iTunes, what a load of crap.

[evident]

Originally posted by: nerp

Originally posted by: jacc1234
I use MediaMonkey to manage all of my music. It seems way better then itunes and supports all of the ipod and iphones.

I'll have to look into MediaMonkey then.

another vouch for media monkey. It it gives you best of both worlds that is, it lets you manage your media via id3 tags and also by path. cleaning up all of your files is a cinch too.

 

[skace]

Seriously, those of you using winamp, looking into media monkey, or just bitching about itunes need to look into Foobar2K. It's the smallest and most powerful media player and can handle anything w/ itunes. The only piece I haven't toyed around with alot is album covers.

http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/...iPod_Manager_(foo_dop)

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/f...ex.php?showtopic=70228

The 2nd URL is a SQL database version of playcount that will not only track how many times you play each song, but it will allow you to aggregate multiple copies of the same song. Such as if you have a flac version and an MP3 version, as long as the song title and some other info matches it combines that data for playcount. This also means you can move the song around your disk without losing playcount statistics.

More powerful stuff is out there but you guys have to put some effort into it....

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: nerp
iTunes with a 200GB library is quite awful. Ever do it?

Yes, in fact, I have and I do. I haven't ever experienced the .pls issue you're describing, though. A long time ago, I added my files to iTunes by clicking 'add folder' and then pointed to my master directory of music. It added everything, collected the info, gathered necessary artwork and away I was off. Copying the iTunes folder in the My Documents\My Music folder allows me to drag and drop my collection to any new installment of Windows like nothing ever happened. It's very slick and beats the socks off of Winamp for general playback. Adding music is still as easy as day 1...

I wouldn't say I'm use to mediocre software, but I'm guessing you and I likely still use Windows, so that puts us in the same boat. Haha, I kid, I kid. 64bit iTunes + huge library + fast computer = win.

/story

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: nerp
iTunes with a 200GB library is quite awful. Ever do it?

Yes, in fact, I have and I do. I haven't ever experienced the .pls issue you're describing, though. A long time ago, I added my files to iTunes by clicking 'add folder' and then pointed to my master directory of music.

I've experienced it with m3u files. But I've ONLY experienced it when using "Add File" instead of "Add Folder". If you use "Add File" and select multiple files, it will add all of them, including playlists, because you told it to add all of them. When it adds playlists it adds the songs in the playlist, so you get what he described. I have no idea why he'd add an entire 200 GB collection using "Add File" though; much easier to use "Add Folder."

 

[gramboh]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: gramboh
iTunes does suck, I use it because I have an iPhone. What I do:

- Create read only directory on my PC "iTunes library" and copy the music from my main music archive into it (read only and separate directory so worthless iTunes can't ruin anything)
- Disable 'automatically manage my music'
- When I want to add/remove something I just copy or delete it from the iTunes library directory and resync

The software really does suck, it's retardedly slow to 'sync' (aka copy files over USB) even for a GB or two (could be slow iPhone flash memory, I dunno), also downloading iPhone OS updates takes forever, as does applying them.

I love my iPhone but I hate iTunes, refuse to use it other than to update my phone and sync music from my main archive.

I will never purchase from Apple unless they offer FLAC or VBR Lame v0 DRM free, I'd rather rip it myself.

as long as you don't tell itunes to write id3 tag data, all that stuff is stored in the itunes library. I used to not have itunes organize, but just reference where my files were. worked fine. I make one giant playlist of music i want on my ipod, then others as actual playlists, and only sync those.

your added step of creating a separate library folder... are you just afraid itunes will write to the header info?

To be honest I haven't allowed iTunes to see my entire collection which is around 200gb. My fear was that iTunes would try to write to header info or move files around without permission (everything is structured/named nicely). Obviously since my phone is 16gb and I use Foobar for playback on my PC there isn't much point in having resource heavy iTunes see the whole collection.

My other concern is what happens if you decide to stop using iTunes and it has borked your directory/naming/tagging structure on a huge 10+ year music library?

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: QueBert
3 or 4 processes?

I see iTuneshelper.exe and nothing else, it's taking up a whopping 888k I paid for a 3rd party iPod software, and ended up going back to iTunes. The smart playlist manager is about perfect. I don't like iTunes as a media player, but for syncing my Touch or iPhone I like it a lot.

you could always buy a Zune and install the Zune software. While I don't own a Zune, I did install the software so I could get that cool artist photo slideshow thing in the background. And by default, the software decided my mp3 tags were shit and renamed song/albums and changed a lot of my embedded art. I didn't realize until a month later. But basically it hosed my library. It also seems to "guess" for album art what album/artist it is. Where iTunes won't add art unless it's a 100% match.

iTunes is pretty good once you get a grasp on it.

Wow, fail. Why would you pay for 3rd party software? Wasn't the ipod costly enough? Did Apple not screw you quite hard enough without having to pay someone else just to use their product?

Why would you want to install any software at all? It's just a portable hard drive with an audio chip and basic UI on it, why wouldn't you want the freedom to load it however, whenever & wherever you want?

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: QueBert
3 or 4 processes?

I see iTuneshelper.exe and nothing else, it's taking up a whopping 888k I paid for a 3rd party iPod software, and ended up going back to iTunes. The smart playlist manager is about perfect. I don't like iTunes as a media player, but for syncing my Touch or iPhone I like it a lot.

you could always buy a Zune and install the Zune software. While I don't own a Zune, I did install the software so I could get that cool artist photo slideshow thing in the background. And by default, the software decided my mp3 tags were shit and renamed song/albums and changed a lot of my embedded art. I didn't realize until a month later. But basically it hosed my library. It also seems to "guess" for album art what album/artist it is. Where iTunes won't add art unless it's a 100% match.

iTunes is pretty good once you get a grasp on it.

