I need some tech help. My 17 year old daughter wants an MP3 player for Christmas. I have been told that to download from ITUNES you must use an IPOD. Is this true or can she download from ITUNES to any MP3? She would rather have more GB than brand name. She likes the Zen 4GB unit. Any help or suggestions much appreciated.

dave

itunes = ipod for the most part

the older versions allowed the Rio players to work, but not now.

my mom washed my ipod in the washer, and now the hard drive doesnt work. the thing boots up though, which is freaking unbelievable.

I'v had 2 iPods now. I traded my 3 year old GenIII for a new one with video support. Can't say enought nice things about them. My old one lasted with daily use. Running, use in my car, use in the rain, use on boats... it just kept running. I only traded it in because I wanted to be able to ise my iPod to download pics from my digital camera while on vacation.

You don't have to use iTunes to org your music, and lots of people do not like it. If you like iTunes, I think you plretty much have to get an ipod for everyhting to work properly.

Zach

My son and daughter both have iPods, and finally my wife and I got some too. I'd just say make it easy on yourselves and get the iPod. It seems everything is designed to work with them, so why make your life harder. iTunes seems to work pretty well as well. Altogether, the Apple computers and iPods are pretty amazing and seem to work flawlessly, much more than my PCs at work.

I'm going to try to make up the wiring to allow me to hook up the iPod directly to my power amp, bypassing the head unit altogether. This should make it easier to listen to tunes on the go, and it's a whole lot smaller than a CD changer.

I have the old version of the iPod shuffle, which has a USB connection, like a flash drive, so you don't have to have another cable. I really like that. What I don't like, and I'm not sure if this is a Shuffle thing or an iPod thing, but I can't use it with anything other than the iTunes software, or on more than 1 computer (I can't sync with work and home) but that's probably not a big deal for her. I think with other brands you have more flexibility out side of iTunes. But as said above, if iTunes is what she want then the iPod is the way to go.

side note - my hubby has a mp3 player by CreativeLabs and he loves it. Its easy to use, cheaper per gig of memor than iPod, can still download from lots of places. But its not as pretty

Let me start out by saying that Creative stuff is THE BEST (IMHO). I've washed my Creative stuff, dropped it out wondows and nothing has died yet.

IDK exactly how iTunes works because we just share files on the network at school (but I didn't say that if anyone works for RIAA).

Sorry I can't help you out with the iTues part, I just thoguht I would put in a vote for Creative stuff.


Now, for the rest of you, can music be taken off of iTunes through "legal" means? :shrug:

With other brands you do have more flexability with how you move your music around. Forinstance, an iPod will let you upload music to it, but will not let you download music from it. There are work arounds for this, but are not supported by apple and I don't think that any of them work with itunes.

Wiring to go into an amp is pretty easy, depending on the amp. Just go to radio shack and get a cable that has a mini-jack on one end to plug into the headphone jack, and a set of RCA connectors on the other side to plug into the audio in or aux in on your amp. The RCA end will be more or less permanant, but thats okay, you just need the minijack to be there for you. If you are a non-smoker, clear out your ashtray and it makes a handy hidden ipod holder with a very little work. :-)

Zach

ipod is the way.

Sorry for the , but Zach, how did you go about trading your Gen II in? I wanted to be able to do the same thing as you. Contact ITunes store?
Thnx

I would be inclined to agree
Creative has some great products and incredible sound processing
If you want a player that sounds good, works well, and is incredibly tough, go with Creative
That is, of course, if you don't care about having all of the accessories that apple offers

I have a Creative MuVo TX FM

I bought it because it is a standard USB 2 memory key. That's cool because there are no cables. Just plug it into a USB port like any other memory key. Store whatever you want on it.... Office docs, pics, videos, music, whatever. When you start it up standalone it automatically plays the MP3 files. Plus it has an FM radio built in.

Bottom line:
If you want to use ITunes, get an Ipod.
If you don't care about ITunes and you get your MP3 files from other sources (like me) then there are way cooler products than the Ipod.

