austonia
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2002
- Posts
- 3,392
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I'm starting a new thread because some people don't seem to get how easy it is load & manage music on on an Apple iPod, compared to an iRiver iHP. I own both.
Let's start with the iRiver iHP.
1) Turn on player
2) Connect to any PC via USB
3) PC Auto-detects hardware
4) Start>Run>Explorer.exe or Start>My Computer>Hard Disk Drives, etc
5) Make your own directories, Copy whatever you want, etc
vs.
iPod
1) Connect to PC via USB or Firewire, iPod auto-powers on
2) PC Auto-detects hardware
3) iTunes auto-launches, or run Ephpod
4) Drag and Drop Mp3's to either program, database is updated
Q: Is iPod a Mass Storage Device, like the iHP, in that it needs no drivers to be detected by windows. YES.
Q: Redundant: Does the iPod show up in Windows as an external hard drive, like the iHP, without any drivers or software? YES. drag and drop any file to either player.
Q: Does iPod NEED software to load music onto its database? YES, use either iTunes, Ephod, Anapod, etc
Q: Does iHP NEED software to load music onto it's database? YES, you must the iRiver Manager Program. Has severe restriction that it will not add any track with a filename longer then 52 characters.
Q: Does the iHP NEED software to load music and onto its hard drive? YES, like any hardware. There's no magic here. Use Explorer.exe or others. File Explorer happens to be built into windows so its very handy. But you do need SOMETHING.
Q: Isn't the iHP better because you don't have to install any program on a PC to transfer music to it? Yes, and NO. You don't HAVE to install a program on a PC to transfer music to the iPod either, however, it takes a one-time setup of 5 minutes to do this forever.
How?
1) Download and unpack Ephod.
2) Copy Ephpod directory to iPod's hard drive
3) Connect iPod to any PC in the world
4) Run Ephpod from iPod's hard drive
5) Drag and Drop music to and from Ephpod
Conclusion: Both the iPod and iHP can be used on any windows PC at school, or work, or wherever without installing any software or Drivers.
On to Management.
With the iHP, you create directories and store your music however you like. You can then see the contents of the drive on the player's screen and navigate by file/folder view. Sounds great right? A couple of problems here.
1) You have to create and manage the directories yourself. For a couple of albums, no problem. But on a 20 or 40gb player, this could mean hundreds of directories.
2) There is no track search function in file/folder view. My iHP-140 has 10,000 tracks on it. I'm not senile, but really, if you want to find one single track, you better have a damn good memory to remember where every one is stored.
3) I'm not even going to discuss the iHP's ID3-tag database feature because it ignored 25% of the tracks I tried to add to it for having filenames that were too long. Disgusting.
... but the iHP has one main advantage, or so it seems. You don't have to have all your MP3's (or OGG's, whatever) properly tagged since you are ID'ing each song my filename only on the iHP. Some people have downloaded stuff from the internet and the ID3 tags in thier MP3's can be messed up. And it can take a lot of time to go through hundreds or thousands of tracks and correct that info.
BUT, FILENAMES CAN BE MESSED UP AS WELL. The stuff you get from the usual filesharing networks.
So, whether you correct the ID3 tags, or filenames, you still have to cleanup the information that describes each track you download from Kazaa or whatever. For MP3's you make from your own CD, or ones that are bought from a download outlet, the filename and ID3 tags should be accurate from the start. But they still may need to be changed to your usual track-filename format, whatever that my be.
Note that, if you have the filenames of your tracks in a sensible format, like:
Artist - Track.mp3
Artist - Album - Track# - Title.mp3
Arist directory/Album directory/Track# - Title.mp3
...then there are programs like ID3 Tag/Studio that can take automatically read the filenames, create the appropriate ID3 tags, and properly tag all your tracks for you.
With the iPod, using an ID3-tag database, the iPod keeps track of where all the files are actually stored on the iPod's hard drive. You do not need to know which directory any of the music is stored in to find what you want. That's all handled in the background by iPod.
You just add music to the player through a program (iTunes, Ephod, Anapod), and the iPod takes the ID3 tag information from each and adds them to its own internal database. You can then sort them by Artist, Album, Title, Genre or Composer. You can see a spreadsheet-like list of all the tracks in the iTunes and Ephpod, and sort the spreadsheet view however you like to see what's on the iPod. On the iPod itself, you just pick a catagory (Artist, Album, etc) and the iPod gives you a list of those items for you to pick the one you want.
However, to make the iPod's ID3 tag database effective, you need to have all those tracks properly tagged. As I said before that can take some time with crap from Kazaa, but ripping programs like EAC, MusicMatch, Winamp, etc.. will do the tagging for you, for your own CD's. They do this by contacting internet CD databases, determining which CD you are ripping, and adding the tag data to each track automatically. Sometimes you will still need to adjust them to your own format (like chaging "The Doors" to "Doors" so it shows up in he D section of the Artist list), but the same holds true for filenames on the iHP.
Of course, it all boils down to personal preference.
But one point I am making is that they are equally capable of being used on any PC without any software or drivers on the target windows PC. They both take effort to organize the music in a way that works best for the user, whether its by filenames and directories (iHP) or ID3 tags (iPod). I am arguing it is easier load music on the iPod, BECAUSE it uses a program to do so and the program manages all the archiving details for you. Both iPod and iHP are drag-n-drop loading. But the iHP requires the user to micro-manage where the music is being loaded to (directories). I am also arguing it is more effecient to manage music on the iPod, because you can see its contents in spreadsheet-like format and sort them by any catagory. I am arguing it is easier to find what you want to hear on the iPod because it sorts them by ID3-tag fields (Artist, Album, track, genre, composer), and you just pick from a list. As opposed to hunting through directories on the iHP to find what you want, with no search capability.