Wow, fail. Why would you pay for 3rd party software? Wasn't the ipod costly enough? Did Apple not screw you quite hard enough without having to pay someone else just to use their product?

Why would you want to install any software at all? It's just a portable hard drive with an audio chip and basic UI on it, why wouldn't you want the freedom to load it however, whenever & wherever you want?

I wanted to try the program, so I paid a whopping 10 bucks for it. Apple didn't screw me at all. I would have honestly pay 4x what my Touch cost. IMHO it was the deal of the century for me. I use it all day every day, I even use it for work. The fact I can VNC into clients PC's and fix shit while I'm on the go makes it the most valuable portable device I own. Freedom is nice, but I wouldn't want to mess with my music collection and loading my Touch via explorer. Drag and drop is only good for a file here, a file there. NOT good for thousands of songs. Once a month I wipe my Touch and reload it with different music. iTunes makes this a painless, 10 minute project tops. Also I like how if I make a change to an id3 tag, when I sync again it will automatically update the song(s). A "drag n drop" program won't do this. Very useful for the times I do change cover art, or add lyrics or correct a typo in the artist or album name.

People on here are haters, I can understand not liking iTunes, or not liking the interface. But soulcougher73 said

Winamp works with ipods. Just use that. Much easier and better program.

much easier?? I could teach my mom, who knows nothing about computers how to sync an iPod in 2 minutes. You're telling me Winamp is somehow magically easier than me loading iTunes, typing in the artist I want in the search, and dragging the song(s) to my device? Winamp is not easier, it's more steps, and if the media library isn't open I would never expect somebody to just figure it out.

iTunes couldn't be any more simple.

 

[reallyscrued]

Why don't they just treat these devices like external hard drives?

So you can just create folders in a "music" directory on the device and it will play music from there?

I've seen other hard drive based mp3 players out there that can do this, why does apple insist on
using an extra program to sort everything?

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
Why don't they just treat these devices like external hard drives?

So you can just create folders in a "music" directory on the device and it will play music from there?

I've seen other hard drive based mp3 players out there that can do this, why does apple insist on
using an extra program to sort everything?

I have devices that work both ways. I like being able to just drag and drop, but I also like that I can create a rule-based playlist that, for instance, finds every classic rock song in my collection that's rated 4 or 5 stars and automatically puts those songs on my iPhone whenever I sync it. If I rate more songs 4 or 5 stars, they get added to my iPhone with no action required by me.

 

[chitwood]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I still enjoy Winamp because it does nearly everything I could ask for, but it does require a lot of initial setup to get rid of the plethora of GUI boxes and isn't as lean as it use to be. (media library pane, media source selector pane, playlist pane, song/artist information pane, and the Winamp browser pane (not sure if this is on by default) but you get the idea. I sincerely miss the 1.41 days or even the early (albeit buggy) betas.

I agree with your sentiments about Winamp. The older versions can be found here. Very useful site.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
Why don't they just treat these devices like external hard drives?

So you can just create folders in a "music" directory on the device and it will play music from there?

I've seen other hard drive based mp3 players out there that can do this, why does apple insist on
using an extra program to sort everything?

It's not just Apple, Zunes, and the majority of other MP3 players do not allow drag and drop. What you're talking about accounts for a small percentage of mp3 players. As to why, I have no idea.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: gramboh
To be honest I haven't allowed iTunes to see my entire collection which is around 200gb. My fear was that iTunes would try to write to header info or move files around without permission (everything is structured/named nicely). Obviously since my phone is 16gb and I use Foobar for playback on my PC there isn't much point in having resource heavy iTunes see the whole collection.

My other concern is what happens if you decide to stop using iTunes and it has borked your directory/naming/tagging structure on a huge 10+ year music library?

to be clear, you can tell itunes to look at your music, or add to the itunes library manually w/o having to move stuff around. But you have to make sure you've set this up, so I understand we're you're coming from. Just sayin it's out there.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: chitwood

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I still enjoy Winamp because it does nearly everything I could ask for, but it does require a lot of initial setup to get rid of the plethora of GUI boxes and isn't as lean as it use to be. (media library pane, media source selector pane, playlist pane, song/artist information pane, and the Winamp browser pane (not sure if this is on by default) but you get the idea. I sincerely miss the 1.41 days or even the early (albeit buggy) betas.

I agree with your sentiments about Winamp. The older versions can be found here. Very useful site.

Hot damn that's a great site! Many thanks for the link.

mugs, so if you use 'add file' and select, say, a directory of 5 songs and a .m3u file, it will add the files in there twice? Hm, good to know, but why you'd add a .m3u manually with the selected songs is beyond me. I've only ever used add folder and add file once or twice for just an individual song.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: nerp
iTunes with a 200GB library is quite awful. Ever do it?

Yes, in fact, I have and I do. I haven't ever experienced the .pls issue you're describing, though. A long time ago, I added my files to iTunes by clicking 'add folder' and then pointed to my master directory of music.

I've experienced it with m3u files. But I've ONLY experienced it when using "Add File" instead of "Add Folder". If you use "Add File" and select multiple files, it will add all of them, including playlists, because you told it to add all of them. When it adds playlists it adds the songs in the playlist, so you get what he described. I have no idea why he'd add an entire 200 GB collection using "Add File" though; much easier to use "Add Folder."

because as usual the itunes complainer tends to be full of fail himself

i mostly have m3u files if there are playlist files in my folders. but i tested it. i created a pls file and then dragged the folder of mp3s into itunes. no duplicates!!!

lol