is it "safe" to let itunes see/find/use my "backed up" mp3s? can i put my mp3s on the ipod or do i have to convert them to itunes format?

any things i should know about my "backed up" mp3s and itunes/ipod?

12/14/2005 1:55:09 PM

iTunes/iPod will play MP3s without any conversion. MP3s converted to M4A/AAC will not have any use restrictions.

iTunes will usually try to make copies of any music it finds. You need to disable the "Organize Music Folder" option if you don't want it to make copies.

To extract music from an iPod you need a 3rd party tool to get them off, then you can play them in iTunes or on an iPod after that.

12/14/2005 2:00:26 PM

ok. i dont have one yet but im looking into it and i d/led itunes 6 yesterday. i was kinda iffy on letting it see my mp3s since they have all my info for billing, etc. THEY COULD HUNT ME DOWN AND THROW ME IN JAIL!

12/14/2005 2:51:36 PM

what you should do is have a single folder for all your music, purchased and "backed up" and you can tell itunes exactly where that folder is this way if you ever import more 'backed up' music from a friends cd or something, it will copy it to that location. iTunes doesn't care where you got your mp3's from, but if you got it from iTunes it will do its damndest to make sure you don't share it. And as far as moving backed up mp3s to an ipod just drag and drop from itunes...simple as that.

12/14/2005 3:31:35 PM

i don't get what you mean by "backed up." -- do you just mean ripped from a CD?

and there is no itunes format. mp3, m4a, wav, aiff, m4p, alc, kinda wma


...... several edits later:


okay, i think i'm starting to get it through my thick skull .....

iTunes doesn't care and can't find out where your music came from. BitTorrent, ripped CDs, whatever. Just as long as it's not one of those competing stores (the new napster store, musicmatch, yahoo music, etc).

Don't worry about that aspect of it....


[Edited on December 14, 2005 at 3:36 PM. Reason : ]

12/14/2005 3:31:49 PM

you forgot AAC, apple loseless, AIFF, and WAV


those are really the only ones you can import with iTunes

oh snap! i forgot to add mp3 too....


and "backed up" mp3s are just that don't try to think about it too hard for legal reassons

[Edited on December 14, 2005 at 3:34 PM. Reason : adf]

12/14/2005 3:33:38 PM

cool. im glad to see this should be fairly hassle free. gg apple

12/14/2005 3:56:50 PM

grab your surfboard too while you are at it. The "i hate apple" tidal wave is about to hit!

12/14/2005 4:04:07 PM

If they had really wanted to make it hassle free you'd be able to drag and drop your music/videos directly to the device thru explorer

12/14/2005 4:09:28 PM

Drag and drop is more hassle free than .... automatic updating?


And how hassle free would it be to make a few playlists using drag and drop?

12/14/2005 5:29:11 PM

nothing is hassle free when it comes to itunes.

and since my music is already sorted into directories, throwing it onto the device would be the most convenient solution.

12/14/2005 5:42:34 PM

how about the playlists, though?

12/14/2005 5:58:57 PM

the player should be able to auto generate playlists based on directory structure, id3 tags, file names, and "most played favorites" type deals.

As for user created playlists, you'd have to create those in your media player of choice . And i wouldn't choose itunes.

12/14/2005 6:01:37 PM

So you open up your player, create a playlist, save the playlist, go back into Explorer, open up your portable player, and then do a drag and drop?

12/14/2005 6:10:29 PM

if it wasn't a playlist i already had made then yea. Or i might just copy one of the lists i already had an edit it in notepad.

Eitherway i could probably do it all before itunes even opens.

12/14/2005 6:22:01 PM

I PAID FOR MUSIC! AND VIDEOS!

BWAHAHAHAHHA. it was almost fun.

12/15/2005 11:00:06 AM

iTunes format wtf?

12/15/2005 11:23:18 AM

whatev, i figured it out now.

so now i know how to copy songs from the ipod to the PC. these songs dont know where they came from right? like theres no data that says BOBBY SUE BOUGHT THIS SONG and if it shows up on some random computer itll spawn apple spyware to call the cops on bobby sue?

assuming no, then one could buy a song from the iTMS, load it on the ipod, copy it to any other PC (w/ just windows explorer or ephpod, etc) and distribute freely? burn freely? etc, etc.

also in itunes it says you can burn CDs. is there any limit to that?

