SMJ Solutions

Importing Audiobooks using iTunes on Windows XP

October 15th, 2005

Listening to audiobooks on my iPod is a new favorite hobby of mine. However, audiobooks are pretty expensive to download from iTunes (or Audible.com), so I have become a frequent visitor to the Books on CD section of my local library. Because I don’t have a CD player in my car, I rip the audiobooks into my iPod and listen to them during my commute.

iTunes still doesn’t have great support for ripping audiobooks; it’s certainly not a one-click operation. I also haven’t found a good resource explaining how to import audiobooks online, therefore I have decided to document the process I use.

1. Get disc information
Let’s get the obvious steps out of the way: start iTunes and insert the first audiobook CD (most audiobooks I’ve seen span several CDs). iTunes will try to find the information for the author, album, and tracks and will populate it if it exists. If not, the best way to populate this information yourself is to right-click the CD in iTunes and select Get Info. You can add the title, author, disc number, and other information for the disc.

2. Select audiobook format for import
As stated before, iTunes (as of version 6.0) still doesn’t make it easy to import audiobooks. Follow these steps to select a good audio format for importing:

1. Choose Preferences from the Edit menu
2. Click on the Advanced tab
3. Select the Importing tab subsection
4. Choose the AAC encoder from the Import Using dropdown list



5. Select Custom from the Setting dropdown list
6. In the AAC Encoder window, choose 64 kbps from the Stereo Bit Rate dropdown box and check the Optimize for voice checkbox



7. Click OK until you get back to the main iTunes window

(Note: You can select a lower bit rate if you need a smaller file size and don’t mind the decreased quality)

3. Group and rip
Most audiobooks I’ve come across have about 25 tracks per CD. You don’t want to listen to an audiobook by track, but rather by CD (audiobooks are bookmarkable — see the next step). Select all of the tracks on the disk and choose Join CD Tracks from the Advanced menu. This will join all of the tracks on the CD into one track on your iPod. Then simply click on the Import icon and let iTunes work for a few minutes.

4. Make files bookmarkable
After all of the discs have been imported into iTunes, one crucial task remains. Tracks imported by iTunes with the AAC encoder are saved with and extension of .m4a. To make the file bookmarkable, simply change the extension to .m4b.

Windows XP hides the extension by default, so you will have to change that setting. Simply go to the Control Panel, switch to the classic view, and open the Folder Options. In the Folder Options window, click on the View tab and scroll down the list of Advanced options and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types checkbox.

Finally, find the imported audiobook tracks and change the extension from .m4a to .m4b. iTunes will automagically recognize those files as audiobooks. Sync them to your iPod and enjoy the commute!

Entry Filed under: Software