In need of iPOD help

[CRUZTAKER]

I have had an iPOD for some time now and finally decided to fuss with it.
It is of the 40GB variety, was a gift, and came with ALL the extras.

I figured it would be cool to load it with all of my favorite CD's to take on trips and vacation.

Well....3 hours later...I have the software installed on my laptop. Have charged the battery and updated the software. (I think)

All I want to do at this time is copy my CDs into this little device. I followed the very basic instructions in the manual to impot the music to my laptop. I see the list of songs, and they are all checked, I am supposed to click IMPORT....

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get these songs onto the iPOD. The instructions make absolutely no sense at this point. The software keeps asking to update, which I already have, and the Apple registration keeps failing and won't show a button to click to send in my name and password.

I am on the brink of pitching this thing. I can just imagine how hard of a time someone who doesn't use a computer must have with these things, as I am totally lost.

Is there a member willing to take a phone call from me tomorrow Saturday the 2nd in the A.M. and help me get through the initial upload process?

Send a PM with phone number and time to call.

Thanks.

I'd really like to figure this thing out.

[Rider90]

lol, 40mb? ok ok I'll keep the whipper-snapper talk to a minimum.

I have the 40GB model with over 230 CDs. All you should need to do is put a disc in, click "Import", and after it imports all the tracks - plug your iPod in and it will automatically update.

[CRUZTAKER]

ok...ok...I was sober at the time...

It's a 40 GB variety and I have since consumed some fine SKY (It's all I have) and have made some fine progress.

These thingies are really nice. Capacity out of this world as I have learned. 10,000 songs in a box the size of a cigarette box...wow is all I can say.

I am good with creating lists and selecting what I want on the iPOD, but some of the features are still over my head and I believe I am going about certain functions the hard way.

I did manage to delete all my playlists off the laptop only to plug in the iPOD and immediately remove them there as well...:alone:

I also plug in the iPOD after each list I set up to get the tunes onto it...that seems alittle wierd...isn't there a button in the software to do it on the fly?

Hey RIDER...can I call you tomorrow?

[Mad4Macs]

Another thing to consider... is what format you wish to import your cd's with.
If you're interested in maximum compatibilty, use the MP3 format.
If you're interested in maximum sound quality, use the AAC format.
That being said, don't be afraid of using AAC if you're thinking that it's incompatible. In the online store format wars, AAC dominates everything else. Apples iTunes music store OWNS this market, with something like a 70%-80% market share.
Also, be aware that though there's much BS being put forward about AAC, it's all coming from the side losing the format wars.
AAC is NOT a "closed, proprietary" format. It is MPEG2-AAC from Dolby labs. If you have a decent audio system, songs ripped using AAC clearly sound better than the other formats available.
The confusion lies in the fact that, when you purchase a song online, you receive a tune that has Digital Rights Management (DRM) attached to it.
IF YOU RIP YOUR OWN CD'S, YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THE FILE, NO MATTER WHAT FORMAT YOU RIP WITH.
If you purchase a song from ANY of the online, download services, you're getting a DRM'd file, and it'll have some restrictions placed upon it, but one of the reasons that Apple OWNS this market, is because they place less restrictions on you than any of the truly "closed, proprietary" formats that the 'doze-only stores sell.
Now...
Go forth and enjoy your iPod, but "Don't Steal Music".
Oh... I nearly forgot to add this, Cruztaker. Enjoy!

http://www.esquirerecords.com/artists/feature/alexbevan.asp

:D

[Dark_Knight7096]

I heart my iPod Barry, if you have any trouble you can give me a call, everyone i know has them and i helped them all set them up. I don't know if you have my number but i'll PM it to you just in case, call anytime and if i don't answer leave a voicemail and i'll call you back as soon as i get it.

