The iPod Dilemma

[yosuke188]

I'm also thinking about buying an iPod. Some questions:
1)What kind of quality does the video give?
2)What software do you use to create the video files?
3)Can the video files be any size (too big)?
4)Does iPod have crossfade on? Is it possible to turn it off?
5)How long does the battery really last if you just listen to music?

Thanks

 

[brainwrinkle]

I like my Creative Zen touch. I don't know if you were using the bundled software, but with a firmware update you can use WMP 10 to sync better than iTunes IMO. Also, the 180 price tag is attractive compared to 300.

My parents and sister have iPod mini's, and I don't really like the build quality or capacity. They just seem kind of flimsy. Plus, the battery life on the Zen touch is amazing. I get about 18 hours on a full charge that takes about 4 hours. It's great on long vacations because I can recharge it without a computer.

 

[thecrecarc]

archos gmini 402 cc.

u broke ur gmini? how the heck? i dropped it from like 30 ft several times (im bad at taking care of things) and it only has cosmetic dmges....

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: beacon
I'm glad to see this thread as I was about to make one myself... I have a 30gb Zen Touch, and before that briefly tried out a 5gb Zen Micro. I LOVED the Micro, but it just had too little HD space. That and the fact that every button on the face of it was touch sensitive - I found that often when I just tried to pick it up off my lap I would accidentally change the song or some other function I didn't want to do (yes I know I could have locked it but I only like to lock my players when jogging or it's in my pocket or something like that).

ANYWAY, I returned the Micro and got a Zen Touch. Was OK... not much to complain about besides the huge size of it. But one day I dropped it from about waist height, and now it doesn't work anymore

SO - what I want to know about the iPod is:

1) does it have the ability to rate songs, and search your song library by most played, least played, new songs, best rating, etc? I believe the Micro had this but I know the Zen Touch didn't. I really want this function.

2) will there be any issues with my 30+ GB collection of mp3's that I have? Does Apple enforce any type of copyright protection through iTunes? Will ripping my CD collection to mp3 result in protected files or any such nonsense?

3) is there any adware or other BS I don't want that will come with me installing iTunes?

Thanks for your time and input guys!

1) Yes, iTunes will do that. You can give songs star ratings, and then sort by rating and/or most played. Personally, I rate all my songs by stars, and then make playlists that way to keep it from playing songs that I'm sick of. All of your custom playlists get copied to the iPod when you sync them up. You can't modify MOST of playlists from the iPod itself, though... you need to use iTunes. The only exception to this is the "On the Go" playlist, which can be modified from the iPod.

2) All iPods will play uncopyrighted MP3's without modifying them, and iTunes will allow you to rip songs to either MP3 or AAC format. Keep in mind that any songs that you buy from iTunes have DRM on them, though. The DRM is pathetically easy to defeat, though... Just burn the songs to a CD and rip them from another computer.

3) There isn't any adware in iTunes, but you really should do a "custom" install of it to make sure that iTunes or Quicktime doesn't change your existing media player settings.

 

[kyparrish]

Originally posted by: yosuke188
I'm also thinking about buying an iPod. Some questions:
1)What kind of quality does the video give?
2)What software do you use to create the video files?
3)Can the video files be any size (too big)?
4)Does iPod have crossfade on? Is it possible to turn it off?
5)How long does the battery really last if you just listen to music?

Thanks

Subjective answers from my use:

1. good video quality. ipodconverter (off of videora.com) will convert video files to 320x240 w/ stereo sound @ 128kbps. On the small screen, it looks great.

2. Videora iPod Converter.... this guide is great, you can download the free software from a link off of that guide. It converts all sorts of video files. You can also select the quality of conversion. I'll convert movies at the quality listed in answer #1, and they are about 350mb/hour. But, I can convert 21 minute sitcoms at a little lower quality, and get the filesize to about 60mb.

3. I haven't had any trouble with large 2 hour movie files.

4. Crossfade is not turned on on the ipod, and I haven't found anyway to turn it on.

5. Most people report 14 hours or so w/ just music playback, I used mine for 10 hours in a trip, and it still had a little bit of battery left. I didn't use it all the way till it died.

Hope these help, feel free to ask anymore questions.

 

[SampSon]

I'm afraid that you're missing the point, unfortunately. I used to organize my MP3's with artist folders as well before I got my iPod, but now I just use iTunes. Why? Because iTunes does a better job than you ever could manually! It automatically organizes all my music by artist,genre,song title, or star rating, AND automatically adds new songs, photos, and podcasts automatically when I plug in my iPod. That is a hell of a lot easier than having to drag and drop new files every time I want to add new music.

