advice sought: ipods

[Mildly Diverting]

Right, either I am the world's biggest idiot or Apple is the son of Satan. I've painstakingly got my itunes library back and finally got all the artwork for each album. So, I sync the ipod and get about 10% of it loaded, cos stupid here has forgotten the majority of his collection is on an external hard drive that he's disconnected. Simple, me thinks, let's just plug in the drive and re-sync. Oh no, that would be too simple wouldn't it? The i-pod can't remember where my files were stored and at present I'm having to click 'get info' for every frigging song so that little i-pod can remember where the source file was! I am 6,000 clicks away from insanity.

Please tell me I'm stupid and that there's a way around this.

[no_offenc]

If you've got all the music backed up on an external couldn't you just wipe the library, sync the iPod up so it clears the library on THAT, and then re-add all those tracks to the library and then re-sync so they're all copied over?  Or something.  Unless you want to preserve play counts and ratings and whatnot.

[Mildly Diverting]

Yeah, I was just hoping that somebody had experienced something like this before and could come up with a single click solution. I've spent the best part of a day trying to get this library right and have had just about as much as I can take! Damn you, Apple, damn you. If only the new i-rivers weren't so rubbish.

[Futurebobbers]

I used to keep half my iTunes library on an external hard drive.

This is dependant on you having left iTunes default setting of "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" switched on.

If you have, then the external should have a properly formatted iTunes folder on it, containing a couple of XML files plus your music. In iTunes preferences, under 'advanced>general' change the location of your library to the external.

When you restart iTunes, all the music from the external should be accessible. The music from your internal drive may or may not have vanished, if it has, just put it back.

If you switched "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" OFF at some point, then you're stuck unless you delete your whole library and re add the files.

This post for entertainment purposes only!

[Ignatius_S]

Tried the 'Consolidate Library' option in one of the iTunes menus?

[wheatgod]

So,

What are the non-Apple equivalents of the iTouch? I fancy music and half-decent internet on the move, but have a distaste for Apple.

Have tried googling, but all I get is Apple fansites....

[Paaaaul]

So,

What are the non-Apple equivalents of the iTouch? I fancy music and half-decent internet on the move, but have a distaste for Apple.

Have tried googling, but all I get is Apple fansites....

These look pretty awesome -Archos 605 - http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en

[Fry]

These look pretty awesome -Archos 605 - http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en

My dad's got one of those, they are pretty fantastic.  When watching video the battery lasts him long enough to get from portsmouth to london and back on a train, at least.  And it has quite a good tv recording function
But they don't look as cool.


A little while back my Itunes started crashing whenever I go to close it for no reason whatsoever. iIt's really annoying, I've updated it and re-installed it, all that jazz. But no luck. Any help?

(I'm on vista)

[Paaaaul]

My dad's got one of those, they are pretty fantastic.  When watching video the battery lasts him long enough to get from portsmouth to london and back on a train, at least.  And it has quite a good tv recording function
But they don't look as cool.


A little while back my Itunes started crashing whenever I go to close it for no reason whatsoever. iIt's really annoying, I've updated it and re-installed it, all that jazz. But no luck. Any help?

(I'm on vista)

Who cares? It looks cool ; )

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm looking at those Archos 605s, and they look sexy as fuck. The 40gig ones are below £200, and I'm doing all the price-checking, and it seems Dixons are about the best bet for them...but I don't need one! It's just another toy! Come on Mort, resist!

I feel better for that. I'd rather save up and go on some hols somewhere nice than have another bit of electrics.

[alan nagsworth]

do it do it do it do it do it

[Huzzie]

Hiya Whores.

As great as I think the Ipod is, there have been a few things that have really bugged me about it. Things that just make life harder than it needs to be.

Happily I have recently, through a lot of trial and error, found some work arounds to help with these nuisances.

For some of you, this will be already known, maybe most or even all of you know this but seeing as I had to find it accidentally and none of my Ipod owning mates knew about it, I am taking it for granted that I might be at least able to help one person here.

Anyway, as I said, I have recently discovered these little (it really is little, nothing exciting) work around and there was no one else in the World I wanted to share it with (well, no one else I could be arsed going out of my way to share it with), so, I hope it comes in handy.

