iTunes

Got an iPod for Henry and currently setting it up but I can't believe how big a pile of shit the software is. Any tips or any way of not using it at all?

there are ways round not using it - redchair, for instance, do a file manager type thing, but i'd stick with it, it's pretty good imo

Chris yer full of it and there is no reason to get a music ripper, as iTunes already has it inside of it. It can change all of your music to mp3.

iTunes is by far the best mediaware for music, it organizes like no other... it just takes sometime to get the hang of it. Give it sometime and try to organize a bit, and you'll love it. Try out the smartplaylists... they kick ass.

All the old lies about itunes shoud have been debunked years ago. Why is that they still linger?

You are Steve Jobs and I claim my £40.

You can't just take non-iTunes videos/movies and put them on the iPod, certainly not with their software. Is the program that Chris links to the best way to try that?

Everybody always complains about whoever is at the top. Macs are better than PCs but iPods are bad... whatever, I'm sure there are positives and negatives to everything. Sure, it's all about getting you to spend money, but then what do you expect.

iPods are great fun thou, at least for a year in which after that they seem to start having problems so you will want to buy a new one. Maybe that is part of iTunes also.

Chris Nash wrote: Tips for not using an i-Pod? Erm... bin it?

Apart from that, use the instructions and download from i-Tunes. Most of their stuff is 'protected' MP4 format, but you can get round that if you convert it using a free media converter like:

Quick Media Converter

It's fast, it's free, it converts video and audio and it's erm... French.

Who says the French never get anything right? This piece of kit is so good, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was German.

Other than that, bear in mind that if you use Firefox instead of MS Internet Exploder, you can rip any track or video from YouTube, convert it in the above and listen to it on any good MP3 player.

Or an i-Pod...

Absofuckinlutely.

And who the fuck bought you a copy of The Catheadral and the Bazaar for Xmas then?

Edel....Myths? If you can tell my why a pod costs 4x what an equivalent, non-proprietry mp3/4 player I'd love to hear it ("it's got a nice piccie of an apple on it" is not good enough).

Close your itunes account....see how long your music plays for.

Oh....and it would seem the disc based ones use SERIOUSLY shoddy drives, I know two people (one a nooler) who've had their's wiped by an airport xray machine (most likely the steering/focusing magnets rather than the Xrays)....they must be made of fucking tinfoil.

I would have to confess, I rather like the nano though. Rather eat cold sick than buy one, but I could live with using one given to me.

Doctor? wrote: Close your itunes account....see how long your music plays for.

However, if you change the default file format to MP3 - forever! :p

Chris Nash wrote:

Nick King wrote:

Doctor? wrote: Close your itunes account....see how long your music plays for.

However, if you change the default file format to MP3 - forever! :p

That's what I thought two years ago Nick when I bought my first and only track from i-Tunes. It wouldn't play at all unless via Apple software and when I tried to convert it, I always ended up with an error message...

Edel - I think you may be unfamiliar with some of the 'niceties' of Apple software and I'm so glad that our resident computer expert agrees with me!

Ah, but with iTunes Plus files, that's not the case (no DRM)... Can be played on any media player, any computer, etc...

Converting CD using iTunes (and selecting MP3 as opposed to M4A) will result in MP3 files that can be played anywhere...

Anyway, if you want to buy anything, check out other shops that sell MP3 files - e.g. Amazon, Juno, etc.

EdelBrock wrote:

iTunes is by far the best mediaware for music, it organizes like no other... it just takes sometime to get the hang of it.

It certainly does organise like no other.

All CD's are ripped to hard drive in wav format so I can do compilations for the car etc. Opened iTunes and it converts automatically, great! Except some are converted three times cluttering up the directory meaniing I have to go through and sort them.

Loads of files are ripped with incomplete data - who it was by etc so more sorting out.

The field for album title is limited to x characters so for albums with a title >x characters the damn softwareis unable to distinguish between Disc 1 and disc 2 so they're all lobbed into the same album, more sorting.

When ripped some albums were lobbed into compilations for no reason other than it was a compilation of (for example) Deacon Blues greatest hits. I moved it in Windows explorer but iTunes obviously won't recognised it as a Deacon Blue album yet I seem unable to find a categorising field to allow me to callit a Deacon Blue album and not a compilation.

I've spent hours over the last few days sorting this into something usable, distinctly unimpressed.

Yes Steve, the nanos are fun.

EDIT: ...and when it converts them, it doesn't convert by album it converts by artist so if theres a collaboration it separates them, some chemical brothers albums are split into about 5 different folders each with corresponding albums

On the compilation, go into the song properties/info and go to the options tab and drop the option of compilation to 'no'. That should take care of that issue.

If you want to save to mp3, go to the 'edit' tab and click 'preferences'. In the 'general' tab, in the middle, click 'import settings'. That will give you all the options you need to change the format and settings. Once this is done, it will download all cds into that format and you can highlight any song that isn't mp3 (or the format you chose) and there will be an option when you right click to format that song into mp3 (or whatever you chose). [this includes store bought songs Chris :p )

I also don't like the way iTunes organizes folders, so I turned it off and the problem doesn't happen anymore with the artist having folders with one song from a compilation. Go to 'edit', 'preferences', and the 'advanced' tab. Uncheck the "keep iTunes folder organized" box. That should take care of that issue.

Once these headaches are fixed, iTunes is the best media player out there for sorting and nothing beats the 'smartplaylists'... also the 'genius' is cool in grouping a random playlist with similar music.

**important** do make sure to save a copy of your itunes 'library', a small file located in "My Documents, music, iTunes", periodically. Just incase anything happens to the program (corruption, update, etc.), your computer, ect. You can always paste this back in, incase there is a problem and all of your work is not lost.

Cambo... how many times do I need to tell you, the iTunes store is something different than the software program to run iPods. I never have bought anything from the iTunes store, and never intend to... yet I have 50,000 songs in the software program with no problems. Before complaining about it, you need to have used it for its intended purpose... other than that you're just giving bad information.