Corey

iTrader: (1)

I must admit today is the first time I have tried it, I just DL'd it a few hours ago.
I have many CD ripping apps on my PC such as:

1. An old ripper that I do not even use anymore, can not remember the name.
It does not keep the tags I do not think.

2. WinAmp, have not used it yet to rip CDs.

3. Creative software that came with my Audigy2 ZS soundcard, have not used it either to rip with.

4. Nero 6, used it yesterday after putting in a CD the drive the option box pops up asking me what I wanna do with the CD, and converting with Nero was an option.
Nero was OK, but you have to go through a lot of steps, and choose the MP3 codec, and also the bit rate.

5. iTunes, the WINNER!
I already had it preconfigured via the ops panel to make them into 320 bit rate MP3.

I popped in a Robin Trower CD and exited out of the same window that asks what you want to do with the CD.
I fired up iTunes and it immediately added the 8 tracks from it to a new screen.

Now I have never ever used iTunes to rip before, and this is how easy it was.
I simply guessed my way around instead of reading somewhere how to do it.
I highlighted all 8 tracks and an option was to convert them to MP3s.
http://www.pnw4runners.com/temp/itunes1.jpg
I did so, and it put all the tracks in the default folder My Documents/My Music/ITunes/Robin Trower/Bridge Of Sighs.

It even added them to the library so they show up with all of my other MP3s on my PC.
Pretty darn easy to rip with this app I would say.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/

Now for my next question.
I will be in the market for a MP3 player, as I do not have one, never have.
I like my sons Creative Zen Micro a lot, and it holds 4 gigs of tunes.
But he says if he was gonna get a new one, the best choice would be the new iPod.
http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipod.html



It comes in 30 and 60 gig capacities, and does MP3s, photos, and vids.
Plus it would seamlessly work with iTunes too.
I could also convert the TV shows I recorded to my PC with my TV/FM tuner card over to MPEG4 or MOV format, and watch them on the iPod.
I would have to find a converter for that first, if one even exists.

For those of you that use iTunes, do you have any good tips to share here?
Also who has this new iPod, and do you like it a lot, and are the stock earbuds that come with it up to snuff, or did you go with some aftermarket ones?

X-AWDriver

I'm gerring the new iPod 30gb for Christmas and I can't wait but i'm glad I waited a few months for the old one to be discontinued so now I can use it to store photos from my digi camera.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Yes, your old one would be great for storage.

What?
No one here uses iTunes?
I can not believe it.

It will be my only ripping app for now on.
Now I just have to work on the apps for converting movies over to MP4 for the iPod.
Looking at a few now that work great, but the trial versions only record 5 minutes of a DVD or VOB files on your hard drive.

Dublin

I've been using ITunes for a few years now and like you never bothered to read the insructions. It just works. Mainly I use it for MP3's for use in my 4Runner, it"s nice to have up to 17 alblums on one CD. When using the MP3 setting the only annoyance is the songs in each alblum are rearranged alphabetically.

ecchamberlin

I have an old 20gb ipod and I use itunes a lot. I make tons of playlists and rip cd's all the time. It is the easiest program I have used. I found some really cool/funny music on the world music file called "drinking music" Good Stuff.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Features of iPod
http://www.apple.com/ipod/features.html

Good grief, it has world clocks on it, and also can wake you with a tune or put you to sleep and shut off.
This thing is pretty amazing.

User 051420

I use iTunes..it's great. I've found it's best to just let it organize all of your music for you. (advanced->Consolidate Library). That way, all of your stuff is in one spot, and VERY easy to find if you have to go at the manual way.

Personally, I LOVE the iPod. I've owned about 6 of them, and will be getting the new 30gb for xmas this year. Of the 6 that I've owned, only 3 have been trouble free. Their hard drives always seem to crap out on me. ALWAYS. While Apple's great at replacing them, it's kind of a hassle. My latest iPod turned into a $300 cigarette case for my roomate, UGH.

I'm still getting the regular ipod, but the Nano seems like a more reliable solution-as it's flash based.

Good luck Corey.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Neil.

One thing I read on CNet.
The 30 GB model craps out after 2 hours playing vids.
The 60 GB unit lasts 4 hours.

But I am getting this mainly for MP3s, so the 30 GB would suffice.

Churnd

My take on iTunes and the iPod...

I have a 3rd gen 10gb model. I've got 25 playlists loaded on it now, and have barely taken up half of the HD space. I can't imagine filling the whole thing up... it might get to be too much of a pain to browse through stuff. It's nice having playlists, but too many gets old.

My advice to you... get a collection of all the songs you like or albums you're going to use on the iPod and copy them into a folder. Once you're done, look at the size of the folder and then reality will hit you and you'll realize how much room you'll have left over on the real iPod.

My only big gripe about Apple stuff.. you gotta do it their way (unless you wanna hack the hell out of it). Sure, it's easy but I've put a lot of time into formatting the filenames of my huge music collection to be just how I like it. What I'd like to be able to do is just copy it straight to the iPod using copy/paste... as well as possibly using folders within folders instead of having to have separate playlists for everything. Simply stated, I want more control over the dern thing. I'm not sure if other mp3 players will let you do this, but something tells me they would. I've used one of those crappy SanDisk 512MB flash players, and it let me copy and paste everything exactly how I wanted, and it read it fine too.

So, in summary:

Pros:
-They sound great
-They have lots of cool features

Cons:
-Gotta do it their way
-Do you really need all that space?

I'm sure somebody will chime in and try to prove my "Gotta do it their way" point wrong. There are ways to get around it, but they require some form of hacking or using some 3rd party software that does the hacking for you. Either way, I don't think you should have to go through all that trouble just to get it to do what it should do anyway.

My .02

gwhayduke

Years ago, Jobs decided that the technology had to be transparent to the user. Software and hardware had to be so easy to use it was practically intuitive.

iTunes and the iPod are great. But if you think that's great guys, you should spend a month with a Mac running OSX.

r0cky

i've used ITunes for a few years now, and it's the best program i've ever used for mp3 type stuff. love it!

dibble9012

Good point, I will never go back to windows unless I am forced to by work or something. I use iTunes on a mac, so if anyone has questions about that, I can answer them.

One tip that I believe works on windows is if you hold down the windows key (option key on mac) as you click on the arrow that normally sends you to the music store, it will go to that album in your library. I am not sure that it works on windows itunes though.

ecchamberlin

These ipods are great. What I cannot believe is how in only a year ( got my 20gb for xmas last year) it is really out dated now. I still have 9gb available on it. So I agree that all that extra storage is not always needed especially if you are only using it for mp3's.

Scofco

I never understood why people need music wherever they go.
What happened to good old fashioned staring into space?

*blanks out*

Jonathan

I got the new 5th gen ipod 30gig a few weeks back and just got in my new G4 powerbook right before Thanksgiving. I love them both and Apple has really thought out there products. I will say they could have done a little better on the ipod, the battery life kinda sucks when watching movies and the black scratches really easy, but all in all it's awesome. The Tiger OS great and is quite literally the best operating system i've ever run. itunes is awesome i love that program and if you guys have a mac you can download the program Handbrake for free and transfer any dvd to the ipod format.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Handbrake is the proggy I mention in another thread in this section that is out for the Mac, but not Windows.

I have been doing tons of research on an applet that will convert DVD VOB files over to the MP4 format to put on the iPod, and so far most are junk.

Here is a free one I found, yet it is plauged by problems already.
http://www.pspvideo9.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=18

The thread, and I too ran into the same problem in the thread.
http://www.pspvideo9.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2566

I may just go now with an iPod that does not do video, only music.

paddlenbike

iTrader: (1)

Corey,
I have no complaints with I-Tunes, but it is the only software I have ever used. I love being able to preview the music before buying it.

I bought my IPOD video the day it came out and I love this thing. It's thinner than last year's IPOD and even the IPOD Photo that came out earlier this year, has more battery life and 10 extra GB for the same price. I have done it all with mine--easily ripped music via I-Tunes, I have downloaded a few songs, added my digital photos and converted some of my car videos with a free utility and viewed them on the IPOD. I looked at all the other multimedia player offerings and came to the conclusion the IPOD was best supported and best designed. My only complaint is I really don't think the battery would last through an entire 2 hour movie, but I really only use mine to show cool car videos to friends and co-workers.

Ken

nermalgod

I agree with Churnd. iTunes limits what you can do. I have used it off and on for ages. I even keep my iTunes library up to date so my iTune using friends can play my music. It just doesn't give the user any advanced features. I would say 95 percent of people don't care but I am going to shout that Apple is taking away my computing freedom. Just because you don't use a feature doesn't mean you can ditch it. Same with the Mac OS. I despise the arguement that Macs are better for visual editing. Give me a PC with the right software and I can do it just as quickly and have more control over the process.

I use an older version of Musicmatch, version 7.2 to be exact. It's currently being advertised at version 10.0 but I don't care for some of the changes that have happened. I can burn MP3 discs easier and transfer MP3s to my flash players way easier than with iTunes.

I must say that the iTunes Party Shuffle is the best random music DJ software I have come across.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Ken, you using Videora to convert the vids?
I tested it out, but it will not do the vob files from ripped DVDs, so I am using another app in a thread by me in here on converting vids to the iPod format.

Did you get the black or white iPod?
I hear the black one scratches real easily.
If I get one sometime, I will look into some custom caes linked from the iLounge site.

Churnd

They both scratch easily. The black just shows up more.

This is what I did to buff some of the scratches out of mine.