[MENINBLK]

Another thing to consider... is what format you wish to import your cd's with.
If you're interested in maximum compatibilty, use the MP3 format.
If you're interested in maximum sound quality, use the AAC format.
That being said, don't be afraid of using AAC if you're thinking that it's incompatible. In the online store format wars, AAC dominates everything else. Apples iTunes music store OWNS this market, with something like a 70%-80% market share.
Also, be aware that though there's much BS being put forward about AAC, it's all coming from the side losing the format wars.
AAC is NOT a "closed, proprietary" format. It is MPEG2-AAC from Dolby labs. If you have a decent audio system, songs ripped using AAC clearly sound better than the other formats available.
The confusion lies in the fact that, when you purchase a song online, you receive a tune that has Digital Rights Management (DRM) attached to it.
IF YOU RIP YOUR OWN CD'S, YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH THE FILE, NO MATTER WHAT FORMAT YOU RIP WITH.
If you purchase a song from ANY of the online, download services, you're getting a DRM'd file, and it'll have some restrictions placed upon it, but one of the reasons that Apple OWNS this market, is because they place less restrictions on you than any of the truly "closed, proprietary" formats that the 'doze-only stores sell.
Now...
Go forth and enjoy your iPod, but "Don't Steal Music".
Oh... I nearly forgot to add this, Cruztaker. Enjoy!

http://www.esquirerecords.com/artists/feature/alexbevan.asp

:D

Mad4Macs,

While your on a roll, why don't you tell him the WHOLE story ???

A lot of what Mad4Macs says is true, but he hasn't told you everything, and he hasn't told you the whole story either...

While I mention PC here a lot, PC means either MAC or Windows based PCs.
If I want to limit what I am taking about to either MAC or Windows,
I will indicate it where necessary.

MP3 (MPEG LAYER 3) is a very OLD compression technology that was originally used
to compress files for transport across modems and networks about 30+ years ago.
Since it is a very old technology, that is what makes it the most compatible of them all.
Being compatible means that it will not only play in iTunes, but it will also play in...
Windows Media Player Version 1 to 10
MusicMatch Jukebox
Napster
Rhapsody
WinAmp
Sonique
Real Audio Player
X Multimedia
etc...etc...etc...

The only drawback to the MP3 format is that it has absolutely no consideration
for preserving audio quality, since it was originally designed to make files smaller.
There are newer, competing formats, that will preserve as much of the audio fidelity as possible
AND decrease the size of the file so that you can squeeze more audio into the limited real estate of the player you have.

The most important thing to remember is that ALL of these technologies SAMPLE
from your CD, (which most people recognize as RIPPING) so the resulting file, regardless of the format
will sound its best in its highest resolution, but it will NEVER sound as good as the original audio source.
Many people say that x sounds better than y, or z sounds as good as my Audio CD Player does,
all of this is very subjective to each individual since we aren't all built the same
and our hearing differs from person to person, just as much as our tastes can differ.
So what sounds really good to one person can sound like :eek: to another.
AND there IS a group of people that can't tell what it sounds like, it just sounds like music.
Depending on which of these groups you belong to, in a very BIG way, determines what you will use and how you will enjoy it.

AAC - (Advanced Audio CODEC) is LICENSED by APPLE ONLY....
It is used predominately in the MAC world and is a very good technology for sampling and archiving audio.
You will not find it in use at any audio studios that aren't equipped with MAC PCs.
In order for AAC to be used for a Windows based PC, it must be either an Apple application, such as iTunes,
or another application developed and licensed through Apple to used AAC as a storage format,
and that is very rare since Apple does charge quite a lot of $$$ for licensing.

AAC is also the preferred technology for the Apple iPod brand of players to play.
It is only natural that Apple use the AAC format for their iPod products since it will yield the best sounding playback.
Once you insert your Audio CD into your PC with iTunes running, and then click IMPORT,
the default setting will rip your CD and save it as an AAC Audio file on your PC.
Saved along with the AAC file are all of the properties of the audio file including the
Artist, Album, Track Title, Genre, and possibly the Year it was produced, and some other information.
This information is stored within the Audio file for display on your Digital Audio Player, if it has a display, or your PC.
iTunes can retrieve this information from the internet automatically if your PC is ONLINE
at the time you are sampling your Audio CD.
If you used 1/2 the same sampling rate for AAC vs MP3, the AAC format will yeild a file
that is about 1/2 the size of the MP3 file, and have a much greater level of fidelity than the MP3 file.
This is one reason why iTunes uses AAC as the default choice for ripping Audio CDs.

In the Windows world, the dominating technology used is called WMA - Windows Media Audio.
WMA was developed under Microsoft, to accomplish just about everything that AAC does
but it is used widely in many Windows based applications such as the ones I mentioned above that were compatible with MP3.
Many MP3 playback applications can rip to MP3 and WMA as well as play these back,
but these applications will NOT support AAC for ripping or playback.
WMA is also an OPEN FORMAT and licensing is available FOR FREE through Microsoft.