I know that doing it your way sounds easier initially. Trust us... it isn't in the long run.

My brother uses itunes and his mini iPod and seems to love it, I personally don't like iTunes. Though I don't own an mp3 player, no real need for one.

Really, not a single software program on the planet can organize my content better than I can. Adding the new content is a cool feature of iTunes, but not of much use to me personally.
Is it really that much of a hassle to know what music you want to listen to and how to organize it? If so then I guess iTunes is a godsend.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: yosuke188
I'm also thinking about buying an iPod. Some questions:
1)What kind of quality does the video give?
2)What software do you use to create the video files?
3)Can the video files be any size (too big)?
4)Does iPod have crossfade on? Is it possible to turn it off?
5)How long does the battery really last if you just listen to music?

Thanks

I can't answer the video questions, because I have the 30 GB iPod Photo. I can answer the other two, though...

2) I believe that you're supposed to use the full version of Quicktime to make the videos, but there are also a few 3rd party utilities out there now. I never tried it personally, though.
4) The iPod has a short crossfade (3 seconds, I think) enabled by default, but you can adjust that or turn it off. There is a tab for it under the iPod menu in iTunes.
5) My iPod is almost a year old now, and I can still get about 10 hours of playtime between charges. I only ran out of batteries once, though, and that was near the end of a 14 hour car trip.

 

[yosuke188]

Originally posted by: kyparrish

Originally posted by: yosuke188
I'm also thinking about buying an iPod. Some questions:
1)What kind of quality does the video give?
2)What software do you use to create the video files?
3)Can the video files be any size (too big)?
4)Does iPod have crossfade on? Is it possible to turn it off?
5)How long does the battery really last if you just listen to music?

Thanks

Subjective answers from my use:

1. good video quality. ipodconverter (off of videora.com) will convert video files to 320x240 w/ stereo sound @ 128kbps. On the small screen, it looks great.

2. Videora iPod Converter.... this guide is great, you can download the free software from a link off of that guide. It converts all sorts of video files. You can also select the quality of conversion. I'll convert movies at the quality listed in answer #1, and they are about 350mb/hour. But, I can convert 21 minute sitcoms at a little lower quality, and get the filesize to about 60mb.

3. I haven't had any trouble with large 2 hour movie files.

4. Crossfade is not turned on on the ipod, and I haven't found anyway to turn it on.

5. Most people report 14 hours or so w/ just music playback, I used mine for 10 hours in a trip, and it still had a little bit of battery left. I didn't use it all the way till it died.

Hope these help, feel free to ask anymore questions.

Thanks :thumbsup:

 

[beacon]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

To ultimatebob:

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

1) Yes, iTunes will do that. You can give songs star ratings, and then sort by rating and/or most played. Personally, I rate all my songs by stars, and then make playlists that way to keep it from playing songs that I'm sick of. All of your custom playlists get copied to the iPod when you sync them up. You can't modify MOST of playlists from the iPod itself, though... you need to use iTunes. The only exception to this is the "On the Go" playlist, which can be modified from the iPod.

2) All iPods will play uncopyrighted MP3's without modifying them, and iTunes will allow you to rip songs to either MP3 or AAC format. Keep in mind that any songs that you buy from iTunes have DRM on them, though. The DRM is pathetically easy to defeat, though... Just burn the songs to a CD and rip them from another computer.

3) There isn't any adware in iTunes, but you really should do a "custom" install of it to make sure that iTunes or Quicktime doesn't change your existing media player settings.

1) Can you, from within the iPod, choose to play the highest rated, never played, most played, etc? or do you need to load those into the iPod as playlists from iTunes? I ask this because would "most played" refer to most played in my iPod or most played in iTunes?

2) by "uncopyrighted" MP3's do you mean unprotected? If not, would any mp3 ripped from a commercial, copyrighted CD be considered a copyrighted mp3 and thus not play on the iPod?

 

[shamrock1313]

WAIT FOR THE CREATIVE ZEN VISION:M!

 

[FrancesBeansRevenge]

What exactly are these 'iPod' things everyone is talking about now?

 

[yosuke188]

Originally posted by: shamrock1313
WAIT FOR THE CREATIVE ZEN VISION:M!

I thought they were already out?

