Request for advice - what format to rip?

[matrix]

I recently acquired an iPod. Previously, I had no mp3 player, and so very little digital music (assorted mp3s, but not much).

I am planning to rip my entire CD collection, which is about 50% classical and 50% rock. I have several desired outcomes:

1) All ripped items end up in a lossless format
2) All rock items end up in both a lossless format and an iPod compatible format
3) The lossless items are convertible into other lossy/lossless formats later on (in case I want to re-rip at a higher bit rate, e.g.) while preserving tags and album art.

My main concern is #3. Is there any lossless format which can be converted into an mp3, for example, while preserving the tags and album art?

If I rip to Apple Lossless, it appears (from my limited tests) that iTunes will rip from Apple Lossless to mp3 and preserve album art/tags. Is there any reason not to go this route? Can dbpoweramp do anything with album art?

All things being equal, I would prefer the simplest route, with the minimum of conversions.

Finally, does it matter that I am likely to use one of the ripping services to generate the lossless original files?

Thanks in advance,
Eric

[Spoon]

Re: Request for advice - what format to rip?

>lossless format which can be converted into an mp3, for example, while preserving the tags and album art?

Wavpack, FLAC, Monkeys Audio and Windows Media Audio Lossless

[LtData]

Re: Request for advice - what format to rip?

The m4a/mp4 and ALAC codec in Codec Central does not currently support album art, but the one in beta does.

What do you mean "one of the ripping services"? I think I remember hearing of services where you mail in your CDs and they rip them to your specified format and mail the CDs back or something like that. You would have to ask them if they add album art to the tags of the files or not.

[matrix]

Re: Request for advice - what format to rip?

Spoon, thank you for your suggestions... I knew that those were the lossless encoders. I guess I was curious which would be most convertible without losing the tags/album art.

LtData, thanks for the update. I'll install and try the ALAC codec in beta and try that.

What do you mean "one of the ripping services"? I think I remember hearing of services where you mail in your CDs and they rip them to your specified format and mail the CDs back or something like that. You would have to ask them if they add album art to the tags of the files or not.

There are a number of services that work exactly as you mention above: you send them discs, they rip them for a fee. The one I will likely use (for cost reasons) is Musicshifter (www.musicshifter.com). They will rip to any lossless format + any lossy format for $.99/disc. If you don't want the dual rip, then they'll rip for $.69/disc to whatever format you'd like. There are also other services, including Riptopia. They are all virtually the same, just different costs. They all add album art to the tags, and they also give you a .jpg usually in the folder.