iPod questions

[scorpia14]

Will the iPod play online purchased music other than iTunes? I use MP3university.com, which is cheaper than iTunes.

I'm finally giving up on the Philips HDD120, I can't stand DMM and I want factory software.

Any help is appreciated.

stormbreaker12@hotmail.com

:sponge

[scorpia14]

also, do I have to purchase a USB2.0 cable if I get a 20/40GB with the USB cradle?

[IronSerif]

Good question, not sure if it would play them or not, but I would imagine it does. I haven't tried that with my iPod yet....

ALso, which USB cradle are you referring too?

I believe the iPod only ships with the firewire cable, which can be attached to the back of the cradle. The USB 2.0 cord is sold seperately, and can also be plugged into the back of the cradle.

Hope that helps!

[scorpia14]

WHOOPS!
i meant to say docking cradle instead of USB cradle. i had my mind on other equipment. anyway, my HP XP computer has firewire so i don't need to worry about a USB cable.

if the iPod doesn't play those songs directly, i could always burn them to CD and then rip them into the software and into the iPod.


has anyone tried that?

thanks

[IronSerif]

ahh gotcha. So you really won't need to worry about the USB cable or even the docking cradle. The docking cradle is a nice lil accessory thought.

I'm using the docking cradle that came with my Speck Products Flipstand though. It has a wider opening, so it allows easier docking with other cases.

But if the iPod doesn't play the songs you were talking about, then it would be possible to burn them to a cd and rip them through software and back onto the iPod. Might take a bit longer but worth it if you like the songs :)

[scorpia14]

i haven't bought the iPod yet as I am still researching it. i will probably end up finding another music site because i have heard some unpleasent things about MP3university.com (legality, etc.). know any good sites?

[gary_hendricks]

Hi

The iPod WILL not play music files from stores other than iTunes. Read about it in my article here:

:sponge

See the section on 'iTunes and iTunes only'.

[ibook boy]

i have just bought a 20gb ipod and i love it and no u dont have to buy a usb 2.0 lead it comes wid it. trust me get on it is well worth it.

[dang]

The iPod will playback normal MP3s. Not sure if the are MP3 Pro that use DRM. Do you know if MP3university uses standard mp3s or mp3pro? If you can burn them to cd using an existing application, then I bet they are normal MP3s. Some ways to check, burn them to a datacd and try to play them back on another computer. Try playing them back through windows media player, then select File -> Properties and check the audio codec.

With RealNetwork's new RealPlayer with Harmony, you can now transfer their store content to the iPod as well.

[llbbl]

Hi

The iPod WILL not play music files from stores other than iTunes. Read about it in my article here:

:sponge

See the section on 'iTunes and iTunes only'.

I think Ioman wants you to post the information directly into this forum Gary. Since you wrote it, this shouldn't be a problem.

[jillschlick]

can somenoe please tell me how to save the music ( in my library) onto my pod as music files, basically so transfering my entire library to the pod so i can reset up my new library onto my new computer

[Archon]

guys, you can transfer music to your ipod without using iTunes (it supports MP3 format); I don't touch iTunes, I use the iPod plugin for Winamp; works great.

[llbbl]

guys, you can transfer music to your ipod without using iTunes (it supports MP3 format); I don't touch iTunes, I use the iPod plugin for Winamp; works great.

Ahh so that is how you do it. Good to know!

[neato]

jillschlick, I can't quite make out what you mean. Perhaps you'd like to introduce some grammar and capital letters to your posts.

The last time I used the Winamp plug in, it was almost as bad as the Musicmatch plug-in.

http://www.ephpod.com/ (although it seems to be offline right now. Google Ephpod and you might be able to d/l it elsewhere)
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/
http://www.musicex.com/mediacenter/ <-Worth buying IMO

I use iTunes all the time. It's simple but powerful with it. It has nice little features that makes music management so much more pleasant.

[Archon]

Tried Anapod and ep, didnt really like either of em. The winamp plugin works flawlessly for me, and it taps my winamp library directly, so no new organizing n shti.

http://winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=138888

[neuroking]

I'm pretty sure you can just drag your MP3s to the drive that appears in My Computer.

