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scottjl · 04-19-2010, 05:31 PM

Um. I already load all my own TV and movies. I've never bought a single episode off of iTunes. Yes, you have to load them in through iTunes, but you don't have to get them from there. I actually prefer to rip my own music and movies as I tend to do so at a higher quality (lame --preset extreme and HandBrake High Profile) than what Apple sells. So don't tell me you can't load your own content and have to buy from the Apple store, that simple is not true. What's wrong with using iTunes for uploading your content? You don't even have to have the content loaded into iTunes if you turn off the "Copy files into iTunes Media folder when adding to library" option. All my media is shared from a linux server running Samba. I can access it from my Macs, my PC's and other Linux servers in my household, not to mention things like an XBox 360, Wii and Network Media Tank in my home theater. I dump what I want into a playlist in iTunes and that playlist is synced into my iPad. For easy management I have separate music, move and tv show playlists. Easy to drag in and out as I decide to change content. One sync and there it goes. I sync whenever I'm back at home anyway just for backups, so it's not a hassle for changing my content. Would drag-and-drop via the Finder be easier? Actually no. Because with iTunes I don't have to navigate my huge folder structure (albums organized by artist then album name). It's easy to sort and search in iTunes. Ok. I could use Spotlight, but it isn't as easy and I'd still have to use iTunes for Podcast and application management.

Really, what's with the hatred of iTunes? While it has it's flaws, it still is a decent application for managing a music and video library. Could use some improvements to bring it up to Calibre level for books though.

You also have the option to stream using excellent programs like Air Video which even work through 3G. So you don't even have to copy the content over to the iPad, or use up your space if you're on a 16G model.

@dmaul1114, if you're using GoodReader, check out the network mount (aka. Professional Transfer). It allows you to mount your iPad as a network shared drive. From there it's a simple drag and drop, folders, files, etc. using Windows Explorer or the Finder on the Mac. Far easier than the Web page method and great for batch uploads and downloads.

04-19-2010, 05:31 PM	#30
scottjl Reader of Books Posts: 1,632 Karma: 2697 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: none	Um. I already load all my own TV and movies. I've never bought a single episode off of iTunes. Yes, you have to load them in through iTunes, but you don't have to get them from there. I actually prefer to rip my own music and movies as I tend to do so at a higher quality (lame --preset extreme and HandBrake High Profile) than what Apple sells. So don't tell me you can't load your own content and have to buy from the Apple store, that simple is not true. What's wrong with using iTunes for uploading your content? You don't even have to have the content loaded into iTunes if you turn off the "Copy files into iTunes Media folder when adding to library" option. All my media is shared from a linux server running Samba. I can access it from my Macs, my PC's and other Linux servers in my household, not to mention things like an XBox 360, Wii and Network Media Tank in my home theater. I dump what I want into a playlist in iTunes and that playlist is synced into my iPad. For easy management I have separate music, move and tv show playlists. Easy to drag in and out as I decide to change content. One sync and there it goes. I sync whenever I'm back at home anyway just for backups, so it's not a hassle for changing my content. Would drag-and-drop via the Finder be easier? Actually no. Because with iTunes I don't have to navigate my huge folder structure (albums organized by artist then album name). It's easy to sort and search in iTunes. Ok. I could use Spotlight, but it isn't as easy and I'd still have to use iTunes for Podcast and application management. Really, what's with the hatred of iTunes? While it has it's flaws, it still is a decent application for managing a music and video library. Could use some improvements to bring it up to Calibre level for books though. You also have the option to stream using excellent programs like Air Video which even work through 3G. So you don't even have to copy the content over to the iPad, or use up your space if you're on a 16G model. @dmaul1114, if you're using GoodReader, check out the network mount (aka. Professional Transfer). It allows you to mount your iPad as a network shared drive. From there it's a simple drag and drop, folders, files, etc. using Windows Explorer or the Finder on the Mac. Far easier than the Web page method and great for batch uploads and downloads. Last edited by scottjl; 04-19-2010 at 05:38 PM.