12/15/2005 3:46:45 PM

Dude.

The RIAA isn't going to h4x you. Settle down.

12/15/2005 3:53:44 PM

well i dont want to noob all over making ignorant assumptions. i thought id get the inside scoop from you elite hax0rs.


gawd

12/15/2005 3:56:25 PM

Quote :

" like theres no data that says BOBBY SUE BOUGHT THIS SONG and if it shows up on some random computer itll spawn apple spyware to call the cops on bobby sue?"

Apple isn't Sony, so no ...

Quote :

"assuming no, then one could buy a song from the iTMS, load it on the ipod, copy it to any other PC (w/ just windows explorer or ephpod, etc) and distribute freely? burn freely? etc, etc."

You can burn it and keep it on up to 6 computers or iPods in its original format. Each computer it is on has to be "authorized" to use it with your username and password.

If you burn it to a CD, then rip that CD to an MP3, M4A/ACC or whatever then you can treat it like any other song if you so choose ...

12/15/2005 3:57:00 PM

Oh, and there's no limit to burning cds as far as I know. There is a limit to how many computers you can download your purchases onto, though, it's a total of like five I think.

12/15/2005 3:57:44 PM

ah so say if my gf and I both have itunes installed on our computers and we shared the ipod. we could each take it and d/l songs on our computer and then bring it to the other's computer and transfer it? i thought if you tried this then itunes would 'synch' your ipod by deleted the new songs on the ipod?

12/15/2005 4:23:02 PM

i have another noob ipod question, i got a video ipod for my b-day a week ago and im trying to put videos on it from my pc. i know that the ipod can only play videos that play in quick time but what kind of formats are those? it wont let me put any .avi or mpegs on it.

12/15/2005 6:06:22 PM

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/creatingvideo.html

12/15/2005 6:09:32 PM

Quote :

"so now i know how to copy songs from the ipod to the PC. these songs dont know where they came from right? like theres no data that says BOBBY SUE BOUGHT THIS SONG and if it shows up on some random computer itll spawn apple spyware to call the cops on bobby sue?"

For songs that somebody (not you necessarily ... noooooo) downloaded from Limewire or BitTorrent?
No. iTunes has no idea where those songs came from.

Quote :

"assuming no, then one could buy a song from the iTMS, load it on the ipod, copy it to any other PC (w/ just windows explorer or ephpod, etc) and distribute freely? burn freely? etc, etc."

But for songs downloaded (purchased legally) from the iTMS, then yes, iTunes does know where that song came from.
Before you are allowed to play a song purchased from the iTMS, iTunes first connects to the store and checks to see if your computer is allowed to play it. It knows the username and password of the person who bought it, so if you can tell iTunes that username and password, then you'll be able to play it.
If you transfer it to your gf's computer and try to play it, it will initially say "This computer is not authorized to play this song. Enter username and password to gain access to it." or something. All you have to do is enter the name of the person who bought the song, and iTunes will link up to the iTMS, check to see if that's correct, and then allow that computer to play that song (and all songs purchased from that account, I think).

You're allowed up to 5 or 6 computers on which to play any purchased song. So your computer, your gf's computer, your office computer, ... ummmm, wherever else you need to play it.

Quote :

"also in itunes it says you can burn CDs. is there any limit to that?"

For songs purchased from the iTMS, you can burn any of those songs to any CD you want.
The only limitation is that you are only allowed to burn the same playlist 7 times (I think). I guess that's to make sure you're not paying $10 for an album and burning it 45 times for all your friends...
If for some reason you need to burn the same playlist more than 7 times, you'll have to make a change to the playlist. Switch the order of two songs, or add in an extra song at the end or something.

Quote :

"ah so say if my gf and I both have itunes installed on our computers and we shared the ipod. we could each take it and d/l songs on our computer and then bring it to the other's computer and transfer it? i thought if you tried this then itunes would 'synch' your ipod by deleted the new songs on the ipod?"

