iPod Questions

audiobliss

Ok, so I got a 30gb iPod for xmas and am going to exchange it for the 80gb as soon as my 10% off coupon is good (in January). So, while I'm waiting for January to get here, I have a few questions about iTunes.

Can you use iTunes and your iPod on more than one computer? Dad got one for Christmas, also, and he's having difficulties using it on his desktop and laptop. Are you restrained to using it only with one computer? This sorta worries me, as I'm currently contemplating the possibility of building a new desktop. If I hook it up to this one, will I be out of luck if I build a new desktop?

With iTunes, what format and bitrate does it encode songs to for transferring to the iPod? Can you choose which format and which bitrate?

Can you use song files that are already on your computer?

Will iTunes automatically recognize song/artist/album name when you stick a CD in the computer?

What about colors? Is the white better than black or vice versa? Dad got a black one, and there's NO WAY you can keep fingerprints off it. Does the white one hide fingerprints better?


I think that's all my questions for now. Thanks!

Demiurge

You don't need iTunes at all to use your iPod. You can use your iPod on all computers, and you can fill your iPod with stolen songs, songs you ripped, or songs you bought.

bobman1235

The only time an iPod is locked to a certain PC is if you use automatic syncing. As long as you sync manually, you should be able to move your iPod amongs many computers. Also, you won't be able to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store on more than one PC unless that PC is authorized.

The songs you put on the iPod will be in the same format you encoded them in on your computer. If all your MP3s on your PC are 192kbps, then all the songs on your iPod will be. If they're all higher or lower or mixed, then so will they be when on your iPod.

Also, what Demi said is true - there are plugins for other media managers, such as WinAmp, that allow you to use them rather than iTunes to sync your iPod.

And black vs white... the only difference is color. Smudges and the like usually show up more on black things (just look at cars), but... who really cares?

Mike682

audiobliss wrote:

Can you use iTunes and your iPod on more than one computer? Dad got one for Christmas, also, and he's having difficulties using it on his desktop and laptop. Are you restrained to using it only with one computer? This sorta worries me, as I'm currently contemplating the possibility of building a new desktop. If I hook it up to this one, will I be out of luck if I build a new desktop?
Thanks!

You have to authorize each computer if you want to play songs from itunes. Authorizing a computer is very easy; the ipod must be connected to each comp to authorize. I am pretty sure you can have 5 computers authorized at the same time. One for home, school, work etc. The only requirement is that the ipod must be connected to each computer to be authorized.

Now if you ever format your computer's hard drive, remember to go into itunes and deauthorize the computer before you format, this way it won't count as a ghost authorized computer. You can re-authorize it after the fresh install.

As for the color, I have the black one and I recommend a case for it because black shows everything. The case will protect the screen and the body from getting scratches.

audiobliss

Ok, that makes sense about the automatic syncing and such; I'll see if I can't fix that on Dad's computer.

What would I use for syncing if not iTunes? Will my computer see it as a drive and I can just drag and drop? Or would I have to use third-party software? What are some of those third-party programs, and what are their benefits?

As for authorizing/deauthorizing...thanks for pointing that out! It'd be a bummer reformat a computer and forget to deauthorize it first.

And, agreed, a case is definitely a must.

Holydoc

Like Mike said you can authorize up to 5 computers to connect your ipod to. With the new firmware, you can even transfer purchased music off your Ipod to the authorized computers.

You can select format and bitrate to burn to your ipod using Itunes. You simply go to Preferences in Itunes and select the Importing tab. From there you will select your import format (i.e. AAC, AIFF, Lossless, MP3, or Wave) and your custom import bit rate.

Of course you can use music that is already on your computer as long as they were not in some type of proprietary format.

Yes... Itunes will recognize the songs names, artist, and will even download the correct album art (if it can locate it) from imported CDs.

Color is preference only.

****************
On a barely related topic, Itunes is a very powerful program in the fact that it allows you to create "Smart Playlists". For instance you can set up Itunes so that every time you add a Christmas song, Itunes will automatically (i.e. you do not have to do anything) add it to your Christmas Playlist. Or you can set up Itunes to never repeat a song in a month so that you do not hear the same songs over and over. You can even set it up so that it removes songs from your playlists that you skip over all the time so that you will not have to skip them in the future. All automatically!

