iPod Ripping CDs to iPod- Can the middleman be skipped?

[Shagmeister]

I couldn't find a thread about this, though I'm sure there must be one somewhere.

I want to rip music straight from a CD onto my iPod, but the only way I can do this so far is to import into iTunes and then put onto my iPod. This would be ok if I had a meaty 60 or 80Gb iPod, but my nano measures in at slightly under 2Gb of storage. My music collection is swelling to a size to big to store on my mac, so I'll have to store them on CDs (external hard drive or bigger ipod is out of the question at the moment).

Of course, 2GB of music gets stale pretty quick, so I need to keep changing the songs, and constantly ripping into itunes and then to the ipod and then erasing from the mac gets a bit tedious.

One option I heard was to get a third party ripper (I used NMP3 Ripper) and install it directly onto the ipod, the idea being that you use this to rip the CD, which gets stored directly on the iPod. Only it got stored in my music folder on the mac, and apparently you can't change the pathway.

Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

 

[yippy]

The unfortunate truth is that the iPod stores its music in a special hidden way so you can't just stick MP3 files on there and have it work.

There are one or two devices out there that will rip straight to the iPod I think but they will cost you more than buying a new large hard drive.

 

[mrgreen4242]

I couldn't find a thread about this, though I'm sure there must be one somewhere.

I want to rip music straight from a CD onto my iPod, but the only way I can do this so far is to import into iTunes and then put onto my iPod. This would be ok if I had a meaty 60 or 80Gb iPod, but my nano measures in at slightly under 2Gb of storage. My music collection is swelling to a size to big to store on my mac, so I'll have to store them on CDs (external hard drive or bigger ipod is out of the question at the moment).

Of course, 2GB of music gets stale pretty quick, so I need to keep changing the songs, and constantly ripping into itunes and then to the ipod and then erasing from the mac gets a bit tedious.

One option I heard was to get a third party ripper (I used NMP3 Ripper) and install it directly onto the ipod, the idea being that you use this to rip the CD, which gets stored directly on the iPod. Only it got stored in my music folder on the mac, and apparently you can't change the pathway.

Any suggestions would be great, thanks.

So you want to rip CDs right to your nano, and then when you want to put some new music on the iPod, leaving no copy of the songs anywhere (iPod or computer) other than the original CD, right?

I THINK this is what you're asking, so I am going to answer based on that, if it's not please correct me. The (long) answer is why? 128kbps tracks take up about 1MB/minute or roughly 60MB per CD. That's about 15-18 CD's per GB of disk space. A 250gb USB HDD will then hold over 4000 CDs and cost you about $120. You'll save tons of time (not having to re-rip everything every time you want it on your iPod) and wear and tear on your optical drive and discs (ripping them doesn't hurt them, but taking them in and out the case all the time will just increase the odds of scratching or breaking).

The short answer would be just to use iTunes to rip the discs you want, load up your iPod and then simply delete the fines from iTunes (and answer yes, you want them in the trash) after you are done.

 

[Shagmeister]

Thanks for the suggestions.

That IS indeed what I was asking, but like I said, a HDD just isn't on the cards. To answer your answer, I've got a truckload of blank CDs and no money. Also, I've had a few friends with external HDDs and they've all gone wrong and lost all the data. I will get a HDD one day, and I'll be damn sure to back everything up on DVD's; once I get a DVD burner. And like I said, ripping and erasing all the time does get a bit tedious.

I take it there's no hope for installing a ripper directly onto the iPod? When I heard of that method it DID say it was for a windows ripper. Right now my iPod is mac-formatted, but maybe it would work if it was windows-formatted? I know they use two different types of file ordering system (HFS & FAT), so maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[mrgreen4242]

I take it there's no hope for installing a ripper directly onto the iPod? When I heard of that method it DID say it was for a windows ripper. Right now my iPod is mac-formatted, but maybe it would work if it was windows-formatted? I know they use two different types of file ordering system (HFS & FAT), so maybe that has something to do with it.

Any software that is for windows will need a windows PC and a windows formated iPod. Any stand alone device that requires a windows formatted iPod will cost more than a new HDD.

You could write an AppleScript for iTunes to rip, transfer, then delete the encoded songs. One may already exist, but I've not seen it.

 

[X5-452]

You could create data CD's filled with the raw music, and then import those CD's into iTunes. Whenever you're not listening to that specific song found on a CD you could pop it out, and when you need to copy it to your iPod you pop it into your drive and sync. Since iTunes would already have the song location saved from before you should be fine.