So the car I’ve now got has a media-in capability that can handle iPods, and USB devices. I’ve got a spare 1.8″ 30gb USB drive that i thought I’d put all my music on but it turns out that the head unit cannot play AAC files so I need to convert everything to another format.

I want to lose a little quality as possible so what would I be best converting to and what app does a good job (Mac or PC)?

If they are currently .aac and your head unit does not play .aac then convert to a different _lossless_ format. Possibly .WAV if the head unit understands that? Should result in no added distortion, though you will need a bigger device to store the songs.

Converting to a lossy format, like wmv or mp3 will result in distortion, no matter what you do.

Rachel

Why not just plug you iphone/ipod into it?

Why not just plug you iphone/ipod into it?

Because I don’t have a spare iPod to leave in the car and I can’t be arsed pluggin the phone in every time, although the charging aspect would be good.
I like the idea of having a HD in the car for use whenever it’s required. Plus I’ve heard a lossless track play and it sounds way better than the same track off the phone.

DBPoweramp is the software you want.

I’d convert to 192 Mp3.

In a car (unless you have a triple glazed Rolls) you will not be able to tell the difference between this and lossless. Road noise alone (never mind speaker quality etc) would negate any benefit in quality settings.

I’m not a big fan but the easiest path would be to use iTunes if that is what you already using e.g. http://ipod.about.com/od/advanceditunesuse/ht/Converting-Aac-To-Mp3.htm

As Fubar says. Select the tracks you want and convert them to either 128 or 256kbs, then set up a smart playlist to only show tracks with that bitrate, then just drag that playlist to your flash drive, or if you have more music in there than space, drag’n’drop the tracks you want from the playlist.