Question about MP3 and iPods

That is (mostly) incorrect - iPods require that application layer for music transfer.

I heard a rumor that the Nano MIGHT work this way, so if that's true I'll give you that. But for an iPod Touch this definitely does not work. I am also going on the assumption that the Touch is not jailbroken - if it was, then I suppose that there's a possibility that this could work but I have to go on the basis that the baseline is vanilla stock.

See above. My guess is that the Shuiffle is the same as the Touch, which is that this will not work.

I personally would not use iTunes for CD imports. For Windows, I'd probably use EAC for the CD rip, and then Foobar (excellent program) for the MP3 creation. I actually use a tool in Ubuntu called "gnormalize" for MP3 creation - this gives me a standard transcode via LAME, and also the ability to tweak the levels for brickwalled tracks... that way my MP3's are not clipping, at least.

 

Agreed, roebeet. My own system of getting my CDs onto my Cowon iAudio 7 is EAC -> Foobar2000 (FLAC, Level 8) -> Mp3tag -> transfer.

 

I beg to differ. Google is your friend. I see nothing about "iTunes exclusive, 'application layers'.

7 iTunes alternatives:
Songbird
Yamipod
Sharepod
Foobar 2000
Winamp
Floola
Copy Trans

There are others, as well.

 

I did not say all one needed was 'explorer'. What I actually said was, iTunes itself, was not a requirement for getting certain music files on an 'Apple ipod'.

 

Which is contrary to your claiming above that my statement "You can't drag MP3 files onto an iPod using the operating system file browser like you can with a normal MP3 player," is "100% incorrect". Maybe some or all of those 6 named things offer Explorer integration, but that doesn't make my statement anything like 100% incorrect.

 

I have dragged and dropped thousands of mp3/AAC/ALAC files onto my ipods with 'sharepod'.

 

It's still an extra Application layer and, depending on the iPod device, and its firmware revision, some of these solutions may not work. Or they might work now, but not in the future.

I used to use an Ubuntu app (gtkpod, I believe it was called) for an old iPod Shuffle and I believe a 4G Classic. But, at least at the time, the iPod Touch wasn't supported.

What does this all mean? It's not guaranteed, and certainly not supported by Apple. The original statement was regarding the SONY player, which supports MSC mode (same as my Cowon). I stress the "supported" part - it means the vendor themselves support MSC mode / drag and drop. Btw, I'm assuming that with the SONY, since I don't own one. But MSC mode is definitely supported by Cowon.

You could also throw in that a jailbroken iPod Touch could probably be made to work, but again you are going outside of what's supported by Apple - that's the key point, here. Remember the original statement that this was "easy as pie", which I was disputing. With my Cowon, I can connect to any Ubuntu, MacOS, or Windows device using a USB cable and "it just works" - I don't need iTunes, I don't need sharepod, I don't need my device jailbroken, I don't need gtkpod, I don't need to worry about accidentally updating my device and breaking whatever workarounds I might have setup, etc. That's one of the reasons why I love my Cowon, and why I don't own an iPod (I have other reasons, as well).

 

As my old boss used say..."That's why Baskin-Robbins makes 31 flavors."

 

Well said. Different strokes for different folks.

I obviously have a bit of a love/hate relationship with iPod Touches (my kids all have one, so I have to "support" them. I guess I actually do own a few, at least by proxy).

 

I'm sad that most of the other hard drive based players have gone away. Most of us here have large collections and wifi isn't available everywhere for low cost streaming.

Cowon has a large screen 160 gig media player. Anyone here use it? Archos high capacity players have sort of morphed into tablets. Not sure if any of them still have hard drives.

Tim

 

The X7, correct? I don't own one, but if the sound is anything like the D3, it will be excellent. I guess the HDD-based are definitely a dying breed.

 

Yes, the X7 is the one I was looking at. The thing is, now you can get more capacity from the same size hard drive.

You can get a hacked iPod with a huge hard drive. Unfortunately, loading a large number of songs breaks the internal DB so it would really only work properly on one of the models that Rockbox supports.

 

I used to own a Gigabeat "F120" (an F40, which is 40GB, hacked to accept a 120GB HDD) - that was my Rockbox-based "go-to" solution for a DAP with a large HDD. I bet there are ways to make it even larger, now. The internals only accepted a PATA drive, but with a ZIF converter care of Dealextreme, a lot of patience and electrical tape, I managed to get it working. But eventually I sold the parts off.

But that X7 sounds sweet - granted, it's a tad expensive but at least there's an alternative to the iPod and Zune HDD devices.

 

Wow. Sounds like me and my upgraded Archos recorder. 120 GB is as large as the hardware USB connection can access. You can have a bigger HD but you really have to jump through hoops getting music on it. You have to make an extended partition in the extra space and load music onto it before you install the drive into the Archos.

I stuck with a 120 gig drive. I've stopped carrying it around since the case has started to come apart. It's made pretty cheaply and it really is a brick compared to newer devices.

Tim

 

I don't like Ipods since you're forced to use iTunes.
And by the way...the Iriver IHP-140 is STILL the best sounding player in my book.
I've been using it since 2004 and it's still going strong. I ordered a Cowon J3
this year but sent it back because it couldn't touch the Iriver in terms of sound quality.

 

Too right Vidiot..plenty of screaming indeed! I have to say I do love these threads nonetheless

Personally, I go for 256k AAC Plus on my iphone and play CD's on my modest rig for "serious" home listening (whatever that really means). I hanker after that ol vinyl sound but can't really see me going back...for better or worse. I'm also dipping into the world of computer audio via my macbook air hooked up to a Cambridge Dacmagic. Whatever floats everyone's individual boats is fine with me...lossless has to be the way in the end though.