Audio Books

[pwalker8]

Another iTune user. I mostly buy from Audible, so I download the files, load them into iTunes and then put them in a backup directory on my drobo. Half the time, I listen on my iTouch in the car (I use a playlist to keep things in order) the other half of the time, I listen on my iPhone or iPad using the audible app. I just wish that Audible would make it a universal app and support playlists. In iTunes, I keep a couple of playlist (fiction and nonfiction) to keep track of what I haven't listened to yet.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I just wish that Audible would make it a universal app and support playlists. In iTunes, I keep a couple of playlist (fiction and nonfiction) to keep track of what I haven't listened to yet.

That would be handy. Since I have plenty of space on my iPod Touch, I download all unlistened to audiobooks to it and delete audiobooks as soon as I've finished, meaning that the Downloaded category is my to-be-read list and the Not Downloaded category is stuff I've read, but this obviously isn't ideal.

My husband doesn't use the Audible app to listen to audiobooks, so I use iTunes to keep track for him. He puts 'finished' in the Grouping box under the Info tab when he removes the audiobooks from his iPod and I use a smart playlist to sort by that.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I use MediaMonkey

High five!

MediaMonkey for the win. Itunes is bloated and finicky and it tries to take over everything on my computer. MediaMonkey is a great piece of software that gives a lot more control over how one handles audio files. Video too, now, though I haven't explored that.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by Blossom

This is why I own a Sansa Clip Zip. My libraries own mostly WMA books.

I love the Sansa players. I have a Clip+, the previous model to yours. They've got good battery life, are small and light, and are cheap enough that losing/breaking one wouldn't make me break out in tears. Support for many more formats than Apple. Paired with MediaMonkey, it's a winner for sure.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by BadBilly

I love the Sansa players. I have a Clip+, the previous model to yours. They've got good battery life, are small and light, and are cheap enough that losing/breaking one wouldn't make me break out in tears. Support for many more formats than Apple. Paired with MediaMonkey, it's a winner for sure.

You need to upgrade to the Zip. It's so much better than the Clip+ I have one of those too. What I love about the zip is I can customize it for audiobooks only. That means I turn on the player and it says Books and settings only on the flip menu. It's great! I have all the other, Radio, Sports, Music...etc hidden. It also show how much time left in an audiobook and how much time you listen to the audiobook. Album art, color display and the buttons are easier to push and SD Card lays flat so it doesn't pop out.

[BadBilly]

Originally Posted by Blossom

You need to upgrade to the Zip. It's so much better than the Clip+ I have one of those too. What I love about the zip is I can customize it for audiobooks only. That means I turn on the player and it says Books and settings only on the flip menu. It's great! I have all the other, Radio, Sports, Music...etc hidden. It also show how much time left in an audiobook and how much time you listen to the audiobook. Album art, color display and the buttons are easier to push and SD Card lays flat so it doesn't pop out.

Those do sound like nice enhancements, but I'll keep the Clip+ until it gives up the ghost. I don't do audiobooks (or music) much now. When I had a two-hour-each-way public transit commute, it was a different story. Now I usually spend my 15 minutes on the subway with my T1. I admit that a major reason for wanting the T1 over the T2 was the audio capabilities, so I'd have the option of slipping the occasional audiobook in there too.

[spruce]

Hi thanks for the great response. I use Itunes to load my Ipod but I was looking for a database programme that held meta data as well and would go searching on the internet just like the ebook prog. I will try the other programmes mentioned above to see what they are like.

[xendula]

You can add metadata in the iTunes options menu.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by xendula

You can add metadata in the iTunes options menu.

Or just right click and select "Info" from the pop-up menu.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It is except you're limited to MP3 audiobooks only. My library only has about 4,000 MP3 titles while they have voer 13,000 WMA titles.

So, umm, I THOUGHT most of the audiobooks I wanted were available as MP3s. Last night, I did some digging and set up my four library sites in an alternative browser in desktop view: in my genre, my libraries have a third of the audiobooks in MP3s and two thirds in WAV. The fact that it escaped me that I was missing something is pretty embarassing.

[new]

Originally Posted by xendula

Most of my audiobooks are borrowed from the library. I use the iPod Touch Overdrive app to listen to them, (awesome app for audiobooks!) then delete them as soon as I am done with them. The WAV files get transfered to my iPods (mostly the nano) as well, then removed. I try to avoid those, since the audio quality is horrible and the transfer too much of a hassle.

Do you mean .wma? Then it gets converted to .aac. It takes a long time, but the audio quality is fine. But I agree the transfer is too much of a hassle for Ipod. But I don't use the App, I download from library and it goes into Itunes, then I plug in the Ipod.

[xendula]

Sorry, yes, I meant WMA.

The thing is that the site detects what device you use when you browse their regular website, and based on this, you see more or less of a selection. I was not even aware of this! I usually browse from my iPad. Audiobooks that are WMA only don't show when I browse the catalog.

[Andrew H.]

I'm a two-credits-a-month Audible user since 2006 or so, first with my iPod, now with my iPhone. Until a couple of months ago I used iTunes playlists to manage my audiobooks, but I've switched to the audible app because I sometimes use whispersync for voice(tm). And I don't miss setting up playlists.

As a side note, I would recommend that anyone who listens to audiobooks a lot on a phone (or other device with bluetooth) look into getting some bluetooth headphones - I have a decent pair from Motorola that cost $35 at Amazon. Not having the headphone wires is very nice.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by new

Do you mean .wma? Then it gets converted to .aac. It takes a long time, but the audio quality is fine. But I agree the transfer is too much of a hassle for Ipod. But I don't use the App, I download from library and it goes into Itunes, then I plug in the Ipod.

It can only be converted if it's DRM-free, and the whole point of libraries using WMA is that it's a format that supports DRM.

[taosaur]

*shudder* iTunes. I'm sure it's great on Macs, but I really came to hate that beast and its many tentacles on Windows. For my audiobooks, I just use folders, and loosely organized ones at that. My audiobook players are my Android phone and tablet, so I just navigate to my PC Audiobooks folder over WiFi and grab the folder for my next 'read,' then delete it from the device(s) when I'm done.