How to convert .ivr to mp3?

Does iTunes REALLY convert to an MP3 file or is it BS?

• When I right-click on a file in the iTunes player, it gives me an option of CONVERT SELECTION TO MP3. So I do this, but nothing I have that transfer MP3s to an MP3 player can recognize the file. WTF?? Real Play and WMP can both PLAY the thing, but neither--including my MP3s software--can TRANSFER it to my MP3. (My MP3 player is not an iPod, so I know I need to convert the file first, which I am doing.) I keep getting unknown format-type messages when trying to transfer to my MP3 player. (All other MP3s that I had transfer fine.) So is iTunes really converting to an MP3 or what? Thanks for your help...

• Answer:

  A few things: 0. You can tell what kind of file a song is in iTunes most easily by enabling the "Kind" column in the browsing view. On my Mac, I do this by right-clicking on the column headers (Name, Track #, etc) in the browsing view and selecting "Kind" from the pop-up menu. The majority of your files will probably be either "MPEG audio file" (mp3), "AAC audio file" (m4a), or "Protected AAC audio file" (m4p). 1. When you download from the iTunes Music Store, you're going to get an m4p file. If you're ripping from CD, iTunes is going to give you m4a files by default, but you can make iTunes use mp3 as its encoding mechanism in the advanced settings, under "Importing". 2. iTunes will not convert an m4p file to anything else. It gives the option in the context menu, but should pop up a dialog box failure if you select it; if you want to convert an mp4 to mp3, burn a CD (actual CD, not MP3 CD) with the file, and then re-rip it into iTunes. 3. If you have something in m4a format, iTunes will not replace the existing file with an mp3, but will create a new mp3 file. Hope this helps.