MP3 player rant
- Thread starter Stereodude
- Start date
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Supposedly there's a 32GB microSD card someplace out in the world. If that's the case, my phone just got a whole lot more interesting.
Stereodude
Not really a
I've got a 16GB microSDHC in my 8GB Sandisk Sansa Fuze, for a total of 24GB of music. Unfortunately the SDHC standard stops at 32GB, so that's the end of the road.
ddrueding
Fixture
I have a 16GB, but my phone doesn't like it full of MP3s.
Stereodude
Not really a
The beauty of mp3s is that you don't have to. :lol:
Seriously though, I've got way more than 32GB of MP3s ripped from CDs I've bought.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
There's always this option (and it's bigger brothers).
http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-audio/cat-recorders/product-PCMM10/B/
I've purchased only a limited numer of CDs over the years and likely received more as gifts than anything else. I'd probably not find 32GB of music worth listening to. I'm not much into music now anyway, having mostly lost interest after the 70's. But I'm not a StereoDude. Maybe I should be the FF Dude.
ddrueding
Fixture
That looks like a bootlegger's dream...
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm looking for a player that can output to VGA and loop a video clip on an external monitor. Cheaper is better, the clip is likely to be 5 minutes or less.
Sansa Fuse for $80? Can it do it?
Sansa Fuse for $80? Can it do it?
Stereodude
Not really a
Temptation is indeed cyclical. :diablo:So uh... the iPod classic is back to 160GB (though in the thinner form factor). Too bad they don't still offer the slightly thicker iPod classic because it would be 320GB now.
Like it or not, the 160GB iPod classic is the largest capacity player out there. However, I still won't use iTunes. I actually ordered an iPod classic 160GB the time I was last posting in this thread, but canceled the order when it was revealed that Apple broke compatibility with the 3rd party apps to load music on it. Most have corrected that deficiency and work again.
Temptation must be cyclical. :nono:
I'm back on this idea for getting a lot more music into my car without having to burn CD-R's full of mp3's. I did some extensive digging on the various apps, and there's no clear winner IMHO on how to get music onto an iPod without using iTunes under Windows XP. Someone suggested creating a directory of just the music you want on your iPod player, let iTunes have it's way with it, and keep my real collection of mp3's away from it.
Stereodude
Not really a
No, but to what? There aren't any other 160GB players out there.
Well zune is up to 120. Archos is up at 160gb or 500gb. Also there are HD based head units you can get for your car too now. Not sure how it gets into the car but maybe wifi, memory stick based or the drive docks at home.
That's a good plan with your MP3's too, keeping a virgin set away from itunes that is. Personally I avoid itunes and the apple empire so I have no advice there.
That's a good plan with your MP3's too, keeping a virgin set away from itunes that is. Personally I avoid itunes and the apple empire so I have no advice there.
ddrueding
Fixture
A nettop under your seat with a 7" touchscreen would do nicely.
Fushigi
Storage Is My Life
Mine (a newer version of this) auto-rips inserted CDs. It reads the CD's info or uses an on-board GraceNote db for title info. It has iPod/MP3 player/USB stick integration and can play MP3 CDs & DVDs; not sure if you can copy media from them to the HD though.
The HD is only 40GB and you don't get all of that for music as it also stores the navi maps and so on. But that's fine with me; I can always supplement with a USB stick or my Sansa View if I find the need.
Stereodude
Not really a
Well based on what I read, the Zune requires proprietary software to load music on it just like the iPod and people say it sucks worse than iTunes. The Archos devices are quite a bit larger and the reviewers don't have nice things to say about the UI.
What aftermarket HD based head units are you referring to? I'm not aware of any. I looked into head units that have a USB connection for a HD or flash drive, but almost have some sort of gotcha in terms of the number of files they support, or how the folders can be organized. Then they don't meet my requirements of having time alignment and 3-way crossover capability. The best one I found is the discontinued Clarion DXZ785USB. It reportedly can handle almost 131,000 mp3s and has time alignment and 3-way crossover. Unfortunately navigating folders on it's display is completely miserable (from the user videos I saw) with only 2 lines of text and folder names that don't immediately appear, but fade / scroll in. :tdown:
Trust me, I don't like Apple and would rather not support them, but I don't see a lot of viable other alternatives out there. At some point I've got to stop making thing hard on myself just to stick it to Apple.
