NAUTIQUE
SOUTHEASTERN MA.
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Ok Techies, steer me in the right direction.
My old Windows ME computer finally died and I replaced it with a basic Dell Inspiron 530 w/ Windows XP.
My daughters have both had IPOD Shuffles since Xmas that they couldn't use with the old Windows ME. I think that with the new XP they'll now be usable??
My questions:
* Is Itunes the way to go? What are the drawbacks? (Have'nt I read about it being "restrictive" in some ways?)
* Storing Download & CD music on computer - Can this be put on an external drive instead of the "C" drive? If so, will those cheap little USB Flash Drives work for this?
* I'd also like to get into this for my music (Take old CD's and put into an IPOD library). I'd like to put a new player in the MH that'll have IPOD connections. Is an IPOD the best way to go? What's the difference between the IPOD and one of the cheaper MP3 players?
Any and all info/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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I like iTunes just fine playing and managing my music, for buying music though I use Amazon as I will not purchase any DRM music (DRM prevents you from sharing, which is fine, but also restricts you in other ways)
The thumbdrives are fine but you may find they are to small depending on your music collection. You can also buy something like a WD Passport drive which has more like 120MB and is powered by your USB port so you won't need a separate power brick.
As of now I have a cheap Sansa player, 4GB that I bought from Woot.com a while ago - it works fine but its not perfect, My next purchase will be an iPod. Starting off cheap is fine, but you have more options and connections with an Ipod. Another choice is to skip the iPod and look for a stereo that has a USB port, then you can just slip in your thumbdrive and access the music that way.
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luvlabs
Frederick, MD
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Windows ME? - I thought that died out years ago. Anyway, iTunes works fine with XP, Vista, OS10 and so on. There are really no drawbacks to iTunes that I can think of unless you prefer to buy music elsewhere.
You can convert your old CDs for use on iTunes (it will prompt you if you put a music CD in your drive). You can create the iTunes library anywhere but it usually resides in the same folder with the program. There is really no need to use flash drives unless you like buying really large ones. You can easily transfer your library to other computers if you want to (although you'll find yourself burning a DVD or using a 4-6GB drive to do so).
IPODs are nice, work very well, and will cost a bit more than other players. (There is really no reason to install iTunes unless you are getting an IPOD. All of the players will have some kind of software to convert your music and sync to your player.) The beauty of the IPOD is that there is a ton of accessories for it - like a dock so that it will work with your sound system or complete music systems to that you can just plug into.
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rwmmdj
Georgia
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I have an IPOD Shuffle. If you have an IPOD brand, you need Itunes to manage it. It works fine with XP. However, I don't purchase alot of downloads. Less than 10.00 worth at this time. But I have used I-tunes to do it. There are lots of other options for purchasing music. I uploaded loads of CD's to Itunes, then just picked the music I wanted to transfer. It took a while, but was worth it, and I still have room, even though I only have a shuffle.
Good luck
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strollin
San Martin, CA
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Another drawback to using a USB drive besides the relatively small size (although I've seen them as large as 32G now) is that they are slow performance wise. They're also easily lost or misplaced. You would be better off with an external hard drive to store your music.
Between my 4 kids and I we have had quite a few (more than a dozen) different mp3 players. By far the least reliable/most fragile are the iPods. The best players we've used are from Creative. We consider iTunes to be one of the negatives for having an iPod.
The only area where iPods clearly are the winner is in the available accessories.
* This post was
edited 08/15/08 10:19am by strollin *
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NAUTIQUE
SOUTHEASTERN MA.
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Sooo, Do I understand correctly, that I do need Itunes to add music to my daughter's shuffles?
If I went out and bought a Creative MP3 player for myself, would I need a seperate program to use with that? (Maybe since they already have the IPODs, it would be better to stick with the IPOD?)
Isn't Itunes usually where people download their music from?
Are there other safe download sites?
I was just thinking of the flash drives to back-up music that you've bought and downloaded. I'm assuming you don't want to just keep it on the PC hard drive for space reasons and so you don't lose it if computer crashes?
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Y-Guy
Tri-Cities, WA
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would I need a seperate program to use with that?
-Yes or you can often just drag the music files to the device like you would with another drive - that is what I do with my Sansa players.
Isn't Itunes usually where people download their music from?
- They are the biggest and the largest selection, but others are out there like Amazon.com, emusic.com, aboutmusic.com, walmart.com, etc. Many of them are DRM free. If you Google "Itunes store alternative" you'll find many more. Here is a good comparison of music stores.
-I would highly recommend a back up of your music, flash or external drive. My total collection of all my ripped CDs is about 30GB so a flash drive isn't an option and I don't trust them enough to risk it. In my case I have them on a backup drive and have burnt it all to DVDs.
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jplunkett
Virginia
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I've heard of 3rd party products that can hack their way into an iPod, but since iTunes is free, why bother. iTunes can import CDs readily and it is a snap to use with the iTunes music store. It easily load media content to any of the i-series devices - Pods or Phones.
I don't have the same aversion to DRM that some do - I'm happy to pay for what I want/use, and under the iTunes approach I can use content on up to 5 devices. (No need to flame me on this - I don't care how others get their tunes). At home we are mostly an Apple shop and iTunes is a central component in our media management strategy.
safe travels,
John & Elizabeth Plunkett
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KA4EBU
memphis,tn,usa
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Joined: 01/13/2004
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I have a sansa e280 and really like it..I set to the USB mass storage mode and use explorer to copy the music..I use windows media player to rip my CD's..
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dkilley
Delta, BC, Cdn-Now in Rincon de Guayabitos-Mexico
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I used the MP3 format for my music until a few months ago when I got an I pod for me and my wife. We like them alot, I purchase from itunes, but will check out the suggestions from prevoius post. When I purchase an song from i tunes for .99, it allows me to load the song onto both ipods. I have had no probems downloading all my music onto my computer then onto the ipod except where some of the mps where made up and they do not show the title or artist name. Then you just go into song file and add this info. I am not a great computer person, so it took me a while to catch on, but it was well worth changing over to the ipod. Much more compact.
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