If you decide to not use Itunes, then you might as well have purchased a non-brand MP3 player since the only reason to have an IPOD would of been as a status piece.

audiobliss

For me, personally, the only two reasons I wanted an iPod is 1) for the intuitive user interface and 2) car-integration.

I think I just might download iTunes even before I get my iPod and play around with it, and maybe even rip some CD's and see how I like it.

Mike682

I like itunes. There is so much stuff in the music store. They also have movies, tv shows, audiobooks, and some games.

You can burn your cds into itunes and put them on the ipod. And as Holydoc said, you can create and customize playlists.

oh yeah, remember to select manual for music organization in itunes(comes up when installing the software). If you let itunes automatically organize your music, your ipod will only have the music/playlists that is on the last computer connected to it. In other words if you have two authorized comps, let's say comp A has 2 songs and comp B has 1 song, if you connect to comp A last then the ipod will have the 2 songs on comp A, etc. Selecting manual organization will prevent this.

I like manual because you can choose which songs to drag and drop to the ipod after you rip/buy them.

audiobliss

I really wouldn't be interested in buying anything in iTunes.

Lowell_M

I use Itunes and love it. The smart playlists are nice and i find the user interface in general the most flexible and easy to deal with compared to some fo the others. I haven't tried the "Apple lossless" yet when ripping CD's, but plan to as soon as I build my entertainment PC. I actually have used Itunes on my laptop for quite some time and don't have an Ipod (yet). My wife has used Itunes with her Ipod for about a year. The autosynch and playlist management has been nice for her to use.

Also, I've been impressed with the sound quality of the Ipod compared to other MP3 players.

Holydoc

audiobliss wrote:

I really wouldn't be interested in buying anything in iTunes.

The nice thing about buying off of Itunes is the fact that you can pay $0.99 for a song instead of spending $15 for the CD. This is especially nice if you only liked one song on the CD.

Again a little off topic, Itunes also allows easy (and free for you Bliss. ) integration with Podcasts. My podcasts include things like
AV Podcast
CNET News
CNN News
Discovery News
Ebert & Robert Movie reviews
ESPNU College Football
and a few bazillion more....

Matter of fact I have a "Smart Playlist" for work that does the following:

40% of the Playlist is my Highest Rated Songs
15% are Podcasts so that I can get the current news
35% are Songs I like but not love
5% are recently added songs so that I do not miss anything I added
5% are lowest rated songs ~ In case my tastes have changed

On top of all of this my playlist ensures that I have not heard any of the above songs in at least a week and that I only hear the podcasts once. That way I never hear the same song twice during the week. This is something that you can do very easily with Itunes.

szhleppy

I'm all about using iTunes with iPod as well. I tried the Winamp solution back when I had an XM Inno along with the iPod, but it was really a pain in the ****.

I rip everything Apple Lossless (sounds great in the car and on the PC system) and have Podcasts setup for autosync. I listen to the sports Podcasts more than I ever listened to sports on XM.

Here's a nice, cheap software download that some us find useful:

http://www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php

Here's a nice site for iPod owners:

