[Tuberoller]

Hey guys,while the tone of this thread has remained generally civil,please don't let it get any worse. keep in mind that personal attacks of any kind will not be tolerated and will force closure of this thread. there does seem to be some exchange of useful info here and closing it would be a shame. Let's keep things nice.

Thanks,
Tuberoller

 

[AGR]

Quote:

Originally posted by Tuberoller Hey guys,while the tone of this thread has remained generally civil,please don't let it get any worse. keep in mind that personal attacks of any kind will not be tolerated and will force closure of this thread. there does seem to be some exchange of useful info here and closing it would be a shame. Let's keep things nice. Thanks, Tuberoller

Exactly! Chicago, huh??!! I need some Goose Island IPA!!!!

 

[4P4me]

Quote:

Originally posted by AGR What the hell am I missing? Ha! I really do not know what could be much easier than loading songs onto the iHP-120. I can take 6 CDs out of my collection, convert them to MP3 using Roxio, then bring in the titles, etc,,, using Tag&Renamce, and then load them to my iHP-120 in 15 minutes or less. And; if the music is already converted (suppose I downloaded from eMusic); it might take 5 minutes. If another player does it faster, who cares? It seems everything is supposed to be rushed around here. I enjoy playing around with the player, and downloading, converting, tagging, etc... What is everyone's big rush? Isn't this supposed to be fun and relaxing?

I'll tell you what might be easier.

Take six CD's from your collection, convert them with Itunes using LAME, without you doing ANYTHING having those MP3's automatically added to your Itunes Library, with the ID3 tags automatically made and applied, and doing nothing but connecting your Ipod to transfer the songs. No dragging or dropping, tagging or renaming, etc.

That's easier, may not be what you prefer, but easier. And probably faster too.

 

[White Knight]

Quote:

Originally posted by 4P4me Take six CD's from your collection, convert them with Itunes using LAME, without you doing ANYTHING having those MP3's automatically added to your Itunes Library, with the ID3 tags automatically made and applied, and doing nothing but connecting your Ipod to transfer the songs. No dragging or dropping, tagging or renaming, etc.

Can you really do that? Can you add LAME encoder on iTunes?

 

[Sczervok]

Like that one guy said... each player is different, and each player is more suited to different kinds of people...

As far as the software part is concerned, I'd rather every friken mp3 player be driverless. Yay! No software.

Then, the companies can throw in a piece of software that's somewhat like iTunes (only less viruslike, without the urge to infest every computer it gets on) and then people who like those extra features can communicate to their player with iTunes.

There... both parties are satisfied. Want simple drag and drop with windows explorer on almost any computer? You got it. Want advanced software with cool extra CD ripping, auto tagging, playlist generating, and more, features? You got it.

Apple has probably come the closest to doing something like this. But they didn't reach far enough... and that just sucks. (so close, yet so far)

iRiver needs no drivers, and evidently, some people dislike this facet, as they do enjoy the benifits of using music transfering software like iTunes.

As for me... I've had very bad experiences with iTunes. Infestation to the max, dear lord, I don't ever want to be inundated with so many mac commercials, and integrations on my pc.

 

[AGR]

Besides converting from CDs; so far, I have been using eMusic. Quite nice. Although; it's mostly (if not all), independent labels. Lots of good music there.

 

[Sweet Spot]

In case no one knew, the J.River Media Center devs are now officially working on full Iriver support. They announced last night that the newest build (beta 10 version) fully supports all WMDM Iriver players ! So for those of you Iriver owners who wished they had something like iTunes, now you do.

Media Center burns, rips, encodes (with any encoder/codec of your choice)and does a million other things. I've been using it for a couple months and have thrown EAC and all the other stuff to the wind. Tis a great program. The devs said that it's currently possible to sync the IHP's to Media Center, but manually only because they don't have an IHP in order to get the info they need to rework the program code. They're going to buy some however, and I'd imagine that full support will come to be very shortly after that.

All details can be found at www.misticriver.us

Edit, MC has had iPod support for a while now, It supports a bunch of DAP's. Oh, and it doesn't try to shove ads for brother/sister products down your throat like some other programs..*coughtunescough* Oh, and it's not a resource hog, and is pretty fast to respond.

 

[4P4me]

Quote:

Originally posted by White Knight Can you really do that? Can you add LAME encoder on iTunes?

Yep, here you go.


http://www.blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/

 

[4P4me]

Quote:

iRiver needs no drivers, and evidently, some people dislike this facet, as they do enjoy the benifits of using music transfering software like iTunes.

My Iriver needed drivers on my Windows machine, but not on the Mac. Not a big deal though, as they're only installed once.

 

[White Knight]

Now I get, you (4P4me) are just a mac user defending iPod.

 

[4P4me]

Quote:

Originally posted by White Knight Now I get, you (4P4me) are just a mac user defending iPod.

Yes and no.

Up until two weeks ago I've been using Windows computers for about five years, and now my primary computer is a 17" powerbook.

I've been using Ipods since they could be used on Windows machines. I've tried many other MP3 players, including the following:

Creative NJB3, Zen 2.0, and Zen Xtra
Archos 6 and 20 gig jukebox and recorder (w/Rockboxx firmware and without)
Rio Karma
Iriver IHP 120

In my opinion none of these touch the perfect combination (or give and take if you will) or ease of use/sound quality/adaptability as the Ipod.

Having said that, for my needs the NJB3 was the best of the above I've owned.

I've gone back and forth between the above and a 5gig, 2nd gen. 20gig, and 3rd gen 40 gig Ipod, and except for the NJB3, none was as much of the complete package for me as the Ipod.

For me the IHP loses out because of the sound quality. Even saying that, the Ety4P/IHP combo to me sounds better than the Ety4P/Ipod by a slim margin. But when I plug anything else into the IHP, it's sounds pretty bad, or not as good as the Ipod with these phones.

I was using Ephpod with the Ipod before Itunes for Windows. Itunes is the best Music managing software there is to me. Dragging and dropping is OK, but I want to be able to add CD's to my MP3 player when the movement strikes me, without having to reach for and connect said MP3 player to the computer every time. I can do that with Itunes. Add what I want and when I'm ready, connect and sync.

I think I'm more than qualified to offer a "non fanboy", somewhat objective opinion on what's been discussed here based on my experiences, thank you. And I believe more often than not, a lot of you rail against the Ipod not because your preceived and not perceived opinions of the Ipods shortcomings (some concrete, some not), but because of your backlash to the hype you see for the Ipod, and the marketing and who it's marketed to and how it's marketed (not to mention the elitism of many ipod owners out there).

Do you get it now, White Knight?