Selecting multiple tracks in Itunes has always been a pain, you could never drag the highlighter thing over it, like you can with pictures or text (what is that process called), so for me, being someone who has never learnt any keyboard shortcuts (I've always done everything with the mouse), it has been a reet fucking pain, especially using the laptop... keep finger on ctrl, while going down the list individually clicking each record. I was so fucking chuffed when I realised that (and this will be obvious to those of you who know keyboard shortcuts), for a extra-fast way of highlighting multiple tracks, keep your finger on the shift key, then use the up or down arrow kers to highlight all the ones you want. Then you can right click the big blue box and edit the group as a whole.

The next one had been really doing my nut in. I'm sure some of you have had the same problem, my two closest mates who have Ipods defo have. Now that everything has moved to digital and files, us hoarders and collectors, the most anal of music fans have become depressed with the missing hard copy, the beautiful 12"s, like the thousands of my dad's that I would study since before I could read (my first musical love was The Beatles, which was started by my 6-7 year old self going through pop's records, coming across the Srgnt Pepps and being completely engrossed by the cover, then sitting on my dad's knee while he told me all about them, told me about the people in the cover and who the band was inside) and having your own large collection of records and CD's that make you the proudest music lover in the land. I'm gibbering now but the point is, Cover Flow has gone .5% to fixing that. As far away from the real thing as it is, it is still nice to be able to see all those great covers when you choose your song.

But, what's this?!? You've spent the last two hours uploading your covers to the Ipod, finally finish only to find that 10% of them are blanked out! How frustrating!! If any of you have tried to remedy this by just re-uploading the image file, you will know that it still doesn't work. No, what you need to do to get rid of the blanked (black) covers in "cover-flow" is to delete the images of that album, one by one, track by track. Again, it makes it a hell of a lot faster and easier using keyboard short cuts. Go to the first song in the album and press "Edit", then go to the last tab (artwork). For some reason, the first two tracks will only work by using the mouse (or pad) and clicking the delete/next button but after the first two tracks/covers, simply press the D key (for delete), then the N key (for next) until you are on the first track of the next album.
Then, use the forst point to highlight all the tracks of the album (you'll know all this bit but just for the sake of completion), click "Edit" and drag the album cover into the small box on the right hand side.

You really do need to delete the covers one by one if it is blank or corrupted.

I use Amazon to get my covers, it's just really easy. What I used to do though is, go to the album page and then click the cover for a higher-res pop-up but, don't do this! For some reason, half the time it will shrink the image when on your ipod. So, you will be looking through the albums in your cover flow and every now and again one will be baby sized. I dunno why this happens but if you drag the image straight from it's page (ex. Go Amazon, click Abbey Road, click on the right album so it goes to the page which describes the album and has reviews and from there, drag the image file into Itunes, DON'T click the image and drag the pop up) to your Ipod in Itunes. This way, I have never had a mini-cover on my Itunes.

There were two more "tips" I wanted to tell you about but I cannae amember them now. When/if I do, I'll come and edit this.

Just while I'm here....
I'm sure you all know about the volume restricter on EU Ipods. This is because the Germans have a law where only so many decibels are allowed to be used by portable stereo's. This is why you can barely hear Nick Cave SCREEEAMMM when walking down the Main Road. There is a simple way though to knock off the limiter (I have an 80Gb, Vid Classic and I haven't been able to use the hack on this but It worked well for the older Ipods I have had. I also doubt it will work with the fancy new one).