 

[iwearnosox]

Originally posted by: yosuke188

Originally posted by: shamrock1313
WAIT FOR THE CREATIVE ZEN VISION:M!

I thought they were already out?

Twice as thick as an ipod and more expensive. Sure, I'll hop right on that.

 

[ultimatebob]

Originally posted by: beacon
Thanks for the replies, guys.

To ultimatebob:

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

1) Yes, iTunes will do that. You can give songs star ratings, and then sort by rating and/or most played. Personally, I rate all my songs by stars, and then make playlists that way to keep it from playing songs that I'm sick of. All of your custom playlists get copied to the iPod when you sync them up. You can't modify MOST of playlists from the iPod itself, though... you need to use iTunes. The only exception to this is the "On the Go" playlist, which can be modified from the iPod.

2) All iPods will play uncopyrighted MP3's without modifying them, and iTunes will allow you to rip songs to either MP3 or AAC format. Keep in mind that any songs that you buy from iTunes have DRM on them, though. The DRM is pathetically easy to defeat, though... Just burn the songs to a CD and rip them from another computer.

3) There isn't any adware in iTunes, but you really should do a "custom" install of it to make sure that iTunes or Quicktime doesn't change your existing media player settings.

1) Can you, from within the iPod, choose to play the highest rated, never played, most played, etc? or do you need to load those into the iPod as playlists from iTunes? I ask this because would "most played" refer to most played in my iPod or most played in iTunes?

2) by "uncopyrighted" MP3's do you mean unprotected? If not, would any mp3 ripped from a commercial, copyrighted CD be considered a copyrighted mp3 and thus not play on the iPod?

OK, I can answer those:

1) The only playlist you can make with an iPod itself is the On The Go playlist. Any other playlist or smart playlist, like "most played", "highest rated", or something crazy like "Any song in the Hip Hop genre made after 2003 with a bitrate over 128 kbps that has been played more than 4 times" * needs to be made in iTunes and imported onto the iPod. Of course, once you have playlists created, you won't need to make them again. The playlists update automatically, so if you just happen to add a recent Kanye West song ripped at 160 kbps that you've played 5 times... It will automatically show up in that wacky custom playlist.

2) MP3's don't have any DRM on them, so you can play them on your iPod without any restrictions. I didn't have any problem importing any of the songs that my sister downloaded from Napster and Kazaa (back when that kind of thing was tolerated, don't sue me), or any of the MP3's that I ripped from CD.

* I didn't make that one up, I tried it as a test. You can add as many rules as you want, and some of them are downright weird.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

Originally posted by: beacon
Thanks for the replies, guys.

To ultimatebob:

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

1) Yes, iTunes will do that. You can give songs star ratings, and then sort by rating and/or most played. Personally, I rate all my songs by stars, and then make playlists that way to keep it from playing songs that I'm sick of. All of your custom playlists get copied to the iPod when you sync them up. You can't modify MOST of playlists from the iPod itself, though... you need to use iTunes. The only exception to this is the "On the Go" playlist, which can be modified from the iPod.

2) All iPods will play uncopyrighted MP3's without modifying them, and iTunes will allow you to rip songs to either MP3 or AAC format. Keep in mind that any songs that you buy from iTunes have DRM on them, though. The DRM is pathetically easy to defeat, though... Just burn the songs to a CD and rip them from another computer.

3) There isn't any adware in iTunes, but you really should do a "custom" install of it to make sure that iTunes or Quicktime doesn't change your existing media player settings.

1) Can you, from within the iPod, choose to play the highest rated, never played, most played, etc? or do you need to load those into the iPod as playlists from iTunes? I ask this because would "most played" refer to most played in my iPod or most played in iTunes?

2) by "uncopyrighted" MP3's do you mean unprotected? If not, would any mp3 ripped from a commercial, copyrighted CD be considered a copyrighted mp3 and thus not play on the iPod?

OK, I can answer those:

1) The only playlist you can make with an iPod itself is the On The Go playlist. Any other playlist or smart playlist, like "most played", "highest rated", or something crazy like "Any song in the Hip Hop genre made after 2003 with a bitrate over 128 kbps that has been played more than 4 times" * needs to be made in iTunes and imported onto the iPod. Of course, once you have playlists created, you won't need to make them again. The playlists update automatically, so if you just happen to add a recent Kanye West song ripped at 160 kbps that you've played 5 times... It will automatically show up in that wacky custom playlist.

