ipod and itunes

[salty mud]

I want to buy an ipod to listen to my rather strange music fashion. At the moment, I have earmarked this particuler model. It's only 8GB (Max for a nano?) but plays vids and tunes, which is cool. I probably won't put to many tunes on it, and therefore 8GB probably won't be a problem.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Apple-i...2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1200083220&sr=8-2

Ok, itunes. I have the software on my computer, but no itunes in it. To put songs on my ipod, must I buy the itunes from the Store, or can I insert a CD I bought and copy the songs into itunes, which will convert into ipod format? I don't want to spend £120 on the actual device and another £100 on songs, when I already have them!

 

[illram]

You can just rip your songs to your HD with iTunes and put it on your iPod. I would also tell iTunes under "options" to rip them in .mp3 format and not .aac, as .mp3 is more compatible with other programs and devices, should you ever want your songs to be played with other programs or devices.

I have over 12,000 songs on my 60GB iPod, not a single one was bought with iTunes. I refuse to buy their DRM laced crap.

 

[salty mud]

Thanks for the info.

Is that a good model to buy? (i.e, the best Nano available?)

 

[Strider]

If your only a "moderate" music listener than yeah. 6 GB will be more than enough room for you.

Also iTunes is not the only thing you can use to put music on your iPod.

 

[salty mud]

If your only a "moderate" music listener than yeah. 6 GB will be more than enough room for you.

Also iTunes is not the only thing you can use to put music on your iPod.

Like what?

 

[GenMarshall]

Like what?

You can use your iPod like if it's an external HD.

 

[Strider]

Like what?

WinAmp and Amarok are the first two I can think of that allows you to put music on your iPod.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

iTunes > Winamp and Amarok is Linux only afaik.

 

[Red Door]

iTunes store songs are in .mp4 format, and can only be used by the iPod. Just a heads up. The songs you have from CDs can easily be loaded onto iTunes once you download the software. And the storage capability of the iPod is one of its best features. Also, a quick question to Strider, stickciv, or CG since you seem to know what you're talking about: If I have a full iPod, can I still use it as a storage device to transfer songs and files to another computer?

 

[salty mud]

Right software? You mean just iTunes?

 

[Strider]

If I have a full iPod, can I still use it as a storage device to transfer songs and files to another computer?

I'm not sure about normal files, but you can use it to transfer songs/videos from one PC to the other.

 

[Red Door]

Right software? You mean just iTunes?

Yep.

I'm not sure about normal files, but you can use it to transfer songs/videos from one PC to the other.

Yes, but what if the iPod's memory is full? I have a 4 GB with 1000 songs already. Then, I guess I can't transfer files. I have to figure out how I did that last time I switched computers.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

The ipod stores its songs in a special directory(ies) where the files are named things such as: Fx09.mp3 or etc. They are most useless if you wanna copy them, although I think any normal audio player will still identify them by ID3 tags.

Your best bet would be just to erase some of the files to clear up enough room, and then use that to transfer. Then you can resync your ipod back and it will once again have all the files. But in all seriousness, if you really need to transfer files, buy a usb flash drive. I got my set of 3 2gig ones for 40$, which is a lot less than a 6 gig iPod would cost, and I can take them and use them anywhere.

 

[azzaman333]

I wouldn't buy an iPod personally. Generally, an equivalent mp3 player from a under a different brand name will be cheaper, plus that way you have no need for iTunes.

 

[Shadylookin]

I use gtkpod it gets the job done without any hassle. If you don't want to use Itunes I'm sure windows has a similar equivalent. I don't use the Itunes .acc format either I stick with mp3s simply for compatibility sake.

 

[illram]

I don't know if this is still true, but once you burn itunes-purchased songs to a CD, they lose the DRM copy protection that prevents them from being played on different devices. If you then burn that CD into MP3s, you can do with them as you please.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

What would be handy is if the ipod could play flac or ogg files. Then I would re-rip all of my cd's...

 

[duckmanbro]

I actually listen to all my music in .wav format, the pure streamed form. Because I listen to .wav music more than compressed .mp3, I can hear major differences between .wav and even 190kb/s mp3's.

And I use iTunes too, to convert all of my CDs to .wav format. It is only suitable though if you have a massive HDD and plenty of room on your iPod (I have a 30gb iPod Video only about 60% full ).

Though, the only downfall of .wav is that a standard 4 minute song can be well over 50mb! Given that an album has 10-14 tracks, it can easily equal half a gig and more!

 

[Genocidicbunny]

same thing with 1024kbit flac songs. They're each 30-70 megs, and when you have not an album, but an entire discography...

 

[croxis]

Duck. You may be interested in the flac format - it is a lossless audio compression codec (I can't remember if itunes supports it or not, it might have its own proprietary format).

Also MP3 at 320kbps has minimal loss, you would have to be very well trained to hear the difference.