Stereodude
Not really a
I guess that's a possibility assuming I can live without seeing the screen...
ddrueding
Fixture
Stereodude
Not really a
Yeah, unfortunately that wouldn't work for me. It doesn't have 3-way crossover capability or time alignment.
I thought about the whole carputer with monitor thing, but there's not room in my dash for a monitor + my current HU and I haven't seen any satisfactory way to get 3-way crossover + TA with just a PC. Using the Aux input on my HU and a MP3 player really seems to be my best option.
Stereodude
Not really a
And just in case anyone thinks I'm morphing into Udaman part deux and have a raging stiffy for all things Apple, I have given this a lot of thought and can't come up with a better solution than the 160GB iPod as much as I dislike Apple. A few people did suggest Songbird + the iPod plugin for software on another forum instead of iTunes.
ddrueding
Fixture
Can't blame you really, it is the easiest and most obvious solution.
Stereodude
Not really a
I'm trying out the Songbird software right now. We'll see how it behaves after importing a boatload of mp3s.
Stereodude
Not really a
Well, it's a little sluggish on this old Pentium-M accessing the files over 802.11g, but not horrible. You still l can't exactly test out the iPod syncing without having an iPod for the software to see. It looks like you just drag content from the library to the iPod and then it does its thing.
I guess this is the push over the edge that I needed.
I guess this is the push over the edge that I needed.
Stereodude
Not really a
Well, as an update, Songbird does not work with my 7th Gen iPod Classic. Rather than try every other iPod management program to find one that works, I decided to give iTunes a shot. It's a bit quirky though not too bad. It had some odd music sorting characteristics based on the "tags" that I had to figure out. I attempted to minimize the manipulation of the files by iTunes and used other programs to edit "fix" the tags on the files so they were handled as I wanted.
I created a separate collection of my music just for iTunes to see. In order to fit more music on my iPod I converted all my lossless music to AAC using Foobar and Nero's AAC encoder (-q= .5) rather than using the LAME -V 1 files I use on my other mp3 players.
I created a separate collection of my music just for iTunes to see. In order to fit more music on my iPod I converted all my lossless music to AAC using Foobar and Nero's AAC encoder (-q= .5) rather than using the LAME -V 1 files I use on my other mp3 players.
How large of a collection did you let iTunes index? When I let it scan my entire collection, it becomes more of a turd with respect to UI performance. I also can't stand the gapless detection that constantly tries to run.
Also, wait and see what happens if you ever decide to reinstall your base OS and then reinstall iTunes. It'll make you reformat your iPod even if it's your own music (none iTunes purchases). I just went through this the other day. I also couldn't get drag & drop to work to drag music into my phone.
Also, wait and see what happens if you ever decide to reinstall your base OS and then reinstall iTunes. It'll make you reformat your iPod even if it's your own music (none iTunes purchases). I just went through this the other day. I also couldn't get drag & drop to work to drag music into my phone.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Apple people will quickly tell you anything you think is wrong with itunes is your own fault.
The largest collection I've ever had to work with was about 450GB, at which point it became an absolute dog, performance-wise. I'd hate to see how it would mangle 1.5TB, but since most of my stuff is .flac files, it probably wouldn't know what to do in the first place.
The largest collection I've ever had to work with was about 450GB, at which point it became an absolute dog, performance-wise. I'd hate to see how it would mangle 1.5TB, but since most of my stuff is .flac files, it probably wouldn't know what to do in the first place.
Stereodude
Not really a
Around 25k songs.
The UI isn't exactly peppy, but I'm not using the UI for anything other than importing my music and hitting the sync button. It only ran the gapless detection when I first imported all my music, but iTunes was basically locked up while it scanned all my music.
