Ok .. so here's the story

[huron52]

I got my daughter an I pod for her birthday. It wants for us to load I tunes on to it.

Is I tunes a program that lets MP3 play on it?

Does it let non i tune MP3 play on it, such as non copyrighted stuff?

 

[twowheelnut]

iTunes is a provider of MP3's. IIRC, any MP3 provider is compatable with the iPod. MP3's are MP3's regardless of their source. However, some have coding built-in that is unlocked only if you pay for them, vis a vis, Napster. Too, you can also load music that you already own on CD into the iPod running them through, say, Windows Media Player. As always, RTFB as it will answer all your questions better than I.

Now, you will excuse me as my 78 shellac copy of Benny Goodman's 1939 recording of Ciribiribin, is skipping on the Victrola...

 

[GalaxyBlue]

Well,

iTunes is required for the iPod to recognize your computer and load music onto it. iTunes converts standard MP3/WMA files into M4A, Or MP4 to be exact...

The iPod software is VERY proprietary and while it's a pain in the ass to learn al the tricks to it, It will be worth it when your ready to use the iPod. It is very simple use to find the titles you want to play.

The only drawback, Is that if you have music loaded onto your computer through windows media player, You might have a problem converting them if they were copy protected when the were downloaded. I had that problem with alot of my files when i went to iPod.

There is a program call Ipod Agent that allows you to remove your songs from the iPod and put them back the a computer... And thats the only way to transfer them after they are loaded onto it.

Sorry if i seem to be rambling, But there is alot of info to learn about the operation of the iPod and iTunes.

One last thing...

Use extreme caution when you sync your library with the computer and iPod... If you acquire some music files from other computers, DO NOT SYNC THE LIBRARIES! You will lose what music files you already have stored on the iPod and it will load what files are on that particular computer.

I hope this helps,

Adam

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

iTunes is a provider of MP3's. IIRC, any MP3 provider is compatable with the iPod. MP3's are MP3's regardless of their source. However, some have coding built-in that is unlocked only if you pay for them, vis a vis, Napster. Too, you can also load music that you already own on CD into the iPod running them through, say, Windows Media Player. As always, RTFB as it will answer all your questions better than I.
Now, you will excuse me as my 78 shellac copy of Benny Goodman's 1939 recording of Ciribiribin, is skipping on the Victrola...

TWN,

I don't think I ever told you I'm a trombone player. You like Benny Goodman? Glenn Miller? We got some more story swapping to do.

HURON52,

PM joygulgirl.

She'll help you (and you might get some DVD's full of music sent too

 

[Penforhire]

iTunes is not required. Try any of the 3rd party iPod managers. I use EphPod and it works great.

 

[OrangevaleFJR]

oops...typo in user name:

ping joyfulgirl...she'll help (my wife)

 

[slapnpop]

iTunes is not required. Try any of the 3rd party iPod managers. I use EphPod and it works great.

3rd party software is definatly the way to go.

I use and highly recommend Red Chair Software's Anapod Manager.

This is one of the few pieces of software I would buy again in retrospect. It works just likes advertised, and you don't even have to install itunes on the system so it never gets to muck up your windows install.

 

[git-r-dan]

3rd party software is definatly the way to go.
I use and highly recommend Red Chair Software's Anapod Manager.

This is one of the few pieces of software I would buy again in retrospect. It works just likes advertised, and you don't even have to install itunes on the system so it never gets to muck up your windows install.

That software looks like it will do almost everything. Would it allow you to load all mp3's from Musicmatch and windows media player libraries together with itunes library of mp3's and recognize song/artist info? Right now, I have to burn a cd of a windows media player's album then install into itunes, then name each song/artist in the itunes library. Itunes won't recognize other mp3 information as they are proprietary. A hassle.

 

[Geezer]

This is why I avoided buying an iPod for my kid. I went with a generic MP3 player and they can easily load up any MP3 files to them. The MP3 format seems to require more storage per song on the device, but the devices have plenty of storage and that hasn't been a constraint.