As for purchased music, I checked around and no software advertises this ability, but I would think maybe 1 or 2 of them are out there...
There should be a CD-R drive emulator, like the CD-ROM emulators in Nero and Alcohol, that make a virtual CD-R drive - that instead of writing CDs, writes ISOs. Then you could 'burn' your iTunes music, or whatever program supports burning, onto the virtual drive that just makes a disc image. Mount the image and rip the tracks. All digital, no burning, no muss, no fuss.

Now someone find it!

[honeybaby1056]

hay everyone i have a question ... how do u get a song onto ur ipod?

[Babymule]

Ok, I have the same question. I have the *&^%$ iPod, and I've downloaded the winAmp, but it won't allow me to continue with the install, stating, "Please select your Winamp path below, (you will be able to proceed when winAmp is detected). BUT, it mustn't detect it because selecting "Install" is never an option.

I'm ready to throw this thing out the window. I have two laptops. This one is clean and only has Ipod and iTunes on it. Trying to get songs I already have on my other computer to get to the Ipod. I can manually copy and paste, but it isn't recognized by the iPod and doesn't play any. PLEASE help. I'll download whatever I need to. I tried the iPod Agent also... it doesn't do anything for me, (mostly because it wants me to put in the Outlook code from the disk, which needless to say, I dont have). And I can't get around that either.

I suspect that this posting board is for people that are WAY over my head, but if you will just pity me... I'm sure that there are tons of "me's" out there that will read this when they type into google, iPod questions.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Jenny :)

[Archon]

when u select the winamp directory, it will just extract the files to there. You then have to go into winamp > options > preferences and "iPod Support" should be listed.. then once you've detected your ipod n stuff, open the winamp library, and there should be an ipod section there (might take a sec or two to load up)

[lone_ranger]

hi im interested in buying an iPod 20GB but i 1st need to no: Do u have to install and use iTunes? or can u use songs downloaded from other sources and secondly: Does the iPod connect via USB 2.0 connection?

[neuroking]

I guess you can use WinAmp, but I haven't heard of anyone using WMP. iTunes is just written horribly, but does the job and has a nice interface.

The iPod can conncet via USB2 or Firewire. I've heard of some models acting up with USB 2, but Firewire is nice and care free.

[ModestMouse13]

No dubt about it itunes is way to expensive but if i am wrong correct me i think u can rip music from different stores onto itunes.

[Teknishun]

It's a shame Apple doesn't make the iPod more friendly towards "power users" for lack of a better term. My favorite thing about it is the touch wheel control. I'm frustrated beyond my limits with the file structure, gui and iTunes. Read my thread http://forums.designtechnica.com/showthread.php?t=7215 if you care to know why. I think I might look into some of this "other" software before I return it though. My recomendation if you are a computer savy user: Don't buy an iPod.

[spankers]

There are a couple of reasons that I'd guess:
1. CPU power. If you do a simple file copy to the iPod the iPod would have to read all the mp3's and create a database (iTunesDB) that the iPod uses to locate/organize songs. The CPU in the iPod is not very powerful and would take an annoyingly long time for this task.

2. DRM. The infamous Digital Rights Management. I'd imagine that iTunes is DRM aware. A manufacturer like Apple could conceivably be sued by the RIAA for producing a non-DRM device... to say nothing of Apple's music download service.

You may not have much luck finding a better player. A couple of years ago Toshiba came out with a player with some awesome features (removable pcmcia harddrive). I thought this would mean you could pop out the hard drive, stick it in your laptop, and copy mp3s over to it at the speed of light. Wrong. It had a Windows only DRMed POS program like iTunes that you had to use. Sad.

At least the iPod has multiplatform support. It will work with Mac, Windows, and Linux. If you have any system admin/programming experience, there are perl scripts available for Linux/Unix that allow command line control for the iPod. Unfortunately these do not work under Windows.
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnupod/