iPod blues

[sldjf]

We have about 700 CDs from about 130 artists ripped to a directory structure
default for Windows Media Player, which is an artist directory, holds a CD
directory, which holds song files. Some songs are in mp3 format, some in wma
format, depending on which of our home computers ripped the CD and at what
stage of our understanding regarding how to handle digital music.



We upgraded to Windows Media Player 10 and have been enjoying music all
around our house. I bought a 64meg portable player last Christmas. We sync
Window Media Player (WMP) playlists to it for travel, but the battery runs
down and it only hold a little music. This Christmas I thought is was time
to become truly mobile, I bought an iPod 60 photo off eBay. I assumed it
would nicely sync with WMP, similar to our existing portable device, but the
iPod can hold ALL our music, supports playlists and has a car charger, plus
with the right accessory, in the house we can play music from it, instead of
the computer.



I received a very rude, disheartening awakening.

1) It will not sync

2) It will not play wma files.



It will only work with iTunes, which has converted some of my wma files to
mp3 files, adding them to the directory structure, more than once. I have
set read only permissions to the directories to prevent any more of a mess.
But now the question is, NOW WHAT?

Sell the iPod, or what? I'd still like a portable player to hold all our
music. If I can carry our pictures with us too, that would be great. The
iPod even has PDA functions. I'd love that. I carry a Blackberry from my
employer, but my wife uses an old Palm, if her mp3 player replaced the Palm
that would be great. She uses Outlook for email, calendar and contacts,
Outlook integration would be very nice.



It seems both Anapod Explorer and XPlay2 are reasonable solutions.



Please help me understand why I would choose one software over the other.

 

[Guest]

sldjf,
I have read in a computer magazine that I subscribe to that Ipods will only
play music from itunes. That is unfortunate since you have a quite a large
collection of music from other formats. There a quite a few different
portable players on the market that would fill you need. Like the IRiver H10
is a 20 gig player that also displays pictures.

 

[Guest]

You are right, the ipod will only play itunes. Since you have built up a
large collection of mp3's and wma format songs, you will be correct in
selling the ipod and getting some other player. There are quite a few on the
marker that will fill your needs. The IRiver H10 is a 20 gig player that
plays both mp3 and wma music plus it also displays pictures. Unfortunately I
do not know anything about the software you are asking about.

 

[msjag416]

I have had a 60Gb iPOD video for 3 weeks now, and I am truly enjoying
it. I don't have to use iTunes if I don't want to. I use two other
programs to sync my photos, videos and music. iTunes is not very
supportive of it's iPOD video, because you have to enable the
"automatically update" music feature in preferences in order to update
your videos!

I would have no complaints about iTunes if it were not so ridiculous
for the video part. I also enjoying a couple of quick and easy
programs that enable me to covert my videos to .mp4 and H.264 format on
the iPOD. In H.264 format the picture is clear as a whistle. I plug
in thew RCA cables and I can watch all the shows, movies and videos I
have on my TV. I am the life of the party when I take my iPOD over to
my friends houses and show them all the video files I have collected.

I won't list all the software programs for iPOD video here, but if you
need some of these programs to get your iPOD in gear let me know.

 

[Guest]

My Ipod plays MP3's with no problem. It will not work with protected WMA
files but non-protected WMA files just convert them to MP3's. Or Itunes will
convert them to it's format as you have found but I'd rather them be MP3's.
Jim

 

[Guest]

How do you transfer songs from Windows Media Player to itunes? I have appeox.
900 songs on Windows Media Player that I don't know how to transfer or imort
them into itunes. Any help or suggestions

 

[Galley]

sldjf,
I have read in a computer magazine that I subscribe to that Ipods will only
play music from itunes. That is unfortunate since you have a quite a large
collection of music from other formats. There a quite a few different
portable players on the market that would fill you need. Like the IRiver H10
is a 20 gig player that also displays pictures.

You do NOT have to use iTunes with an iPod.
iPods will play MP3, AAC, WAV and AIFF files.