2) MP3's don't have any DRM on them, so you can play them on your iPod without any restrictions. I didn't have any problem importing any of the songs that my sister downloaded from Napster and Kazaa (back when that kind of thing was tolerated, don't sue me), or any of the MP3's that I ripped from CD.

* I didn't make that one up, I tried it as a test. You can add as many rules as you want, and some of them are downright weird.

I would also like to add to the highest rated type playlists.

itunes lets you make two types of playlists....static ones and dynamic ones....

the dynamic ones change automatically, like for example creating one that encompasses every apple lossless file, or every Abba song.....everytime something with that criterea is added to the library, it is added those lists

 

[cruiser1338]

Damn right, the iPod has no competition. I got a 30GB Video for Christmas, and its the most amazing thing I have. Videos are a breeze. Took me 7 mins to download an episode of Battlestar Galactica. Quality is great on the computer, you can barely notice pixels at full screen, and if you grab an AV cable (I did), it looks better than broadcast on a normal TV.

Go for one.

 

[beacon]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

1) The only playlist you can make with an iPod itself is the On The Go playlist. Any other playlist or smart playlist, like "most played", "highest rated", or something crazy like "Any song in the Hip Hop genre made after 2003 with a bitrate over 128 kbps that has been played more than 4 times" * needs to be made in iTunes and imported onto the iPod. Of course, once you have playlists created, you won't need to make them again. The playlists update automatically, so if you just happen to add a recent Kanye West song ripped at 160 kbps that you've played 5 times... It will automatically show up in that wacky custom playlist.

Great - sounds like iTunes offers many powerful and useful ways to organize my music

Sorry if it seems like I keep asking the same question, but the only thing I need clarified is this:

In your post above where you refer to how many times a song has been played - is that how many times you played it with your iPod or how many times it was played in iTunes? This is important because I will likely not be using iTunes for playing music at all, and would like to have the stats keeping track of the frequency at which I am playing my files in my iPod.

In other words, the Zen Micro allowed me to use the menu and choose "least played" and it would load all the songs that I never listen to. I suppose you could call it a playlist, but it didn't really create a playlist per se, it just sorted all the least played songs for me. If this is the only player that does this that will really suck for me; unless they come out with a 20gb or larger version...

 

[DaShen]

Get the Sony Walkman mp3 player. Those are good looking and the charge lasts a long time.

Circuit City But it has the specs.

 

[apinomus]

X5 for native FLAC support.

 

[ThaPerculator]

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: ThaPerculator
There are plenty of programs out there to automatically re-arrange and add ID3 data to your MP3 collection... If that's the main reason you use iTunes, know that there are many other options around.

You're a dork - because iPOds aren't true "Drag and drop" you instead you 3 or 4 other programs to compensate for the troubles of drag and dropping... Do you see the problem of this logic?

cuz something as mundane as Windows Media Player has all the same features as itunes, yet people claim that itunes is holy and worship it for no reason. The drag and drop means that you can go within ANY program and drag and drop the files onto your mp3 player. Itunes. Check. Napster. Check. WMP. Check. Windows Explorer. check. Winamp. Check.

Can you do that with an ipod? Nope. You can use virtually any other program with most any other mp3 player and it will work just as simply. There is nothing special about itunes/ipod other than the annoying prefix of 'i'.

It is very stupid to claim that itunes is superior because it re-organizes or gives you full id3 tags... itunes will have the same problems with id3 tags as every other software program... just because you rip your cd's in itunes doesn't mean that you won't have problems with downloaded mp3's or the like. If you rip your cd's in WMP you get the same info as in itunes. Same iwth napster or winamp. Every program has these same problems with unknown id3 tags and itunes is not superior. To fix this problem, there are plenty of programs that analyze song data and match it up to give you correct info, as opposed to just analyzing titles. itunes does not have this feature, therefore these other organizational programs are far superior.

The only decent thing about itunes is it's simple interface, but that is about it (i'm a sucker for silver, since my laptop is silver and it matches). Every other program out there has every other feature that iWorshippers drool over besides podcasting and buying from itunes (where you lose your entire collection if your computer crashes... real great idea there apple...)

 

[five40]

Originally posted by: beacon

Originally posted by: ultimatebob

1) The only playlist you can make with an iPod itself is the On The Go playlist. Any other playlist or smart playlist, like "most played", "highest rated", or something crazy like "Any song in the Hip Hop genre made after 2003 with a bitrate over 128 kbps that has been played more than 4 times" * needs to be made in iTunes and imported onto the iPod. Of course, once you have playlists created, you won't need to make them again. The playlists update automatically, so if you just happen to add a recent Kanye West song ripped at 160 kbps that you've played 5 times... It will automatically show up in that wacky custom playlist.

