Burning Discs


Burning a disc from iTunes is quite straightforward, as you will see from the information in this section.

Preparing Content to Burn

The 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

Notice that when you select a playlist, the Action button becomes the Burn Disc button. Does that give you any ideas?


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

If you click once on the time displayed in the Source Information area, you'll see the exact time to the second instead of the rounded-off time. Click again to return to the rounded-off time.


Preparing for a Burn Session

Next, 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 to burn a playlist that contains more music than will fit on the type of disc you are trying to burn, iTunes will warn you about the situation. Then, you can choose to cancel the burn or choose to have iTunes burn the playlist across multiple discs.


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

If you are putting live music on a disc, be sure you select none on the Gap Between Songs menu. Otherwise, the roar of the crowd will be interrupted by the silent gaps, which causes the live feeling to be lost.


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:

1.

Open the Importing pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box.

2.

Select MP3 Encoder on the Import Using menu.

3.

Click OK to close the dialog box.

4.

Select the songs you want to convert and right-click (multiple-button mouse) or Ctrl-click (single-button mouse) them to open their contextual menus.

5.

Select Convert Selection to MP3. Copies of the songs you selected will be made in the MP3 format.

6.

Find the MP3 versions of the songs you selected in step 4. Use the Kind information to do this; look for those songs with MPEG audio file as their Kind.

7.

Place the MP3 versions of the songs in the playlist you are going to put on an MP3 CD.

Burning a Disc

After 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:

1.

Make sure the playlist you want to burn is selected.

2.

Click the Burn Disc button. The drive that is configured on the Burning pane of the iTunes Preferences dialog box will open, you will see a prompt in the Information window, and the Burn button will go radioactive (see Figure 20.5).

Figure 20.5. iTunes is ready to burn.


3.

Insert the appropriate disc into the drive. If you selected the Audio CD or MP3 CD format, use a CD. If you selected the Data format, use a CD or DVD. iTunes will check the disc you inserted. If everything is ready to go, you will see the Click Burn Disc to start prompt in the Information area.

4.

Click the Burn Disc button again. iTunes will start the burn process and display information about the process in the Information area (see Figure 20.6).

Figure 20.6. The playlist Songs to Ride By is being put on an audio CD.


If the playlist you have selected includes songs you purchased from the iTunes Music Store, you need to authorize your computer for that music before you can burn it to disc. To quickly check this, play the songs you purchased. If you can play them, the computer is authorized. (To learn more about this topic, see Part III, "The iTunes Music Store.")

When the process is complete, iTunes will play a tone to let you know. The CD you just burned will appear on the Source list and will be selected (see Figure 20.7).

Figure 20.7. The Songs to Ride By playlist has become the Songs to Ride By CD.


If the disc can't be burned for some reason, such as there being too much in the selected playlist to fit onto the type of disc being burned, iTunes will let you know what is wrong. You'll have to correct the situation before you can complete the burn. In the case of you selecting too much music for the selected disc format, you'll have the option to burn the playlist on multiple discs.

5.

To eject the disc, click the Eject button. You can then use the disc you created in any player or drive that is compatible with its format.

tip

To stop the burn before it completes, click the Stop button. If you do this, the disc you are trying to burn might be ruined.




Absolute Beginner's Guide to iPod and iTunes
Absolute Beginner's Guide to iPod and iTunes
ISBN: 789731770
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 194

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