iPod Newbie Questions

slu · Sep 28, 2004

OK, so I got the 4G 20 GB iPod about a month before I got my iMac.

Not being too patient, I hooked it up to my Windows PC to start using it. I did this all the while knowing that I would have to "Restore" the iPod in order to use it with the iMac. I did the restore from my XP Pro Machine where I had orginally hooked up the iPod. After I did that, all seems to be working fine, but when I go to Settings > About on the iPod, it still says Windows as the Format. I know I probably shouldn't be complaining if it works, but this bugs me a bit and I am nervous that I'll have issues down the road.

Also, I just got a CD (Silvertide, "Show and Tell") that has SunnComm MediaMax DRM. This is a Windows Media DRM Copy Protected CD and they only support audio players that support this, which is not the iPod. How one could release a CD in good conscience that would not play on an iPod is beyond me, but I got this thing now and I need to get it to my iPod or else it is useless to me. And it this CD rocks so far (using a regular CD player)!

Any suggestions? I searched the formus, but got mountains of reposnses.

Thanks,
Slu

26139 · Sep 28, 2004

Solution...

Can you rip the songs to CD (in the highest quality format possible), then burn a CD, then re-rip as AAC or high quality mp3s? Technically, it's illegal, but if you bought it and are only using it for yourself, you should be okay.

varmit · Sep 28, 2004

Do you have the Mac right now or the PC still?

earthtoandy · Sep 28, 2004

appleretailguy said:
Can you rip the songs to CD (in the highest quality format possible), then burn a CD, then re-rip as AAC or high quality mp3s? Technically, it's illegal, but if you bought it and are only using it for yourself, you should be okay.

its not illegal to copy music for your own use...

slu · Sep 28, 2004

varmit said:
Do you have the Mac right now or the PC still?

I still have both. Just got the iMac a week ago!

grapes911 · Sep 28, 2004

earthtoandy said:
its not illegal to copy music for your own use...

It can be. It depends on the license agreement that comes with the cd.

slu · Sep 28, 2004

appleretailguy said:
Can you rip the songs to CD (in the highest quality format possible), then burn a CD, then re-rip as AAC or high quality mp3s? Technically, it's illegal, but if you bought it and are only using it for yourself, you should be okay.

I would do this from my PC, but it does not rip in the converntional way. You have to use a GUI that came with the CD and copy the Windows Media DRM'd files to the PC. I could probably play the CD in Windows Media Player on the PC, but I don't think I can burn to CD (but I have not tried).

I will try to see if I can do this or rip via CDex and see what happens. Also when I get home I will just stick the CD in the Mac and see what happens. Maybe I can copy the files to my iMac and iTunes can convert the Windows Media Files to AAC?

earthtoandy · Sep 28, 2004

grapes911 said:
It can be. It depends on the license agreement that comes with the cd.

in which case i would disregard it... i find it amazing how we have completely rewritten the intention of copyright laws. todays laws are NOT what or how its supposed to be

slu · Sep 28, 2004

grapes911 said:
It can be. It depends on the license agreement that comes with the cd.

I think that copying a CD I just bought to my iPod for personal use counts as fair use.

grapes, I am in Philly as well. This makes me even madder since Silvertide is the first Philly rock band to go national in quite a while and I want to support them, but their record company is not cooperating.

slu · Sep 28, 2004

earthtoandy said:
in which case i would disregard it... i find it amazing how we have completely rewritten the intention of copyright laws. todays laws are NOT what or how its supposed to be

Plus, the terms of use allow copying to a digital music player, but only those that support Windows Media files.

wrldwzrd89 · Sep 28, 2004

Try looking here for information about SunnComm DRM and Apple iPods.

grapes911 · Sep 28, 2004

earthtoandy said:
in which case i would disregard it... i find it amazing how we have completely rewritten the intention of copyright laws. todays laws are NOT what or how its supposed to be

Copyright laws where created to keep innovation going and having creative works published. You don't think today's laws keep with that same spirit? (I am not saying I think they do or not, I'm just looking for opinions.)

