iPod - Do you have to use I-tunes

schnipps

schnipps

schnipps

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Not sure where to put this but i want t get a family member one of these for xmas and i have never used one. Do you have to use itunes to transfer music or is it possible to get normal retail cd's and transfer them onto it?
 
You can use Winamp and the Winamp iPod plugin. http://www.mlipod.com/
You add your music files into the Media Library. Winamp prompts you to scan for music when you first click on the Library. You can then right-click on either an album, song or the entire Media Library and choose the Send To>iPod option and voila Winamp sends your selected music to your iPod.

Will this family member not want to use iTunes? I thought it was OK until Apple bundled Quicktime in with it. I didn't use iTunes as my media player, so it was wasted on my PC. I use Winamp a lot though and being able to use that to transfer music onto my iPod means I can get rid of iTunes.
 
He only listens to quite specific hard to find dance music of which he has lots of cd's of (all legit i might add) He would only want to be able to listen to these and so wouldnt want to faff around on itunes buying songs etc.

What is Itunes though, can you use it to extract music from a cd then put it onto the ipod? i was under the impression it was the software for apples music store and you can only get purchased music through itunes onto your ipod, or am i wrong?
 
For winamp there is ml_pod as mentioned above, and for foobar there is foo_pod, neither of which need itunes or the ipod service to be installed and both work flawlessly :)
 
I can't believe all the rubbish about I-Tunes spouted on these forums.
Because of the rubbish when I bought my Ipod Mini earlier this year I immediately bought Anapod Explorer (see above).
I've just installed I-Tunes because I've bought my daughters a Nano each and what an easy program to use.
Drag from your file manager straight onto I-Tunes which immediately puts it on your IPod.
You can then choose all the tracks > Get Info > and change the ID Tagging.
Doesn't get simpler than that.
 
sorry, but im not getting on with I-tunes at all, bought the missus a nano and i just cant get it working the way i want. i have a monolith II and its just drag and drop into the contents folder of the removeable drive that shows up in windows. simple,

all i want to do is drag an album folder off my pc onto the nano, so far the only thing i have been able to do is to add the folder to itunes, it then uploads all the contents individually rather then keeping everything in their folders.


is it me or am i missing something.


tryed monkey media as well but it doesnt seem to support the nano, shame as at least that was straightforward to use. any other software ?
 
dmpoole said:
I can't believe all the rubbish about I-Tunes spouted on these forums.
Because of the rubbish when I bought my Ipod Mini earlier this year I immediately bought Anapod Explorer (see above).
I've just installed I-Tunes because I've bought my daughters a Nano each and what an easy program to use.
Drag from your file manager straight onto I-Tunes which immediately puts it on your IPod.
You can then choose all the tracks > Get Info > and change the ID Tagging.
Doesn't get simpler than that.
Click to expand...


Agreed for many yrs i stayed away from ipods and itunes but got one last month from my bro in Canada as a bday gift, got a 30gb black video ipod and have to say im really impressed with it. Especially itunes, thought it was a resource hog but it isnt on my laptop. Such a doddle to use and quite unintrusive as a program...very simple to use i find and does everything i want it to. Only thing missing from it is an explorer type of window etc but other than that i love using itunes, as long as you dont let it manage your files for u....u will be fine etc.
 
kidloco said:
is it me or am i missing something.
Click to expand...

Its so simple I just taught two teenage girls to do it.

Open up Windows Explorer and open up I-Tunes.
Drag the album of your choice from Explorer into I-tunes and the files copy straight onto the IPod.
THE IMPORTANT BIT -
Now select the tracks you have just transferred and right click and select GET INFO.
Type in the Artist, Album, increase the volume, EQ preset if needed etc and click on APPLY.
Job done.

You could also download a free utility called ID3-TagIT and TAG your MP3's before you transfer them. For me the main gripe with IPods is that MP3's need to be TAGGED correctly. In other words hidden information is put on the files that is read by the IPod and if you don't do it the files go all over the place. Once you've done it a couple of times it becomes second nature.
 
sorry to bump an old thread, but are ipods not able to list the songs by the file names then? all my mp3s are listed by file name and i havent ever really bothered changing the ID3 tags on them. My car MP3 CD player and portable Mp3 CD player both have options to view the files by the actual file name, does the Ipod not offer this?
 
Baddass said:
sorry to bump an old thread, but are ipods not able to list the songs by the file names then? all my mp3s are listed by file name and i havent ever really bothered changing the ID3 tags on them. My car MP3 CD player and portable Mp3 CD player both have options to view the files by the actual file name, does the Ipod not offer this?
Click to expand...

Example of a file name -

01 Led Zeppelin - Black Dog.mp3

This will be shown inside the Led Zeppelin directory inside the vol4 directory as long as you TAG the file with -
Artist - Led Zeppelin
Album - vol4

It sounds laborius compared to other players I have which are drag and drop from my file manager but it only takes seconds to do. I actually TAG my files with a prog called ID3-Tagit before they go on the Ipod so all the work is done.

A bit of info about Tagging -

Digital audio files can contain, in addition to the audio track, related text and/or graphical information. The information you're probably familiar with take the form of Song title, Artist name, Album name, Year and Genre. This is the information displayed when you playback a digital audio file on your computer or portable device.

The process of including information other than sound into these digital audio files is commonly referred to as "tagging" in which you "tag" the audio file with additional information that describes the audio file. The original standard for tagging digital files was developed in 1996 by Eric Kemp and he coined the term ID3. At that time ID3 simply meant "IDentify an MP3".

ID3 is simply a prescribed method for storing information into a file, any file, but usually an audio file.

The Ipod and I expect the majority of players can take advantage of this tagging by sorting in different orders etc
 
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thats a bit of a pain, i know it doesnt take long to do, but when you have thousands of mp3s all named correctly by file name, it's a hassle to go through and ID3 tag them all. will try one of those programs which automatically tags them for you, see if that will work :) thanks for clarification
 
I've just myself bought an iPod Video (5G?) 60GB and have been extremely impressed with it - absolutely enthused in fact. I'm not a fan of over controlling programs which Apple-type products are famous for, but iTunes is a truly brilliant piece of software.

At first I was annoyed with it and tried Anapod Explorer etc. But now I've found the happy medium between control and automation, I don't think I'll ever leave - it's just great!
 
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