2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 1-18-08

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By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, January 18, 2008
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.

The most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?

Click here for the answer.

The second most asked question at iLounge.com:

How do I put DVDs on my iPod?


For converting DVDs, web video, TV shows and home movies to your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV, we have a three-part series outlining the best formats, settings, and various tools to use for converting all types of video content for use on these devices.

The Complete Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)

The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)

Top five questions most recently asked by iLounge readers:

Q: What are the best speakers to use with my iPod? (15, 76-79, and 90-92)

Q: What are the best headphones to use with my iPod? (10, 72-75, and 90-92)

Q: I really want to get a nice case for my iPod. Do you have any suggestions? (36-37, 54-67, and 90-92)

Q: How can I connect my iPod to my car stereo? (14, 32-35, 68-71, and 90-92)

Q: Are there any batteries that I can use to extend my iPod's battery life? (82-83 and 90-92)

A: Answers to these and many other questions can be found in two places. Our Free iPod Book 3.3 provides a complete report card to all of the iPod accessories we've reviewed as of summer 2007, as well as over 125 iTunes and iPod tips & tricks. Further, our new 2008 iPod & iPhone Buyers' Guide has accessory tutorials at the page numbers listed in parentheses above. These and other publications in our Library are free downloads, developed by the editors of iLounge!

And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q:

Will Apple TV Take 2 work with Time Capsule? I’ve been looking but I can’t find a definitive answer one way or another. What I’d like is to use Time Capsule as a media storage backend for Apple TV? Will the new update make this possible?

Mike

A:

Unfortunately, the short answer is no. Apple TV will not work directly with Time Capsule in the sense that you can stream or sync content from Time Capsule to your Apple TV without an intermediate iTunes library running on a Mac or PC somewhere.
Further, Time Capsule will not simply provide an extended storage repository for your Apple TV. What you get on your Apple TV internal hard drive is basically all you get in terms of Apple TV local storage—40GB or 160GB, depending upon the model.

What you can do, however, is use the Time Capsule 500GB/1TB drive as a location for your iTunes library media content from your Mac or PC. This content still has to be managed and synced through iTunes itself, however, which means you’ll need a computer running iTunes somewhere in the house—just the data can be stored on the Time Capsule drive instead of a local hard drive in the computer. The Apple TV would still communicate with iTunes on the computer itself, but the files for transfer or streaming would be read from the Time Capsule drive.

Keep in mind, however, that if both the computer or Apple TV are using a wireless connection this may affect performance compared to a locally connected hard drive, since you’re effectively using double the wireless bandwidth (one stream to pull the data from the Time Capsule drive into iTunes, and a second stream to send it to the Apple TV).

See our article, Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive for more information. The same principle that applies to using an external hard drive would apply to using a Time Capsule drive..

It should be noted as well, however, that with the Apple TV Take 2 update, an iTunes based computer is no longer required to download podcasts or purchase/rent content from the iTunes Store, so this may help to reduce the requirements for leaving that back-end computer running all the time.

Q:

Didn’t Apple just announce that HD movies are available on iTunes?  I can’t seem to find where to actually go to rent HD movies from the iTunes Store. I see a lot of new movies available for rental, but I can’t find the section for HD movies. Are these simply not available yet, or am I doing something wrong?

Pamela

A:

Unfortunately, you will only be able to rent movies from the iTunes Store in HD quality directly from the menus on Apple TV itself, not from the iTunes Store using your computer.

As the Apple TV Take 2 update is not yet available, there is presently no way to access HD movie rentals from the iTunes Store.

Further, it should be noted that according to Apple’s Terms of Service, movies downloaded directly to the Apple TV, regardless of whether they are in standard or high definition, cannot be transferred from the Apple TV back to your computer. Basically, if you rent a movie on your Apple TV, you are required to watch it on the same Apple TV.

Q:

I rented a movie from the new iTunes movie service, but I can’t seem to find where to copy it to my iPod. I see all my own movies in the listing on the iPod sync settings, but I can’t see my rented movie on that list. I even tried setting it to sync all my movies, but the rented movie still doesn’t show up on the iPod.