http://www.ilounge.com/

pblanc

Unless you have a lot of experience with another music manager and love it, I would strongly suggest trying iTunes to manage your music files and iPod. You don't need a Mac, you aren't obligated to buy anything from the Apple iTunes Music Store, it is a good, flexible, powerful and easy to use program (and I am no Mac lover), and Apple has some comprehensive and excellent tutorials on their web site for both iPod and iTunes. I would set your iPod to not automatically sync if you are going to use it with multiple computers since otherwise its contents would be changed every time it was hooked up to a different machine. Contrary to what was said in an earlier post, this is not the same as not letting iTunes manage your music files. I would let iTunes organize and manage your music files, unless you already have an elaborate music file hierarchy set up that you want to keep. Allowing iTunes to manage your music files means it will copy all music files to an iTunes file in your My Music folder (on a pc). It will organize them according to artist, album and title. I have found that if you have your music spread out on dozens of separate files, iTunes has a tendency to lose track of some of them from time to time and needs to be redirected to them. iTunes and iPod can't handle all music codecs (for example, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, Monkey's Audio, and mpc are not currently compatible with the iPod nor are protected .wma files (the microsoft codec). You can transcode files from one codec to another using various programs, but in general, you don't want to since the only thing that sounds worse than a compressed audio file is one that has been recompressed to another format. Alternatively, many other portable players or car audio decks may not handle AAC (advanced audio codec) favored by Apple, or Apple Lossless. For the most versatility you could stick with mp3 which is the near universal audio codec. If you do I would suggest using the mp3 LAME encoder format. iTunes does let you select the codec (mp3, AAC, apple lossless, wav) and bitrate to import music and you can change this anytime and as often as you want. You can have any number of different bitrates and codecs on your iPod as long as they are recognized. Obviously, the lossless formats and higher bitrates will occupy more disc space.
If you have an active internet connection iTunes can identify CD and track titles (and as an option you can even import "album art" if available form the iTunes Music Store, or you can import your on .bmp image to associate with the tracks. Due to the infinite lack of wisdom on the part of the Sony and Philips engineers who designed the CD format, there is no title or track info stored on CDs. In order to figure out what CD you are playing, iTunes acceses what used to be called the CDDB (CD data base) which identifies the CD based on the number of tracks and the size of the tracks on the disc, which, is near-unique. An outfit called Gracenotes bought the rights to this info, which was voluntarily contributed by people like you and me, and now charges entities like Apple a license fee to utilize the service (which means higher prices for music purchased by people like you and me). If you don't have an active connection, or if you have a very unusual CD you can enter title, artist and track info for each track manually)
I would suggest you do a little reading of cheap books or web info before you start ripping a lot of discs. Many have invested a lot of time ripping CDs and then had to do it all over again when they found they didn't like the codec or bitrate initially used. If you are going to pretty much stick with the iPod AAC is a very good codec and I would suggest using a bitrate of at least 128 kbs if not 256 kbs. Using a variable bitrate gives a little more quality for the same file size. With hard disk storage now so cheap, I would suggest you archive your CDs using a lossless format such as .wav, .ape (Monkey's Audio), FLAC (free losseless audio codec) or Apple Lossless. Exact Audio Copy is a very good program (freeware) to use for this. You can then import them into iTunes using the compressed format and bitrate of your chosing, so as to conserve the disc space on your pod. Your ears and the quality of your playback system will be the best judge of which codec to use, and it may be worth ripping the same track using various codecs and bitrates to see what is the best compromise for you before investing a lot of time archiving.
A couple of decent inexpensive books are SAMS Teach Yourself iPod + iTunes for Windows and Mac by Brian Tiemann and iPod & iTunes, the Missing Manual, 3rd ed, by J.D Biersdorfer. The Apple web site has good tutorials also. Check out http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/2006/02/08/how-to-convert-digital-audio-files.html, http://flac.sourceforge.net/, http://exactaudiocopy.org/eac.html, and http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Main_Page. These sites will have links directing you to many others.

Demiurge

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
Conjunction Junction, how's that function?
I got three favorite cars
That get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what's their function?
I got "and", "but", and "or",
They'll get you pretty far.

"And":
That's an additive, like "this and that".
"But":
That's sort of the opposite,
"Not this but that".
And then there's "or":
O-R, when you have a choice like
"This or that".
"And", "but", and "or",
Get you pretty far.

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up two boxcars and making 'em run right.
Milk and honey, bread and butter, peas and rice.
Hey that's nice!
Dirty but happy, digging and scratching,
Losing your shoe and a button or two.
He's poor but honest, sad but true,
Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up two cars to one
When you say something like this choice:
"Either now or later"
Or no choice:
"Neither now nor ever"
Hey that's clever!
Eat this or that, grow thin or fat,
Never mind, I wouldn't do that,
I'm fat enough now!

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up phrases and clauses that balance, like:
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
He cut loose the sandbags,
But the balloon wouldn't go any higher.
Let's go up to the mountains,
Or down to the sea.
You should always say "thank you",
Or at least say "please".

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses

polrbehr

Demiurge wrote:

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.
Conjunction Junction, how's that function?
I got three favorite cars
That get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what's their function?
I got "and", "but", and "or",
They'll get you pretty far.

"And":
That's an additive, like "this and that".
"But":
That's sort of the opposite,
"Not this but that".
And then there's "or":
O-R, when you have a choice like
"This or that".
"And", "but", and "or",
Get you pretty far.

