Love-Hate relationship with i-pod--Let Me Vent

I may be just lucky, but I've have two I-pods, a G3 my wife gave me when they first came out and a G4 I was given by a co-worker who dropped it and it quit working. Both have had battery transplants and the G4 got a new hard drive when I got it. Both work like a charm and see a lot of use. I use ITunes PC with the G4 and Winamp to manage the G3. The content is all ALAC, ripped from my CD's with EAC to FLAC, and transcoded to ALAC when I want something on move. We also have a Squeezebox that's used with the FLAC files and SqueezeCenter. All compare favorable with mid-end CD players IMO. Songs from I-Tunes store are pretty poor, as are MP3's no matter what bit rate. I've never had a problem with the libraries or the firmware on either unit. Tried RockBox - several versions, but it's never proved stable. The G4 sounds a bit better to my ear, more bottom end. In the car we run it into the factory head - no great shakes - but I can DJ round-trip Detroit-Chicago.
 
why don't i ever see anyone using actual high fidelity stereo headphones with an ipod? wait, don't tell me the damn things have a proprietary jack!?!? now i REALLY hate them!!:mad:

Too many uninformed people complaining that admit they have no hands on experience ... not good!

I currently have a 30gig iPod - does color and videos, but I just use it for music. I have an older powerMac G4 with large external drives and have my itune library loaded there - most of it is from my CDs - 320kbps (very high quality AAC files) - 23,000 songs, just a bit under 200 gigs of music. Took a while to load it all but I back it up regularly.
Works like a champ. When at work I use an old set of Sony digital headphones, but I have played it with my ancient sennheisers - I don't usually use the earbuds - but no, it doesn't seem to have a proprietary headphone jack, if thats a real concern.
When I'm home and want to play music I usually load CDs or vinyl and play them directly - on 1 of 2 systems I own with vintage gear and large JBLs. But for portability and general musicality, I'm sold on the iPods.

But I have heard that some folks with Windows systems have had problems with pods - but Windows systems are a different tale (FWIW, I'm a newcomer to Macs, started with Dos 3.31 went to Win4WG, through Desqview, OS2 and various newer WIN system - Win2K & WinXP, before throwing it all out for Macs ...
 
Too many uninformed people complaining that admit they have no hands on experience ... not good!

I currently have a 30gig iPod - does color and videos, but I just use it for music. I have an older powerMac G4 with large external drives and have my itune library loaded there - most of it is from my CDs - 320kbps (very high quality AAC files) - 23,000 songs, just a bit under 200 gigs of music. Took a while to load it all but I back it up regularly.
Works like a champ. When at work I use an old set of Sony digital headphones, but I have played it with my ancient sennheisers - I don't usually use the earbuds - but no, it doesn't seem to have a proprietary headphone jack, if thats a real concern.
When I'm home and want to play music I usually load CDs or vinyl and play them directly - on 1 of 2 systems I own with vintage gear and large JBLs. But for portability and general musicality, I'm sold on the iPods.

But I have heard that some folks with Windows systems have had problems with pods - but Windows systems are a different tale (FWIW, I'm a newcomer to Macs, started with Dos 3.31 went to Win4WG, through Desqview, OS2 and various newer WIN system - Win2K & WinXP, before throwing it all out for Macs ...

sorry, sorry! i guess i'm old-fashioned, is all. still, i'd go with a good set of cans any day over those earbuds...
 
The fact that you can't get your files to work from your auxillary drive sounds like more of a computer issue than an iPod issue. The iPod should have nothing to do with the fact that you can't access files on your computer.

It does not sound like the songs are tagged properly. You could try mp3tag to fill in the missing information.


On the other hand, in the sixteen years I've been using Windows PCs, I've never had a file vanish completely, become totally unrecoverable, or rename itself? However, thank you for the tip on the MP3tag program. I have downloaded it and will try to figure it out this week.

As to using the Pod in the audio system, it's just easy. It's right next to my listening chair and is convenient to use. My vintage system does not have remote capabilities.

Like I said, it's a real love-hate relationship.
 
On the other hand, in the sixteen years I've been using Windows PCs, I've never had a file vanish completely, become totally unrecoverable, or rename itself?
I have never had that happen without a failed drive issue and I have had iTunes on my computer since the day it was made available on the PC. I used Ephpod with my second gen iPod before iTunes was available.

I think there is a setting when you install iTunes that asks if you want iTunes to manage your music and I said no. If you say yes, I think it moves your music to the iTunes directory.... (That is if I remember correctly, like I said, it has been a long time since I installed the program).
 
I think there is a setting when you install iTunes that asks if you want iTunes to manage your music and I said no. If you say yes, I think it moves your music to the iTunes directory.... (That is if I remember correctly, like I said, it has been a long time since I installed the program).

Yes, there is such a setting. I did it that way based on some article I read somewhere that said it was the "thing to do". Apparently a big mistake on my part.

Speaking of the freaking "earbuds". I thought the original ones that came with it sucked canal water. So, I bought Mr. Jobs upgrade with the interchangeable inserts. Greasy little suckers just kept oozing out. Real headphones, you say? Great idea, EXCEPT that they require more "juice" than the buds and the "pod" dies earlier. :thumbsdn:

My wife does like her Nano, however.
 
Yes, there is such a setting. I did it that way based on some article I read somewhere that said it was the "thing to do". Apparently a big mistake on my part.
I think this is your main problem. I am at home, so I took a look at the "preferences". If you look on the "advanced" tab, you probably have a check in the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" box. I have mine unchecked. I also have the box underneath it unchecked ("Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library'). Try unchecking both of these boxes and it may fix some of your problems.


I agree that most people want portable headphones when they are out in public. As rek100 mentioned, a portable amp + large headphones + ipod can be cumbersome. I have a pair of Ety ER-4P earphones that sound fantastic without an amp. I also bought a "P to S converter" for listening to them at home with an amp. At home, I like my Etys and Grado SR60s with the iPod (depending if I want to shut out the sound or not bleed out the sound).
 
I have a 30 gig Ipod that is all colorful and plays videos too...
That is not all though
I have had numerous problems with the thing not starting at all. Apple logo would come on the screen... then the noise of the hard drive clicking then it shuts off. I have had problems with Itunes starting from its default setting, erasing all my playlists and I would have to re-add 2 days worth of music to their former play lists, and no, saving my library wouldn't work either. At times my Ipod would lag, and at other times it would run quite fast. It seems as if I play music it would run faster like games would go quicker and menu scrolling would be less jumpy than when no music was playing. My ipod also refuses to erase the pictures I have on it. I switched computers, reformatted the dang thing and yet some how it still has these 30 odd pictures.

Now the good things!
It has like 2 scratches in it... Um... it plays music?
And it just passed its 1 year birthday!
Got to love apple... and all those bad things with it and I still put up with it. Fun stuff right there
 
I just bought a 4GB Nano, and find myself using it mainly for the commute to and from work. Plug and play, no annoying radio chatter and advertisements, and no fumbling around with discs.
 
Back
Top Bottom