ok...I'm sure nearly all of you are iPod experts by now...

[BrunoRepublic]

I hate to break it to you, but iTunes/iPod *is* already by far the simplest, easiest-to-use software/media player out there -- that's part of the reason why they're so popular (the iPod *wasn't* the first portable digital audio player out there, but the first one to get everything right).

I don't see how it could possibly be made any simpler. My old MiniDisc walkman was far more of a fuss. With iTunes, all the advanced, complicated stuff (bit-rates, format, etc.) is hidden away for advanced users, whereas everything you need to get started is up-front. Put a regular CD into your computer and it automatically downloads the artist name and track titles, and asks you if you want it to be added to your library. Click on the artist name in your library, and it will take you to the iTunes store to show you what else is available. I realize this is of little use to those of us who are interested mainly in music from 25 - 35 years ago which has never been reissued on CD, but you can't fault Apple for gearing the product to the mainstream audiences of today.

Digital formats are a whole new way of handling recorded music. They open up a whole new range of possibilities, like dynamic playlists and customized albums, they are easy to share, and being able to take a huge collection of music wherever you go would've been the stuff of science fiction even 20 years ago. But you first have to learn about what they are, and how they work... much like someone would need to know the differences between an LP, a 12" single, a 45, and maybe even a 78... and how you will need different settings, and possibly different equipment to play them on. Or how cassettes, DATs, and a reel-to-reels are all tapes, but they have very different benefits and uses.

It may seem quite complicated, but I don't think it's any more difficult than older recordable formats, just different. Take the humble, simple audio cassette: for good results you need to understand recording level settings, tape formulations (type I, II, IV), length (i.e. why C-120 tapes are *not* a good investment), Dolby types, and if you really want the best sound, alignment and calibration.

I'm still not clear on how you're getting your music onto digital format in the first place. Are you recording vinyl onto a CD-R, and then extracting that on the computer? That might not be ideal...

* I know I know, CDs are obviously digital too, but nowadays most people use the word "digital" to refer exclusively to non-physical formats, so I'm going with common terminology here.

[canadiantire]

What about passing the source of your nightmares to a current Ipod Touch user just to see where the problem resides?

The nice thing about these expensive toys is that they are interchangeable. You can actually use some of the (newer-legally-purchased) MP3s from another computer in order to test it.

After reading all these lines, I am still unsure where the problem comes from in this case (the computer or the Ipod itself).

I believe it worth giving this little extra effort before you put your new purchase to sleep.


There must be some "knowledgeable" user around you (no offense here) who could give your iPod a test drive from a different computer environment.

There's gotta be something to fix this...

[Cory Ander]

Originally Posted by canadiantire

What about passing the source of your nightmares to a current Ipod Touch user just to see where the problem resides?

The nice thing about these expensive toys is that they are interchangeable. You can actually use some of the (newer-legally-purchased) MP3s from another computer in order to test it.

After reading all these lines, I am still unsure where the problem comes from in this case (the computer or the Ipod itself).

I believe it worth giving this little extra effort before you put your new purchase to sleep.


There must be some "knowledgeable" user around you (no offense here) who could give your iPod a test drive from a different computer environment.

There's gotta be something to fix this...

well, I DID discover 2 things I appeared to be doing wrong. Mistake number 1 was I attempted (a few times) to enter the title of the first song while it was loading. I saw the "loading" slow down when I did that and figured out it was a bad idea. Mistake number 2 was I was ejecting the CD directly after I heard the "confirmation" tone that it had finished loading.....I tried not doing that a couple of times, and I noticed that I still heard the CD spinning even after I heard the confirmation tone. I don't know if these were causing the problems or not, but I've decided to just stop trying, at least until my frustration and anger subside a bit. I STILL wish I could load songs directly from CDs into the ipod bypassing iTunes....I'm positive that when a CD plays perfectly in a CD player but skips, stops and starts when loaded into an ipod through iTunes, then iTunes MUST be the problem.

[BrunoRepublic]

Originally Posted by Cory Ander

I STILL wish I could load songs directly from CDs into the ipod bypassing iTunes...

But you'd still need a program to convert them to MP3 or AAC. Loading uncompressed WAV files onto an iPod is a bit like carrying around a reel-to-reel deck for portable sound. You *could* do it, but it's not the most practical solution.

Originally Posted by Cory Ander

....I'm positive that when a CD plays perfectly in a CD player but skips, stops and starts when loaded into an ipod through iTunes, then iTunes MUST be the problem.

Or, more likely, the problem is that your computer's drive can't read the CD correctly. If it's an audio CD-R, this is well within the realm of possibility, as audio CDs have very little built-in error correction. CDs weren't designed to be recordable or extractable; the fact that we can do it at all is something of a minor miracle.

Have you tried turning on error correction? On the Windows version, it's under the "Edit" menu, then the "General" tab, then click on the "Import Settings" button.

[Cory Ander]

Originally Posted by BrunoRepublic

But you'd still need a program to convert them to MP3 or AAC. Loading uncompressed WAV files onto an iPod is a bit like carrying around a reel-to-reel deck for portable sound. You *could* do it, but it's not the most practical solution.



Or, more likely, the problem is that your computer's drive can't read the CD correctly. If it's an audio CD-R, this is well within the realm of possibility, as audio CDs have very little built-in error correction. CDs weren't designed to be recordable or extractable; the fact that we can do it at all is something of a minor miracle.

Have you tried turning on error correction? On the Windows version, it's under the "Edit" menu, then the "General" tab, then click on the "Import Settings" button.

if I'm able to both RECORD CDs AND make copies of pre-recorded CDs then doesn't that mean my computer's drive reads CDs correctly? But I'll try using the error correction but only after I give my nerves a rest from such technical frustration.

[BrunoRepublic]

Originally Posted by Cory Ander

if I'm able to both RECORD CDs AND make copies of pre-recorded CDs then doesn't that mean my computer's drive reads CDs correctly?

Not necessarily. It may still have a hard time reading audio discs made on other drives. Remember how in the cassette days, someone could make a tape that sounded great on their deck, but horrible on any other? It's like that.

Then there can be other oddities... I have a commercially made CD (Thomas Dolby's "Retrospectacle") which I bought new. The disc does not have any scratches and there's no copy-protection on it or anything silly like that.

However, my Mac refuses to even read the TOC (table of contents, the part of the CD that tells the machine where everything on the disc is). I put the disc in, it spins it around for a minute, and then spits it out as if to say "bitch, what the hell is this?"

Meanwhile, my Windows PC reads it just fine.

[canadiantire]

Do you still feel like doing this?