anybody with an ipod not using itunes?

Try Audion. I tried it but preferred iTunes by a much higher acclaim.

 

What's wrong with iTunes?

 

Agreed. Why do you not like iTunes? The interface is great and is very easy to understand/navigate/control, etc. Is there a specific reason why you want to switch out iTunes?

 

FLAC player. I think your SOL on the organization part, as it's very simple in iTunes. I on the other hand find that the ripping encoding is quite nice, but there may be other apps to rip audio: but they may also cost money.

 

No, the ripping quality is bad and other apps don't cost money.

Go go iTunes LAME plug-in!

 

AAC 192 VBR is actually quite good. I rip using Apple Lossless to archive my CD collection, but am finding that for actual playback, the AAC 192VBR 2nd library I have created is actually very serviceable. This may actually allow me to put my primary archives into storage, only attaching them occasionally to update the Lossless library with new CDs.

Why do you think that the iTunes ripping is bad?

 

Ok I was a bit unfair. iTunes is an amazing AAC encoder, but if you want higher quality mp3s, then LAME is the way to go. A comparison between LAME V0 and iTunes 256 VBR (same file size) will boggle your mind.

 

Whats the point of not using the iTunes to store music?

Who uses MP3 anyway?

 

Ummm...I use .mp3. There was once a time, back when I had a PC, where I started reripping all my music in .wma because of the higher bit rate and lower file size. I was going to trash all my .mp3s afterwards. I'm glad I didn't. .mp3s just work- everywhere on every system. There may be other formats for which this is also the case, but none are nearly as prevalent as good ol' .mp3, despite its shortcomings.

 

I also don't like iTunes very much. But the problem with wanting to play FLAC on your iPod is that the iPod retail OS just won't do it, no matter what content management program you use.

One option for you is to install RockBox on your iPod. It supports a ton of different audio formats, including ogg and FLAC. It's still very early in development, but you can count on it getting better. Plus, it has a very nice support forum. I had it installed for a little while, and while it took a little while to learn how to use, and wasn't as intuitive as the retail OS, it was OK. Plus, with Rockbox, you don't need a program to put songs on your iPod - you just open it up like a harddrive in explorer, and copy the songs over. It automatically scans your file tree, and reads all the ID3 tags.

If you have an older iPod, you could also install linux, but this is usually more trouble than its worth. You can still install linux on the 5G, but they don't have music support yet. They do have some cool games though, and I've whiled away quite a few of my college classes playing minesweeper.

If you just want a program besides iTunes to put mp3, aac, ect files on your iPod, then there are a few options. Winamp has added support for portable players, including the ipod. Plus, Winamp is a great player, and has all the functions that iTunes is missing.

I know that there are more options, but these are the ones that I've tried personally. A google search of "iTunes Alternatives iPod" came up with quite a few ideas, even some that allow you to sync using WMP10 (Though why anyone would use WMP for music is beyond me).

Hope some of this helps. Oh, by the way, all these solutions are for PC, which is all that I have.

 

Um... the universe?

It's more mainstream than OGG, and FLAC is too big for most. Plus, it's good to have guaranteed support on any media device... I sure was glad that I'd stuck with MP3s when I chucked my iPod for a better Sony player.

 

OK, OK!

I said that because none of my Mac-using friends uses MP3, only AAC.

PC-using friends, however, encode to MP3 just because they got used to it in the "dark times" (before iTunes)

 

Problems with itunes

I have serious probelms with ITunes:

I use an IPod to listen to plays and spoken books which I either convert from CD or record from internet radio stations.

I normally split these into short (5 minute) files so that I can navigate easily through the play/story.

So I generate a set of MP3 files with similar names, e.g.

bleakhouse01.mp3
bleakhouse02.mp2
bleakhouse03.mps
bleakhouse04.mp3
.....

etc.

I keep all my MP3 files in a folder unrelated to ITunes.

I then create a playlist in ITunes, and import the files into it. The files are not, however, imported into the ITunes music library.

Frequently, though not always, I find that ITunes loses the detailed information and I end up with a set of files all with the same name, e.g. 'bleakhouse.mp3'.

I have no idea if these are in the right order so I have no option but to go through the files one by one and change their names. Thsi is very tedious and also very annoying because is shoudn't be necessary.

In addition, the inflexibeln classification system si most annoying. I am not listenign to music but that is the only catgegory that works. It would be really useful to be able to have sub-categories btu that is not allowed.

A system where the Pod looks like another drive, where you can crete folders and subfolders as you want, would be much better.

Rockbox looks as if it may provide the answer, but it is does not appear very user-friendly at the moment so I will wait for a while

 

The difference between LAME and AAC 256 VBR is only noticable to people who listen carefully. Youre saying this in a forum where a lot of people dont give a damn about what bitrate/format their music is in, as long as they can listen to it. The term 'boggle your mind' is from a very different perspective. Just be aware.

 

I can't differentiate between Apple Lossless and AAC 192 VBR on my iPod. As for my home collection, I don't use lossy formats. Why would I?

 

FLAC is good, but what's wrong with using apple Lossless?

 

I used wma's before I got an iPod just because they were half the size of mp3's with no noticeable (to me, at least) drop in quality. I could fit 240 wma's on a 512MB mp3 player, but then I got my first iPod (a green mini) and they all went mp3. Now I use mostly mp3's at 128 kbps because I'm not picky about how my music sounds, and on my shuffle i can usually squeeze about 130 songs on there. It would be too much of a hassle to convert ALL 1000 or so mp3's (out of maybe 1100) to AAC just because there's little imperfections about the mp3 technology. And iTunes would leave all the stuff like play count, last played, and date added with the mp3's.

Exactly why I use mp3!

 

file sharing?

as in stealing music or your own created music?

 

The streaming iTunes music sharing. Of course he doesn't mean illegal file sharing.




or does he.. o.o

 

Technicolor, mediamonkey might be what you're looking for. It's a free program and you can use flac files. It does seem to work in similar fashion to iTunes, so it might not be for you, but here's the link if you're interested:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Hmm, it might be windows only though, not sure as I haven't used it myself.