 seconds of silence between songs; and so on, up to 5 seconds. The other option is the Use Sound Check box. If you check this box, iTunes applies its Sound Check feature to the music it places on a disc. (If you don't remember from earlier in the book, this feature causes iTunes to attempt to set the relative volume of the songs you play to the same level.) tip
To select either the MP3 CD or the Data CD or DVD format, simply click the appropriate radio button. Click OK to close the iTunes Preferences dialog box and prepare the burn session. If you are going to burn a disc in the MP3 CD format, you must make sure all the music in the playlist you want to put on disc is in the MP3 format before you can burn the MP3 CD disc. If you are going to create a disc in one of the other formats, you can skip the rest of this section. To convert songs into the MP3 format, perform the following steps:
Burning a DiscAfter you have selected the content and prepared the burning session, actually burning the disc is rather anticlimactic. You burn a disc with the following steps:
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