1.) goPod - This program uncaps your iPod's max volume level.
http://gopod.free-go.net/#

2.) euPod - This program also uncaps your iPod's max volume level but can also boost your .mp3 volume a little more using mp3gain.
I've never actually used this one before, so I'll just give you the search pages for it, so you can read more about it.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=eupod&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

OK. I really hope this has been of some help to at least one person.
And I hope you are all really well.
All the best you mothers!
Huzzie
xoxo

EDIT: I should just say actually. I know not one of you lot is less intelligent than I am(which isn't saying much, what I mean is, you are all a really bright bunch) but I feel the need to say this, just in case. I have never, ever had a problem with GoPod and I have never, ever heard anyone have a problem with GoPod or EuPod but, I would suggest that you are careful none the less, in fact, it is never a bad idea to back up your Ipod, especially if it has a lot of records on that you don't have other copies of. Though I have not used it yet, I have Ipod Copy Expert to back up all my tracks. http://www.ipod-computer.com/

Also, the best software (by a mile) I have found so far to convert video files to be played on the Ipod is Videora. Dead simple, good control and never had one problem with the finished film. http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/ and, it's FREE!

[Marvin]

Huzzie! How are you doing?

Stay a while?

[Huzzie]

Hiya Marv.

Good to see you about, mate.

I'm getting off again now. I finally got my head down and got motivated to get on with my work today. Had two weeks off for Easter hols and didn't do one thing, so I decided to have this week off too to catch up and only today, Thursday, have I done owt!! I did get an assigment finished anyway.

So, I'm going to be mosying again.
I hope you and everyone else are all doing really, really well and are all loony-like happy with life.
All the best to you all.
Huzzie

P.s. As I said in the "bye bye" post, I would be more than happy to hear from any of you by email. Huzzie@gmail.com

[Huzzie]

WOWZERS!!

I just had to come back on to show you my latest accidental discovery.
I hope this isn't common knowledge to everyone, it's great.
I was just going to change the genre on my Beatles records, which is all the albums, plus a load of boots etc.
A bit pissed off I had to do so many tracks and worried I would accidentally go one track over onto the next artist and have to start all over again, I highlighted half a dozen at the top of the list and then went to the bottom to start there and go up to meet the highlighted tracks at the top.

What I found though is, highlighting one song and then highlighing another anywhere else in your library, whilst keeping your finger on the SHIFT key, will automatically highlight every single track in between the two!!

How ace!


OK. Bye bye you Human people.

[Futurebobbers]

Before going to Amazon for the artwork, you can try right clicking on the track(s) and clicking "Get Album Artwork". If the album is available from the iTunes Store, it'll download the artwork and apply it to your music. It does this even on music imported from CD or downloaded elsewhere.

like the thousands of my dad's that I would study since before I could read (my first musical love was The Beatles, which was started by my 6-7 year old self going through pop's records, coming across the Srgnt Pepps and being completely engrossed by the cover, then sitting on my dad's knee while he told me all about them, told me about the people in the cover and who the band was inside)

But just think how much time you'll be able to save by simply emailing your son a zip file containing all your album art.

[Famous Mortimer]

For a laugh, I put in a stupidly low bid on an Archos 605 on eBay, and to my surprise won it. So in a few days, if all goes well, I'll be the proud owner of another gadget I don't really need (but can afford, a lunchtime check of my finances reveals). I'm toying with the idea of replacing the firmware with nice juicy hacked firmware, but it looks from my preliminary searches that although the Linux code has been broken, there's a ton of fiddly stuff to program round and a full working system isn't up yet. I begrudge paying for the right to use the wi-fi function (although I'm always travelling at the mo, so it might be handy if I can't find a way round it).

[Steve Lampkins]

Before going to Amazon for the artwork, you can try right clicking on the track(s) and clicking "Get Album Artwork". If the album is available from the iTunes Store, it'll download the artwork and apply it to your music. It does this even on music imported from CD or downloaded elsewhere.

Just a note to say that you need an iTunes store account, and I think you need a credit card to sign up for that. I used my credit card, even though I've not (and probably never will) buy anything from there - just so I could easily get the artwork. Works pretty well (if your tags are OK) and nice sized images as well.

[Futurebobbers]

I'd forgotten that. They'll take a debit card too. Worth signing up to the itunes store even if you have no plans of buying music through them, it's an easy way to get (free) podcasts and the weekly free song is sometimes good.

[Ignatius_S]

More iPhone, than iPod, but I now they've been raised here... they're shaving £100 off the cost of the 8GB handset.

Couple of friends told me that this is to clear inventory in advance of a new model being introduced.

[Steve Lampkins]

3G version probably coming in June.