OK that's it. Anything I didn't consider?
Let's start with the iRiver iHP.
1) Turn on player
2) Connect to any PC via USB
3) PC Auto-detects hardware
4) Start>Run>Explorer.exe or Start>My Computer>Hard Disk Drives, etc
5) Make your own directories, Copy whatever you want, etc
vs.
iPod
1) Connect to PC via USB or Firewire, iPod auto-powers on
2) PC Auto-detects hardware
3) iTunes auto-launches, or run Ephpod
4) Drag and Drop Mp3's to either program, database is updated
Q: Is iPod a Mass Storage Device, like the iHP, in that it needs no drivers to be detected by windows. YES.
Q: Redundant: Does the iPod show up in Windows as an external hard drive, like the iHP, without any drivers or software? YES. drag and drop any file to either player.
Q: Does iPod NEED software to load music onto its database? YES, use either iTunes, Ephod, Anapod, etc
Q: Does iHP NEED software to load music onto it's database? YES, you must the iRiver Manager Program. Has severe restriction that it will not add any track with a filename longer then 52 characters.
Q: Does the iHP NEED software to load music and onto its hard drive? YES, like any hardware. There's no magic here. Use Explorer.exe or others. File Explorer happens to be built into windows so its very handy. But you do need SOMETHING.
Q: Isn't the iHP better because you don't have to install any program on a PC to transfer music to it? Yes, and NO. You don't HAVE to install a program on a PC to transfer music to the iPod either, however, it takes a one-time setup of 5 minutes to do this forever.
How?
1) Download and unpack Ephod.
2) Copy Ephpod directory to iPod's hard drive
3) Connect iPod to any PC in the world
4) Run Ephpod from iPod's hard drive
5) Drag and Drop music to and from Ephpod
Conclusion: Both the iPod and iHP can be used on any windows PC at school, or work, or wherever without installing any software or Drivers.
On to Management.
With the iHP, you create directories and store your music however you like. You can then see the contents of the drive on the player's screen and navigate by file/folder view. Sounds great right? A couple of problems here.
1) You have to create and manage the directories yourself. For a couple of albums, no problem. But on a 20 or 40gb player, this could mean hundreds of directories.
2) There is no track search function in file/folder view. My iHP-140 has 10,000 tracks on it. I'm not senile, but really, if you want to find one single track, you better have a damn good memory to remember where every one is stored.
3) I'm not even going to discuss the iHP's ID3-tag database feature because it ignored 25% of the tracks I tried to add to it for having filenames that were too long. Disgusting.
... but the iHP has one main advantage, or so it seems. You don't have to have all your MP3's (or OGG's, whatever) properly tagged since you are ID'ing each song my filename only on the iHP. Some people have downloaded stuff from the internet and the ID3 tags in thier MP3's can be messed up. And it can take a lot of time to go through hundreds or thousands of tracks and correct that info.
BUT, FILENAMES CAN BE MESSED UP AS WELL. The stuff you get from the usual filesharing networks.
So, whether you correct the ID3 tags, or filenames, you still have to cleanup the information that describes each track you download from Kazaa or whatever. For MP3's you make from your own CD, or ones that are bought from a download outlet, the filename and ID3 tags should be accurate from the start. But they still may need to be changed to your usual track-filename format, whatever that my be.
Note that, if you have the filenames of your tracks in a sensible format, like:
Artist - Track.mp3
Artist - Album - Track# - Title.mp3
Arist directory/Album directory/Track# - Title.mp3
...then there are programs like ID3 Tag/Studio that can take automatically read the filenames, create the appropriate ID3 tags, and properly tag all your tracks for you.
With the iPod, using an ID3-tag database, the iPod keeps track of where all the files are actually stored on the iPod's hard drive. You do not need to know which directory any of the music is stored in to find what you want. That's all handled in the background by iPod.
You just add music to the player through a program (iTunes, Ephod, Anapod), and the iPod takes the ID3 tag information from each and adds them to its own internal database. You can then sort them by Artist, Album, Title, Genre or Composer. You can see a spreadsheet-like list of all the tracks in the iTunes and Ephpod, and sort the spreadsheet view however you like to see what's on the iPod. On the iPod itself, you just pick a catagory (Artist, Album, etc) and the iPod gives you a list of those items for you to pick the one you want.
However, to make the iPod's ID3 tag database effective, you need to have all those tracks properly tagged. As I said before that can take some time with crap from Kazaa, but ripping programs like EAC, MusicMatch, Winamp, etc.. will do the tagging for you, for your own CD's. They do this by contacting internet CD databases, determining which CD you are ripping, and adding the tag data to each track automatically. Sometimes you will still need to adjust them to your own format (like chaging "The Doors" to "Doors" so it shows up in he D section of the Artist list), but the same holds true for filenames on the iHP.
Of course, it all boils down to personal preference.
But one point I am making is that they are equally capable of being used on any PC without any software or drivers on the target windows PC. They both take effort to organize the music in a way that works best for the user, whether its by filenames and directories (iHP) or ID3 tags (iPod). I am arguing it is easier load music on the iPod, BECAUSE it uses a program to do so and the program manages all the archiving details for you. Both iPod and iHP are drag-n-drop loading. But the iHP requires the user to micro-manage where the music is being loaded to (directories). I am also arguing it is more effecient to manage music on the iPod, because you can see its contents in spreadsheet-like format and sort them by any catagory. I am arguing it is easier to find what you want to hear on the iPod because it sorts them by ID3-tag fields (Artist, Album, track, genre, composer), and you just pick from a list. As opposed to hunting through directories on the iHP to find what you want, with no search capability.
OK that's it. Anything I didn't consider?