I had a Dell DJ when they first came out. Of course it took a one month after the warranty expired. I always kind of had a difficult time though downloading music from sites like buymusic.com. There always seemed like a lot of steps involved. I agree with some of the other people. The Ipod is the way to go. I have a 30 GB version that supports video, and downloadin on Itunes is super easy. Just click "buy now" and it appears in your music library. No need to find the file and transfer it or any of that nonsense.

Ipod all the way. What do you think all the other stuff is imitating?

For an audiophile like me, the actual expensive stuff is external hardrive storage disks- because I don't like the sound of compressed MP3 music- I upload my CD's as complete files. So I use dual 250GB external drives (to back each other up, and not bog down the computer). My ipod meanwhile is 4GB (a mini) definitely love the small size that's super portable. I only fit about 7 full lentgh CD's onto my Ipod at any one time. So I just change it every week or two if I want. And yes Itunes is the best. It's like an excel program for music- it lets you categorize your music by any type of attribute- and search it visa versa. That's what all the columns are about. Very utilitarian. Although I would never buy music from the itunes store- definetly a rip off at $1 per song which only plays on that player forever. Might as well own the CD. And yes- mini jack cable to RCA plugged into your home receiver, amplifier, mixer or whatever works like any other device sending line level audio.

My advice- get a cheap Ipod nano. Don't worry about the GB size, small is better then not ipod. MP3 compressed sound is actually 'the trend' these days. And it only takes a quick 'double click drag and drop' to change the Ipods music. Be prepared for maybe 20-60GB of storage though on the computer.

I have a Creative Zen Micro and love it. Great bang for the buck. 6GB, AM/FM and you can record off the radio (oh yeah!). All for under 200 bucks last xmas.

EDIT: no AM...see post below

With AM too? There are a lot of models with FM radio, but the only one I've been able to find so far with AM is the Radio Yourway. I'll have to take another look at the Creative stuff.

I just checked, its actually FM only. I could have sworn it had AM. My bad.

still a great but and you never need to install any software either, works directly with WMP. I don't think they make this model anymore but they must have something comparable.

I've always liked creative's stuff, dating back from the time my buddy put a sound card in a 33mHz pc and we played castle wolfenstein all night long....

More info please!!

got to get into this stuff....

How about audio books?

can I upload any wma or mp3 to ipod?

Yes I have a few Audio books, as well as old time radio shows. I like listening to them when I get burned out on music...

I have owned both of them and had more problems with the ipod. My ipod corrupted itself through itunes it never worked again. I have a creative muvo2 that i bought of ebay for 40 bucks that has lasted forever and the audio was much better than the ipod. Stop the Ipod MP3 monopoly and buy something that works.

Funny, I steered away from PC's because they kept crashing. Now it's Mac and I'll never go back.

Re: trading in a gen III iPod for a new one. I just walked into a Mac store at the mall the day before my honemoon. I told them what I wanted, they asked what i had. I walked in with aseveral year old 40gig GenIII and walked out with an 80gig Video, with the camera dock. Apple cuts 10% off for the trade in program, so you are not going to save a bundle. But it was enough to pay for the tax, and get me the camera doc for no extra money.

As far as buying music from iTunes, I can not reccomend it. There are so many places out there that are cheaper. Plus, and this is big, iTunes uses an apple propritary encoding (aac I think) on its music. This keeps the music from being "shared" and also limits how many computers it can be active on. Fuck that. If I am going to buy compressed music, I am going to buy MP3s that I can use where and how I want.

I get my music from www.allofmp3.com. You get entire albums there for the cost of 2 or 3 songs on iTunes. I think that they also have a broader selection of music.

For audio books (which I listen to every morning and evening while commuting to work and home) I use www.audible.com. I am on one of thier subscrition plans. Its something like $25 a month, and you get 2 free books a month. As it happens, I listen to about 2 books a month, so it works out quite well.

Zach

only experience is with the ipod with video...

It'll import all your mp3's regardless of source. There is a limitless supply of music/video/audio files. Almost everyone makes it ipod compatible.

There are lots of free converters / rippers out there to help get both movies, short clips and music ready for your ipod. iTunes works ok.

We did have one incident where we had to reset the ipod....but like everything else on computers, we had backups of files....you do backup right?

I've got no head unit at all - a patch wire from ipod to the amp works great.

HTH,