| robrecht |
I really hate to admit it, but it looks like the best (or at least the cheapest) way to add fully functional integrated high capacity mp3 playback to my OTP (Other Than Pilot) factory radio is to buy an iPod and adaptor.
Jay, stop laughing.
So my question is, will iTunes need to duplicate all of my existing mp3s on my computer or can it organize them and sync them onto my iPod with playlists and artist, album info etc, by using the original mp3 files that are currently so elegantly organized by Windows Media Player 10 on my laptop? Can I just tell it where to go to find my music files and will it play nice with others? Will it understand the current artist and album subdirectories? Or will Steve Jobs and Bill Gates be forever at war on my hard drive?
Any other helpful advice is appreciated. This is so humiliating. |
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| jay |
No laughing here, just a grin and chuckle. With iTunes you should be able to have it search for music, point it to the directory where your music is, and it should find and organize the iTunes index.
The question I'm not sure about is what you tell iTunes to do when it asks you if you want it to "copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library."
That'll cause iTunes to not only index your existing files, but create its own directory structure and copy the mp3s into that directory structure, effectively causing your music to take up twice the space on the hard drive.
Then there's the question of what you'll use going forward, iTunes, WMP 10, or both?
If you want to continue to use both, I'd first set up iTunes to find your existing music, but not copy the files into its own directory. If that works okay, then you could in the future add music to the Windows side like you do now, then immediately tell iTunes to find music, and point iTunes to just that new folder or folders, and index it in iTunes, again without copying the files to the iTunes directory.
If you decide to just use iTunes, have it find the existing music, copy it into the iTunes Music folder, then delete the other directory structure once you're satisfied that everything's properly duplicated in the iTunes index and music folder structure.
Good luck!!:p |
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| jay |
| And download Safari and start using it as your web browser while you're at it!!:15: |
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| Sportymonk |
quote:
Originally posted by jay
And download Safari and start using it as your web browser while you're at it!!:15:
:werd: What he said. I could say a lot about Apple but experience lead you. |
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| robrecht |
quote:
Originally posted by jay
No laughing here, just a grin and chuckle. With iTunes you should be able to have it search for music, point it to the directory where your music is, and it should find and organize the iTunes index.
The question I'm not sure about is what you tell iTunes to do when it asks you if you want it to "copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library."
That'll cause iTunes to not only index your existing files, but create its own directory structure and copy the mp3s into that directory structure, effectively causing your music to take up twice the space on the hard drive.
Then there's the question of what you'll use going forward, iTunes, WMP 10, or both?
If you want to continue to use both, I'd first set up iTunes to find your existing music, but not copy the files into its own directory. If that works okay, then you could in the future add music to the Windows side like you do now, then immediately tell iTunes to find music, and point iTunes to just that new folder or folders, and index it in iTunes, again without copying the files to the iTunes directory.
If you decide to just use iTunes, have it find the existing music, copy it into the iTunes Music folder, then delete the other directory structure once you're satisfied that everything's properly duplicated in the iTunes index and music folder structure.
Good luck!!:p
Thanks. Maybe I should have asked the more basic quesiton. Do I even need to use iTunes at all? In Windows World I can just copy a single directory and all it's contents onto a memory card. Someone told me I can't do that with an iPod, but they don't know much about real computers. Is that true? Is iTunes really necessary to use an iPod? Won't my computer recognize it's memory as a separate drive?
If iTunes is necessary, would there be any advantage to using iTunes exclusively over WMP 10? My first intuition is not change or duplicate anything more than I have to and not switch over to iTunes exclusively. But I will if there's a distinct advantage. |
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| macphanatic |
| You need to use iTunes. In iTunes, you will organize your playlists and set it to sync as much or as little of your mp3 library as you choose. Depending on which iPod you got, you can also load videos and podcasts on to it. Note on the videos, they must be the correct format to load and play. Handbrake is one of the best programs for converting videos to iPod format (and its free). |
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| rocky |
I don't "speak" or understand IPOD but got my wife a U2 one a few years ago. Itunes is the only way to go. I've downloaded very little except for the stuff that came with the U2 Ipod. Loaded numerous cd roms into Itunes as well. Only time I get to see it is on a trip when its great to have so much music playing at random
For day to day listening at the PC I tend to go with www.pandora.com
Having had a PC crash I need to figure out how to load back the tunes on the IPod to the PC. |
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| Sportymonk |
quote:
Originally posted by rocky
I don't "speak" or understand IPOD but got my wife a U2 one a few years ago. Itunes is the only way to go. I've downloaded very little except for the stuff that came with the U2 Ipod. Loaded numerous cd roms into Itunes as well. Only time I get to see it is on a trip when its great to have so much music playing at random
For day to day listening at the PC I tend to go with www.pandora.com
Having had a PC crash I need to figure out how to load back the tunes on the IPod to the PC.
Why not avoid the crash and just get an Apple? The worst I have had happen since Oct 03 when I got the new powerbook is MS Word occaisionally locks up but the Apple OS is such that the system doesn't crash, you merely lose the application you are using. There is a rare kernel panic but they are so rare some people don't even know about the. :D No crahes since 03, my wife and her Dell should be so lucky. :rolleyes: |
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| jay |
I made the switch from another Windows-based music player to iTunes in '02 with the first and my first iPod.
Of course, then I jumped in with both feet, and switched my home desktop too. :p
Even if I were still Windows-based, I'd cut over to iTunes and be done. |
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