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iPod iTunes DRM and iPod upgrading advice.

PeterQC

PeterQC

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 30, 2008
727
0
1. I want to manage all my music by iTunes on my macs, without having to plug my iPod everytimes when I want to listen to some music. I know there's a DRM with Itunes, so if I import some music by iTunes with CDs onto my mac, will the music files (that are m4v) be protected by iTunes and unusable in other music players/computers? I would like to back my music on a external drive so I'm kind of worried.

Also: Look like my iPod connector failed. The "case" that plug to the port of my iPod broke, resulting in my iPod no longer being seen by my new Mac. Apple charge around 30-40$ for a brand new adaptor here in Canada (I know, what a rip-off). Just said to myself: "**** it, I'm upgrading."

So I'm in the market for a shiny new iPod, and I'm hesitating between a 8GB grey nano and a 8GB Touch. 1 month ago that would have been awesome to get internet on a Touch (was in College and had nothing to connect to Internet since I was waiting for the refresh) but now I don't know if all the features of the Touch is that useful to me, since I got my Macbook and it come with me almost everywhere. I short I just need a good music player, but the Touch is really attractive. Is the Nano good enough for me?
 
sandman42

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Only music you purchase from the iTunes Music Store (ITMS) has DRM. Music you rip from your own CDs won't have DRM. The default codec for music in iTunes is AAC (aka MP4) which works in iTunes and on iPods but not on other players. iTunes does let you change the preferences so that it encodes your music in MP3, which is essentially universally playable on other computers and players. In other words, if you rip your own CDs as MP3 the files will play on anything.

The iPod Touch is a great device if you have wi-fi available. I have a desktop computer (Mini) and a MacBook at home, and I often find myself preferring to use the Touch for casual browsing and e-mailing, YouTube, etc. Plus it has lots of downloadable software (much more so than the nano) and can be used as a remote for iTunes, etc. The nano would be the device for you if you just want a device for listening to music and watching videos. It all depends on what you expect to do with the device.

You can set iTunes to download artwork for you. Didn't totally populate my music collection, but I have some fairly obscure stuff in there. If you can locate the artwork for yourself on the web (e.g. as a jpg), you can add it yourself by 'getting info' on songs or albums and dropping the artwork in the field in the info window.
 
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