If it deletes all my music and then copies it all back to the iPod again after re-installing the OS I guess I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. It's just a waste of time, but eh... I wanted a 160GB MP3 player and these are the fun consequences.
Any Apple person I've discussed this with hasn't ever refuted that it sucks or told me it was my own fault. They just accept it.
I don't think it has native support for flac, so you're right, it wouldn't know what to do with them.
My library is about 170GB (35K songs) and the UI isn't peppy at all. I was too impatient to let the gapless detection run for hours which is why it's tries to start up all the time. Mine also locked up during this. Since mine is a phone, it also tries to run other processes for optimizing my photos which is crud.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The standard argument I get (on another forum) is that I should relax and let itunes decide how best to manage my music collection, so I don't have to think about it any more, that it works eleventy times better on OSX than on Windows, and that any kind of application errors, database errors or synchronization errors are the result of user errors.
Two of the people I regularly argue about (and I do so at least once a day) claim to be current or former Apple Genuises.
The only system where I have itunes installed is my Hackintosh, but even there I don't use it, and of course the only time I really come into contact with it is when it's already broken on somebody's computer.
Maybe I don't get much rebuttal because these discussions occur in person rather than on the internet. I'm usually in rant-mode when anything iTunes comes to light, so it might be intimidating...I don't know.
I wouldn't ever dare let iTunes manage my library organization. That's not to say I have anything great, but I certainly don't want them mucking with my music or rearranging or deleting any of it.
I really can't imagine iTunes works better on a mac...but I guess it's possible. The UI and design of managing the music doesn't change, so that's an instant fail no matter what OS it's on. I won't even install iTunes on my desktop. my laptop is the one to wear the burden of all 20 services they feel are important to install.
I wouldn't ever dare let iTunes manage my library organization. That's not to say I have anything great, but I certainly don't want them mucking with my music or rearranging or deleting any of it.
I really can't imagine iTunes works better on a mac...but I guess it's possible. The UI and design of managing the music doesn't change, so that's an instant fail no matter what OS it's on. I won't even install iTunes on my desktop. my laptop is the one to wear the burden of all 20 services they feel are important to install.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I think some of the UI issues go away when it's using standard display libraries instead of a bunch of non-native weirdness, and just like IE and WMP on Windows, a lot of the stuff itunes is doing is built in to system libraries anyway. That probably is helpful.
Does uda still show up to post unending streams of Apple fanboy nonsense? Maybe he'll put in a command performance for both the SF people who haven't put him on ignore yet.
Does uda still show up to post unending streams of Apple fanboy nonsense? Maybe he'll put in a command performance for both the SF people who haven't put him on ignore yet.
Stereodude
Not really a
Weird.. Mine does the gapless detection routine on my 25k files in a few minutes. I was able to go from no music loaded in iTunes to completely done loading my collection (artwork, gapless detection, etc...) for the ~25k files I fed it in no more than 30 minutes. It might have been even less than that. I didn't keep too close of tabs on it. All of the files are on a local HD if that matters.
Stereodude
Not really a
I heard it still sucks on OS X if you have a pile of files. My strong suspicion is that in general most Apple users don't have massive collections of music.
While I begrudgingly have used iTunes to load music onto my iPod, but I couldn't imagine actually trying to use it listen to music.
While I begrudgingly have used iTunes to load music onto my iPod, but I couldn't imagine actually trying to use it listen to music.
ddrueding
Fixture
I suspect most apple users don't know they don't have to buy music from iTunes. If I were paying $0.99 for songs I already owned (as some of my users have), my library wouldn't be that big, either.
My iTunes is installed on my laptop and my music is on my main computer so I was indexing and doing the gapless over the network which is why it was going to take so long. I eventually connected via GigE to reduce the time dramatically but I eventually gave up on the gapless.
Stereodude, have you tried CopyTrans Manager for your iPod? I just started looking at it but haven't installed it yet. Seems it's compatible...
Stereodude
Not really a
I haven't tried it. iTunes seems to work OK for the sole purpose of loading music onto my iPod. I couldn't fathom trying to use it for music playback on a PC, but it passable for loading music on the iPod.