Your iPod can only be "linked" to one computer if you use automatic synching.
If you have auto-synch turned on, you can have it linked to your computer, but when you plug it into your gf's it will say, "This iPod is linked to a different computer. Would you like to make this computer the new home for this iPod. Clicking Yes will erase all songs on the iPod." So don't click yes.
If you have it set to manual update, then you can use it with 2 computers, but it won't have all the good magic that iPods are good for.

12/15/2005 7:04:03 PM

cool man, that was very helpful.

12/16/2005 7:38:57 PM

ok,one more thing.

if i have 'keep my music organized' and 'copy when added' checked, will itunes keep its own entire directory structure full of my music? And itunes will update/rename/edit id3 tags, for all of the mp3s whenever i modify the info in the itunes database? so if i rename the track will it rename the actual id3 tag of that mp3? or is it just an internal itunes modification?

i'd like to use this to rename,sort, and organize all my mp3s.. but i want to make sure itll actuall modify my files before i waste all the effort. once theyre all organized/edited,etc in the itunes dir structure, then id delete all my copies leaving only the neat and clean ones that itunes made.

will that work?

and if i already added all my mp3s w/o 'keep my music org' and 'copy music' is there a way i can go back and have it update/copy all my mp3s to their structure?

12/18/2005 11:09:14 AM

Yes, it uses ID3 tags for all that shit.

12/18/2005 12:02:22 PM

Quote :

"i have another noob ipod question, i got a video ipod for my b-day a week ago and im trying to put videos on it from my pc. i know that the ipod can only play videos that play in quick time but what kind of formats are those? it wont let me put any .avi or mpegs on it."

check out this tutorial...also check out the thread responses underneath the tutortial should tell you alot about your ipod video http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000027063418/

[Edited on December 18, 2005 at 12:08 PM. Reason : ]

12/18/2005 12:07:27 PM

^^thats what youd think, but i can change say the genre and title of an mp3 in itunes. then go check the id3 tags in winamp and they are unchanged...

12/18/2005 12:53:14 PM

Really? Weird.

I know that iTunes doesn't save some shit until you exit the program. Or least it used to.

I don't know.

12/18/2005 5:56:25 PM

Damn my Windows ME.

12/25/2005 12:27:39 AM

does anyone know how to add videos to "music videos" instead of just to under the "movies" section
this is about to drive me crazy

12/25/2005 3:17:37 PM

i cant get it to install right. after installing itunes, i connect the ipod and it says the software connection cannot be made because it wasn't installed properly, so i have to reinstall. so i uninstall everything, restart, reinstall everything, and the same thing happens every time.

this is pissing me off

12/25/2005 4:29:11 PM

^ don't know what to tell you about that one
maybe you need to download a different version of iTunes

12/25/2005 4:53:01 PM

you got to convert all your movies into mp4 or mov

xilisoft video converter is probably the best i've used

[Edited on December 25, 2005 at 5:10 PM. Reason : fda]

12/25/2005 5:10:05 PM

check out this website you guys if you are trying to download movies / music videos / music for your ipod video
http://podtropolis.com

12/25/2005 5:12:49 PM

im glad my computer came with a better, free media player that does everything itunes does plus more

12/25/2005 6:21:36 PM

apparently you didn't buy a HP because iTunes comes free preinstalled on all HP's...


oh wait, its free to download too? OMG! i bought iTunes for $0.00 at the store!

12/26/2005 3:19:27 AM

ok. my computer was fucked up in other ways so i just reinstalled windows and started from scratch. everything works now

12/26/2005 5:38:28 AM

as the world turns!

12/26/2005 5:38:49 AM

id rather have the better free player

12/26/2005 11:41:07 AM

iTunes >>>> 'the better free player'

12/26/2005 12:33:56 PM

wmp can do everything iTunes can do, plus more, and its easier

12/26/2005 3:57:33 PM

if you don't think iTunes is easy, you're an idiot.


iTunes >>>>> anything johnhgoth recommends

12/26/2005 6:55:45 PM

you cant drag and drop and have to go through the program
thats not easy

12/26/2005 6:57:19 PM

really? hmmm...i wonder if i have some alpha version of iTunes...cause drag and drop works fine for me

12/26/2005 6:59:21 PM

yeah you have a magical version

12/26/2005 6:59:53 PM

must be...cause heavens if i couldn't drag and drop...i'd feel retarded and helpless.

12/26/2005 7:01:17 PM