AAC as well as WMA support another technology called DRM - Digital Rights Management.
DRM is a technology that was developed SEPARATELY through Apple for use with AAC, and through SDMI - Secure Digital Music Initiative.
SDMI was originally developed in the mid to late 90s, so that ALL Digital Audio Players
would use ONE TECHNOLOGY to secure media.
This technology would be shared amoung manufacturers so that they would be complaint to eachother
as well as help eachother in updating an battling piracy and securing the rights of thr RIAA and Recording Artists.
During this time, and you will probably remember this, the RIAA took Diamond Multimedia to court over the Rio Portable Audio player.
This was due to, in a very large part, to the fact that Diamond Multimedia didn't feel it was necessary to be part of SDMI
and took it upon themselves to create a product and market it without regard to securing the assests of the RIAA and Recording Artists.
Apple was only dreaming of iPods during this time, and would not
have any Digital Audio Players in the market for at least another 5 years.

The DRM found in use for AAC is different than the one that is in use with WMA.
What DRM does is provide a way of securing DIGITAL MEDIA so that it can be rented or purchased
and only consumed by the renter or purchaser.
If you were to rent an audio track from MusicMatch.com or iTunes.com,
the audio file would have to be downloaded to your PC using that application.
The actual rental or purchase transaction would also take place through the same application.
Once the file is downloaded to your PC, the application will recognize the file as being rented or purchased
and will play it on your PC.
Some transactions allow the file to be downloaded to a Digital Audio Player.
This can be any of the iPods, or any product sold by Creative, iRiver, Rio, etc...
What you CANNOT do with this file is play it back on another PC or another Digital Audio Player
that does NOT receive the file from the PC that was used for the original transaction.
This means if Mad4Macs were to transfer a digital audio file from his player to your PC,
and then you transfered it to your player, the player would attempt to play the audio file, but the audio would be blocked.
The DRM technology secures this audio file to only those who attain the file from the PC used for the rental or purchase transaction.

DRM is a touchy technology and sometimes it works well, and other times it can be a pain.
It is also constantly changing to stay one step ahead of the software hackers who are attempting to defeat it all the time.

Now of all the purchasing and rental service available, the majority of them
offer WMA DRM, while only iTunes offers AAC DRM.
And of all the music available for download through these services,
iTunes does not hold the majority share.

I do not mean this in a negative way. iTunes is only ONE service.
iTunes focuses on serving the Apple iPod community.
If the music you are looking for is available on iTunes,
then this will never be a problem for you.
If you can't find the music you want on iTunes.com, the easiest way to get it
is to buy the CD and rip it to your iPod.

[CRUZTAKER]

I lost you both at HELLO... :baaa:

[metroplex]

I cannot hear the difference between 320 kbps compressed MP3 files and CD audio through the same set of speakers. I just use 320 kbps MP3, and it works on 99% of my devices.

[Logan]

Fight the power! Down with the aristocracy! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh! Bastards! Kill 'em all!!!

...Hmmm... Where's my metallica cd...

[CRUZTAKER]

Over 23 hours stored and only used 1.05 gb.....:eek:

[Rider90]

Over 23 hours stored and only used 1.05 gb.....:eek:

3,197 Songs, 9.1 Days, 264 Albums, and it only took 16.92 GB - Cruz, you have much to look forward to :beatnik:

[Mad4Macs]

I've got 5,000 songs. That's 14.3 days of music and all 330 of my cd's are ripped onto my Pod.
It's my own personal radio station.
Cool thing about the iPod, is that you can also install and run Linux on it. I've got multiple OS's on mine, and I use it in the field to FireWire boot computers that I'm troubleshooting.
iPod's rock. Literally.

A couple of corrections. MPEG2-AAC isn't licensed only by Apple.
Here's a partial list of licensees;

http://www.vialicensing.com/products/mpeg2aac/MPEG2_licensees.html

Also, The terms of Apples DRM allow for playback on multiple computers. You simply have to type in your account name to authorize a new computer (5 computers total).
I can, and do, share songs with friends in England. I send a file, they authorize their computers, and the songs play without fuss.
One of the reasons, I believe, that iTunes is dominating the legal music download scene, is that people are smart enough to read the terms and conditions that Apples competitors impose upon them, then choose the least draconian option available.