Manzana · Sep 28, 2004

Having your iPod as windows formatted is not bad at all since you can then use it as a fw drive on win machines...so you probably want this. I have a PB adn my iPOd is FAT32 which I use to transfer files at work and autosync with my PB at home no problem.

As far as your DRM'd cd, that sucks. If you want it on your iPod you need software to break it (i don't know of any), or just record on your 'puter as a wav file and then break it up and encode to mp3. there are lots of programs that do this.

Manzana · Sep 28, 2004

wrldwzrd89 said:
Try looking here for information about SunnComm DRM and Apple iPods.

Well, so it works with iTunes.

earthtoandy · Sep 28, 2004

no.. todays laws are abusive to the licensee and alienates those who partake. Originally copyright laws had limits to them, unlike today when a copyright on music lasts for almost an eternity (95 years i believe. just enough time to make it worthless). The original intention as your said was to spur development and not to be some sort of economic guarantee. Not to mention the fact that copyrights have become a good... people and corporations trade them as if they were money. And what we end up with is a country where a bunch of coporations hold the rights to everything we have...including music. This certainly isnt a issue about letting artists keep the rights to their work because they most likely dont own them anyway. And such things as not being allowed to copy music that you have purchased (which is provided for under copyright law) is a blatant abuse of the licensee.
The idea was to provide a limited set of monopolistic rights to spur the desire to create (such as we do with drug companies today) not to offer unlimited ownership so as to physically hold it away from the public or other creators.

Loge · Sep 28, 2004

Manzana said:
Well, so it works with iTunes.

Yes, and further down it says -

"We appreciate your patience and understanding while we work with Apple to come up with a viable solution to this challenge."

Huh? So it works, but we're working on a fix.

coconn06 · Sep 28, 2004

Manzana said:
Well, so it works with iTunes.

Not exactly. Their solution is just as was suggested by appleretailguy: copy the songs to a Windows PC, burn them to CD with Windows Media Player (converting them from the DRMed format), and then you can rip them into iTunes as any other non-DRM CD.

Pretty crappy, but it works.

Loge · Sep 28, 2004

coconn06 said:
Not exactly. Their solution is just as was suggested by appleretailguy: copy the songs to a Windows PC, burn them to CD with Windows Media Player (converting them from the DRMed format), and then you can rip them into iTunes as any other non-DRM CD.

Pretty crappy, but it works.

Their solution for Mac users is just

"If you have a Mac computer:
You can copy the songs using your iTunes Player as you would normally do."

slu · Sep 28, 2004

Manzana said:
Well, so it works with iTunes.

I saw that. I tried it with iTunes on my work PC and it did not work, so I assumed it would not work with Mac OS X.

Shame on me!

williamsonrg · Sep 28, 2004

What about his first question concerning the format of his iPod? I just got a 3G iPod (right before the new ones came out... awesome), and I plan on getting an iMac. Don't I have to reformat the iPod?

slu · Sep 28, 2004

williamsonrg said:
What about his first question concerning the format of his iPod? I just got a 3G iPod (right before the new ones came out... awesome), and I plan on getting an iMac. Don't I have to reformat the iPod?

I don't think you do. I did a restore on the PC that erased all the files on it (but I had backed them up to an external FW Drive so I could switch them to the iMac when I got it) and then plugged it in to the new iMac and it worked fine. It did erase all the songs on the iPod when it associated it to a new music collection, but I didn't care because I just plugged in the FW Drive, loaded up my songs to iTunes and did a synch.

toughboy · Sep 28, 2004

grapes911 said:
It can be. It depends on the license agreement that comes with the cd.

who cares?!?

slu · Sep 28, 2004

OK, the cd imports via iTunes no problem. It can also be played fine from iTunes. Hopefully it plays fine on my iPod.

Thanks All!

Slu

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