So dont get me wrong itunes is a decent program but for a company with a reputation of attention to detail and quality iTunes really dosent make the cut.
For a start my biggest concern with iTunes is its lack of gapless support (this also applies to the ipod). It is impossible to listen to an album the way the artist intended it (gapless between tracks) unless you rip to one long track (no setting crossfade to 0 does NOT work). The most obvious solution is to rip as one long file but still have different entries in itunes for each track within that file. Are you listening Apple?
Secondly i'm appauled with the video support, apple can do a much better job with video in iTunes. Why on earth is there still "library" and "videos" selectors? surely these should be changed to Audio and Video. iTunes also fails to recognise .avi files, the workaround is to use quicktime to create a link file and then import the link file into iTunes, why should i have to do this? Once there are videos in iTunes there are some serious organisation limitations, for example why cant i set tags such as season, and episode number for videos? If you open frontrows video area and brows the "movies" section you get all the files in the movies folder of your home directory. Why apple didnt just improve the video section of iTunes and read the data from there is beyond me? While on the topic of frontrow if you browse to podcasts in the audio section video podcasts show up too!
The podcasts section of iTunes is really good, however i would like to be able to set the option to auto download podcasts or not on a per podcast basis. I would also like the option NOT to include podcasts in my library.
The radio section is very average, at the moment i don't use it at all i have a playlist that has radio stations in it. There really should be an option to rate stations so that you can sort by rating rather than browsing through heaps of stations you never listen too, also adding your own stations in there would be rather nice.
Overall iTunes is ok, the gapless problem really spoils my music (and no doubt anyone else who listens to dj mixed music or classical compositions). The video issuses spoil my dream of buying a mac mini for the living room for frontrow because i'm reluctant to rip all my dvds and try organising them in iTunes in its current state. I would also like to see some more openness to the system, open up DAAP so more companies start using the technology (imagine frontrow like software running on a gaming console!), and more support for other audio/video formats.
Your thoughts?
For a start my biggest concern with iTunes is its lack of gapless support (this also applies to the ipod). It is impossible to listen to an album the way the artist intended it (gapless between tracks) unless you rip to one long track (no setting crossfade to 0 does NOT work). The most obvious solution is to rip as one long file but still have different entries in itunes for each track within that file. Are you listening Apple?
Secondly i'm appauled with the video support, apple can do a much better job with video in iTunes. Why on earth is there still "library" and "videos" selectors? surely these should be changed to Audio and Video. iTunes also fails to recognise .avi files, the workaround is to use quicktime to create a link file and then import the link file into iTunes, why should i have to do this? Once there are videos in iTunes there are some serious organisation limitations, for example why cant i set tags such as season, and episode number for videos? If you open frontrows video area and brows the "movies" section you get all the files in the movies folder of your home directory. Why apple didnt just improve the video section of iTunes and read the data from there is beyond me? While on the topic of frontrow if you browse to podcasts in the audio section video podcasts show up too!
The podcasts section of iTunes is really good, however i would like to be able to set the option to auto download podcasts or not on a per podcast basis. I would also like the option NOT to include podcasts in my library.
The radio section is very average, at the moment i don't use it at all i have a playlist that has radio stations in it. There really should be an option to rate stations so that you can sort by rating rather than browsing through heaps of stations you never listen too, also adding your own stations in there would be rather nice.
Overall iTunes is ok, the gapless problem really spoils my music (and no doubt anyone else who listens to dj mixed music or classical compositions). The video issuses spoil my dream of buying a mac mini for the living room for frontrow because i'm reluctant to rip all my dvds and try organising them in iTunes in its current state. I would also like to see some more openness to the system, open up DAAP so more companies start using the technology (imagine frontrow like software running on a gaming console!), and more support for other audio/video formats.
Your thoughts?
