Converting mp3 audiobooks on Mac OS X to bookmarkable audiobooks

Update September 8th 2008 As can be read in the comments by Aldo: a better, although not free solution is Audiobook Builder

I am a member of emusic, the retailer that offers a selection of independent music and audiobooks.

One thing which always bothered me a bit was the audiobook format. They split an audiobook in dozens of mp3 files which are not the best solution if you use iTunes and an iPod.
iTunes and the iPod have the so called bookmarkable format, that is, the track will resume playing wherever you left off the last time you played it.
There is a lot of information on the net, but I could not find a step by step process for the Mac how to convert emusic audiobooks to iTunes audiobooks.

This is my procedure for Mac OS X.

• Download two Applescripts scripts from Doug’s AppleScripts: Track Splicer and Make Bookmarkable. Install them as described.
• Add the emusic audiobook files to iTunes. They will be stored somewhere under music.
• Select the audiobook mp3 files. Make sure they are ordered correctly and run the Track Splicer script. This will create one big mp3 file.
  If you like to split it in a couple of 1 hour files, like an iTMS audiobook, then select a smaller number of files and repeat the procedure.
• Select the mp3 audiobook and convert it to an aac (m4a) file with iTunes. (Right mouse: Convert Selection to AAC). Use a bitrate
  applicable for audiobooks, since 256kbps or so seems like a waste of disk space.
• Select the aac audiobook and run the Make Bookmarkable script. This will convert the m4a file to m4b file. When you look under
  Audiobooks you will see your converted book.
• For nicety find a cover and add it as album artwork.

Enjoy!

I don’t need no stinking Apple TV

Getting the Dolby 5.1ch sound working from my PlayStation 3 to my Onkyo TX-SR805 receiver proved to be a bit more troublesome than I hoped for.
There is some configuration involved on the PS3 and on the Onkyo.
When I eventually got it working I examined the possibility of connecting my Mac with the PS3.

Boy was I in for some surprise. Medialink for Mac OS X, is an excellent piece of software.
Perhaps I was lucky, but after installing it, I could immediately browse (wireless btw) through my photos, movies and music.

I no longer see a reason to buy an Apple TV. The PS3 with Media Link does an excellent job. Perhaps not as pretty as the Apple TV, but it supports all major DRM free encodings.
Something which cannot be said for the Apple TV.

Renting movies through the Apple TV is not something I see happening any time soon here in The Netherlands. So I skip the Apple TV and embrace my PS3 for now.

When you compare the price of the PS3 (€ 399) to the Apple TV (€ 299) I am amazed how much power is packed into the PS3 (Console, Blu-ray player, MediaCentre) for a arguably better price.