Great - sounds like iTunes offers many powerful and useful ways to organize my music

Sorry if it seems like I keep asking the same question, but the only thing I need clarified is this:

In your post above where you refer to how many times a song has been played - is that how many times you played it with your iPod or how many times it was played in iTunes? This is important because I will likely not be using iTunes for playing music at all, and would like to have the stats keeping track of the frequency at which I am playing my files in my iPod.

In other words, the Zen Micro allowed me to use the menu and choose "least played" and it would load all the songs that I never listen to. I suppose you could call it a playlist, but it didn't really create a playlist per se, it just sorted all the least played songs for me. If this is the only player that does this that will really suck for me; unless they come out with a 20gb or larger version...

I don't own an ipod but I'm pretty sure that it does keep track of how many times it's been played. I think you can also rate songs on the ipod. I thought I saw all that info when I played with my sisters ipod.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: ThaPerculator

Originally posted by: freedomsbeat212

Originally posted by: ThaPerculator
There are plenty of programs out there to automatically re-arrange and add ID3 data to your MP3 collection... If that's the main reason you use iTunes, know that there are many other options around.

You're a dork - because iPOds aren't true "Drag and drop" you instead you 3 or 4 other programs to compensate for the troubles of drag and dropping... Do you see the problem of this logic?

cuz something as mundane as Windows Media Player has all the same features as itunes, yet people claim that itunes is holy and worship it for no reason. The drag and drop means that you can go within ANY program and drag and drop the files onto your mp3 player. Itunes. Check. Napster. Check. WMP. Check. Windows Explorer. check. Winamp. Check.

Can you do that with an ipod? Nope. You can use virtually any other program with most any other mp3 player and it will work just as simply. There is nothing special about itunes/ipod other than the annoying prefix of 'i'.

It is very stupid to claim that itunes is superior because it re-organizes or gives you full id3 tags... itunes will have the same problems with id3 tags as every other software program... just because you rip your cd's in itunes doesn't mean that you won't have problems with downloaded mp3's or the like. If you rip your cd's in WMP you get the same info as in itunes. Same iwth napster or winamp. Every program has these same problems with unknown id3 tags and itunes is not superior.To fix this problem, there are plenty of programs that analyze song data and match it up to give you correct info, as opposed to just analyzing titles. itunes does not have this feature, therefore these other organizational programs are far superior.

The only decent thing about itunes is it's simple interface, but that is about it (i'm a sucker for silver, since my laptop is silver and it matches). Every other program out there has every other feature that iWorshippers drool over besides podcasting and buying from itunes (where you lose your entire collection if your computer crashes... real great idea there apple...)

man......you just love hatin' don't you.....

whatever....itunes isn't the be all, but it sure is nice to having msot everything most people need right at their fingertips...ditto for the ipod

 

[zerocool1]

I've got a rio karma, I'm pretty happy with it. My parents have a zen touch I think is what its called. Its white and has a touchpad. It is also pretty nice. Both require a library app. But I think after a firmware patch you can use the zen as a drive letter.

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: kyparrish

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers
Do iPods play MP3s, or do you have to use iTunes?

If so, can you plug it in and have the iPod be its own drive in my computer so you can drag and drop, or do you have to use iTunes?

I am also in the market for an MP3 player and never dreamed I would buy an Apple product...

yup, they play mp3s. I think they play everything except ogg vorbis files and wma files. iTunes is the best way to load songs onto it, but I think there's a program called ephpod that lets you load them some other way.

About the fact that it's an apple product, I was the same way. But, this thing is incredible.

Care to name any other file types they play? It's more like the reverse, they only play AAC, WAV, MP3, Apple Lossless and thats it..

 

[Philippine Mango]

Originally posted by: torpid
The iPod is the best in its price range for the average consumer, because it is user-friendly, the software is easy to use (if a bit of a hog), the online music store is quite good,and there are tons and tons of easy-to-find accessories. It is not the best in its price range if you are concerned about things beyond that, like drag and drop file storage, OGG and FLAC, etc.

What store? Are you retarded? You don't actually own anything you buy, you merely get the license to "use it". G'luck trying to use those files on multiple machines you've got and if you get a new computer, then it's time to get to "rebuy" those songs agian because 'thats how DRM works.