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up two boxcars and making 'em run right.
Milk and honey, bread and butter, peas and rice.
Hey that's nice!
Dirty but happy, digging and scratching,
Losing your shoe and a button or two.
He's poor but honest, sad but true,
Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up two cars to one
When you say something like this choice:
"Either now or later"
Or no choice:
"Neither now nor ever"
Hey that's clever!
Eat this or that, grow thin or fat,
Never mind, I wouldn't do that,
I'm fat enough now!

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up phrases and clauses that balance, like:
Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
He cut loose the sandbags,
But the balloon wouldn't go any higher.
Let's go up to the mountains,
Or down to the sea.
You should always say "thank you",
Or at least say "please".

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up words and phrases and clauses

Thanks a lot.
Now I'll have that damn song in my head for three days!
Long live Saturday mornings!

audiobliss

Thanks for all the info folks; it's much appreciated!

I just got a white 80gb iPod today. I love it!! :D

I've been playing around with iTunes a bit, and I've started ripping all my CD's in Apple Lossless to give that a try.

Thanks for all the info, pblanc!

audiobliss

So, now that I've got the iPod and I've started filling it up...now I need a case.

What're some good cases to look at? Something that allows access to the screen and controls, but protects it from scratches, shock, dust, etc?

Demiurge

Audiobliss, how are you going to get through life, dood?

audiobliss

What?

Life? What's that? Life??

...idk...

But I plan on sustaining my current condition of 'being alive' through nagging this forum 'til death due us part.

Demiurge

Well, as far as cases -- they're all a giant ripoff. Just wait. Might as well just get one you like.

Fireman32

I got a nice see through hard plastic case to protect mine, plus it doubles as a stand for when im watching video. I would also suggest buying a screen protector for it.

audiobliss

Yeah, I read about that one while I was browsing around iLounge.com. I decided it'd be much more bulky than what I'm looking for.

Holydoc

This is the case I bought for mine:

http://www.iskin.com/

Nice thing about these cases is that they completely cover all parts of the IPod while still allowing you to hook up to the universal charger without removing the case.

szhleppy

audiobliss wrote:

So, now that I've got the iPod and I've started filling it up...now I need a case.

What're some good cases to look at? Something that allows access to the screen and controls, but protects it from scratches, shock, dust, etc?

I've had my 80GB in this one since day 1:

http://www.podzone.co.uk/skins-and-cases/evo3-for-ipod-video-5g-60gb/

Still fits into most docks (haven't found one yet that it doesn't) and holds up well. The turn wheel can be a little clumsy with this case, but I consider it a minor issue.

audiobliss

holydoc - Wow, that one does look pretty awesome. How much bulk does it add to the unit?

audiobliss

Haha, imagine that; you both suggested the same case!

audiobliss

Ok, so I've ripped just about all MY CD's in Apple Lossless and uploaded them to my iPod. I LOVE it! However, I'm running out of space too quick. So, I've decided I want to convert it ALL to MP3 at 320kbps. I mean, there'll be no referrence listening from my iPod anyways.

So, what's the fastest way to convert it all? Can I just convert the Apple Lossless that's already on my computer? Or do I have to rip all my CD's (please don't say yes!) to my computer again?

disneyjoe7

audiobliss wrote:

So, what's the fastest way to convert it all? Can I just convert the Apple Lossless that's already on my computer? Or do I have to rip all my CD's (please don't say yes!) to my computer again?

You're asking if you need to make Nice sounding music from not so nice music? Ok I won't say it but..... Y**

bobman1235

You should be able to convert it all.

Select all the songs you want to convert, and just go to Advanced -> Convert Selection to MP3. Just make sure your conversion / ripping settings are where you want them in the options before you do so.

Holydoc

audiobliss wrote:

holydoc - Wow, that one does look pretty awesome. How much bulk does it add to the unit?

Doesn't add that much bulk (thus you can still place it in most docks) which was one of the reasons I bought it. That and the fact that it gives you complete protection. One drawback of the case is that it is made of a rubbery plastic that tends to collect dust if placed in your pocket. Since I have a white Ipod with the clear case, the dust does not cause much of a problem (i.e., it is not noticable). However I have heard that the black cases tend to draw a lot of dust.

Holydoc

Audiobliss,

If you are going to convert your music, you may wish to convert it to AAC rather than MP3. The sound is degraded much less.