iPod iPod Classic Bites the Dust

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

Sony Walkman players are not directly compatible with iTunes.

I thought this was some kind of 80's obsolete tech joke. I had no idea that Sony still called their audio players 'Walkman.'


<sigh> I loved my cassette Walkman with those orange foam ear phones. I played the heck out of that Asia tape.

ApK

[RickF]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can you load content to it with iTunes? Not really an alternative if not!

Since I am a software engineer, let me give you the scoop. Apple does NOT tell third parties how to read the ITunes library format. That said, it's probably XML based, and one could reverse engineer it, but Apple will just keep changing it so if you try that you will alway be broken and customers will yell at you.

I'm getting my Fiio X5 tomorrow - you locate your iTunes music files and drag them to the Fiio, which shows up as a disk on your desktop. You can organize them by folders, and the device will index them itself.

You can still by stuff from iTunes ( except audio books, I think ) - buy audio books directly from audible. I for one, am dragged enough with Apple that I'll start buying my music elsewhere.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

What capacity did you end up with? exFAT is the recommended for for one of these cards and the FAT32 tables should fill up long before 128 Gig.

Dale

It depends on sector size. 512 bytes is 2 TB max and 4096 bytes is 16 TB max. I use 2 TB FAT 32 on my external hard drive backups...

Microsoft started the 127 GB myth with Win 98 to push people to NTFS....

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by HarryT

OK, so several people in this thread have talked about alternatives to the iPod which turn out not to be viable alternatives for those of us who keep our music in an iTunes library because they don't work with iTunes. What devices are available that DO work with iTunes?

Not trying to be snarky, but banging your head (so to speak) at the walls of the "walled garden" is one of the drawbacks of such "walled garden" environments...

[Jessica Lares]

Maybe we should all just stop panicking for now. Apple had the inventory to refurbish the original iPod Nano years and years later. I'm sure they're ready to deal with having to exchange parts or even refurbish these last models.

They keep parts for seven years after all.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Not trying to be snarky, but banging your head (so to speak) at the walls of the "walled garden" is one of the drawbacks of such "walled garden" environments...

Not at all, Ralph. I just really like iTunes, and have put a great deal of time over the years into organising my library the way I like it. I'm not going to throw all that effort away and go back to a primitive system of arranging my extensive classical music collection in folders, since that would take away the search facilities that I now rely on.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not at all, Ralph. I just really like iTunes, and have put a great deal of time over the years into organising my library the way I like it. I'm not going to throw all that effort away and go back to a primitive system of arranging my extensive classical music collection in folders, since that would take away the search facilities that I now rely on.

All fine and well that you really like iTunes, and maybe it suits your needs, which is wonderful.

But... where do you get the idea that it is iTunes vs. just a bunch of files in a folder-based hierarchy? iTunes is not the only music organizer out there...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

All fine and well that you really like iTunes, and maybe it suits your needs, which is wonderful.

But... where do you get the idea that it is iTunes vs. just a bunch of files in a folder-based hierarchy? iTunes is not the only music organizer out there...

I was responding to the suggestions made above that I should just drag and drop my files from folders. What would you recommend as an alternative to iTunes?

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I was responding to the suggestions made above that I should just drag and drop my files from folders. What would you recommend as an alternative to iTunes?

I use foobar2000, which does have a lot of metadata customization options (which I don't use, being a folder/drag&drop person myself), but I'm not sure if it imports all your iTunes tags.

You could also have a look at Nightingale. It says something about media import from iTunes in the features list - perhaps that's what you need.

But there must be someone here on MR who knows more...

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

All fine and well that you really like iTunes, and maybe it suits your needs, which is wonderful.

But... where do you get the idea that it is iTunes vs. just a bunch of files in a folder-based hierarchy? iTunes is not the only music organizer out there...

Originally Posted by HarryT

I was responding to the suggestions made above that I should just drag and drop my files from folders. What would you recommend as an alternative to iTunes?

I've used MediaMonkey (MM) for years and find its file organizing abilities far superior to that of iTunes. Simply put, you can have MM automatically arrange your library anyway you choose based on the file's metadata tags.

As an example, I have my music organized on my hard drive as follows (each line is directory level and the last is the file name itself):

- MediaMonkey Library
- Music
- First letter of Album Artist's Name
- Album Artist
- Album Title
- Track Number - (but only if the track number is not zero) Name.extension

When I make changes to a file's metadata, if needed, it will automatically be reorganized to reflect the changes I made.

I have used MediaMonkey with my iPod and it seems to work well, although I've had some issues when trying to use iTunes with the same iPod Classic that I used MM with (I used MM to load the music and I used iTunes to load the podcasts and videos). It's likely that I will have to use either iTunes or MM to manage my iPod's content, not both at the same time.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ApK

I thought this was some kind of 80's obsolete tech joke. I had no idea that Sony still called their audio players 'Walkman.'


<sigh> I loved my cassette Walkman with those orange foam ear phones. I played the heck out of that Asia tape.

ApK

I sometimes miss the simple days of the cassette. Take a cassette, put a few songs on it, pop it in the player, and take it with you. Although the sound quality of pre-recorded cassettes wasn't that good, with a little bit of work you could make great sounding cassettes yourself.

Although Sony has discontinued the cassette Walkman, they still are releasing Walkman players. I just checked the Sony website and there are six different players available.

The current Walkman players are flash-based and I've found them to be excellent and easy-to-use players. In some ways easier to use that the iPod Classic, especially when it comes to managing the music on your player (unlike the iPod Classic, you can use pretty much any music management software you choose).

The main drawback is that the players they release in the U. S. is that they are limited to a maximum of 16GB (the website does show a seventh player that has 64GB of storage but it has not been released). This is one of the main reasons that I purchased an iPod Classic, much like a short battery life caused me to choose a Sony Walkman over a Third Generation iPod Classic when I got my first Walkman flash player.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

The main drawback is that the players they release in the U. S. is that they are limited to a maximum of 16GB (the website does show a seventh player that has 64GB of storage but it has not been released).

And very spendy at $300. Unlike the other Sony's, it takes mSD cards (up to 128GB).

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

And very spendy at $300. Unlike the other Sony's, it takes mSD cards (up to 128GB).

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

One of life's cruelties - allowing this man to sing

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

I've used MediaMonkey (MM) for years and find its file organizing abilities far superior to that of iTunes. Simply put, you can have MM automatically arrange your library anyway you choose based on the file's metadata tags.

As an example, I have my music organized on my hard drive as follows (each line is directory level and the last is the file name itself):

- MediaMonkey Library
- Music
- First letter of Album Artist's Name
- Album Artist
- Album Title
- Track Number - (but only if the track number number is not zero) Name.extension

When I make changes to a file's metadata, if needed, it will automatically be reorganized to reflect the changes I made.

I have used MediaMonkey with my iPod and it seems to work well, although I've had some issues when trying to use iTunes with the same iPod Classic that I used MM with (I used MM to load the music and I used iTunes to load the podcasts and videos). It's likely that I will have to use either iTunes or MM to manage my iPod's content, not both at the same time.

Thanks - I'll take a look at it.