Glen

A:

If you are not seeing the options in iTunes to manage your rented movies on your iPod, chances are that you have not yet applied the latest firmware update, or you are not using a compatible iPod model.

iTunes Movie Rentals are only compatible with the 2007 iPod models—the iPod classic, iPod nano, iPod touch and iPhone, using the latest firmware versions. These firmware versions are v1.1 for the iPod classic and nano, and v1.1.3 for the iPod touch and iPhone.

If you are using one of these iPod models and still not seeing the options to transfer rented movies, ensure that you have downloaded and applied the latest firmware update by selecting your iPod in the iTunes source list and choosing “Check for Updates” from the “Summary” tab.

Note that the fifth-generation iPod does not support iTunes movie rentals at this time, although it would certainly be possible for Apple to add this functionality via a firmware update for these older iPod models.

See our Secrets & Features of iTunes 7.6 article for more information on how the new movie rentals feature works in iTunes and on the iPod.

Q:

Do you know if the fifth-generation iPod will get a firmware update to sync iTunes movie rentals?

Zac

A:

Obviously it is impossible to say for certain what Apple’s plans are in this regard, but there does not appear to be any obvious technical reason that would prevent Apple from providing a firmware update for the fifth-generation iPod to support movie rentals.

It has been suggested that the iTunes movie rentals are in a higher video quality, but further investigation would seem to indicate that this is not the case. Most of the newer rentals are now using anamorphic encoding to provide a higher-resolution wide-screen format, but this encoding was fully supported by the fifth-generation iPod as well—it was just that much of the older content from the iTunes Store did not take advantage of this.

Further, for those movies that are available for both purchase and rental, there appear to be no differences between the relative file sizes or published resolutions of these movies. The following, for instance, is a comparison between the purchased and rented versions of “Enemy of the State”

The lack of any differences here would seem to indicate that iTunes movie rentals are technically compatible with the 5G iPod, however a firmware update would be required to provide support for the new version 3 of the Fairplay DRM on iTunes Store movie rentals.

So while we cannot say for certain whether or not Apple has any plans to provide an update for the fifth-generation iPod, there appear to be no reason why they could not do so.

Q:

How do I get the new Apple TV update that was announced this week?  I can’t seem to find anywhere in iTunes to check for new Apple TV updates, and I’ve already downloaded iTunes 7.6.

Brian

A:

Updates to the Apple TV are downloaded from the Apple TV itself, rather than via iTunes. To check for new updates, simply select Settings->Software Update on the Apple TV menus. The Apple TV will contact Apple’s update servers directly over the Internet and check to see if new updates are available. If so, they will be downloaded and installed directly from there.

Note, however, that the Apple TV Take 2 update announced at this week’s Macworld Keynote is not yet available. It is expected in about two weeks.

Q:

I noticed in your videos that the new Apple TV has an “AirTunes” menu option. What is this for?  I’m hoping this means that the new Apple TV can send video out to AirTunes stations, but is it compatible with the older Airport Express units, or are we going to need to buy new ones?

Jenn

A:

Actually, there has been some confusion about the “AirTunes” feature that now appears in the Apple TV v2.0, so while at Macworld we went and got confirmation directly from Apple regarding how this feature works.

Basically, the “AirTunes” menu allows you to configure your Apple TV as an AirTunes client, meaning you can stream music from your iTunes library to your Apple TV. This basically means that the Apple TV acts as an Airport Express station as far as iTunes is concerned, and you will be able to stream music and other audio content through it from iTunes without having to turn on your TV or navigate through the music library from the Apple TV itself.

The menu options on the Apple TV itself actually only provide two options: Toggle AirTunes on or off, and set the password that iTunes will use to connect to the Apple TV to stream audio content to it.



Ask iLounge Archives:

11-6-09: Storing iPod software updates, Playing an iPod continuously, Transferring play counts to a new iTunes library, iPhone backups, Klipsch S4i earphones

10-30-09: Authorization problems with iPod touch, Changing Grid View background in iTunes, iTunes library and Music Folder are different sizes, Older iPods and firmware updates, Reconciling two different iTunes libraries, Syncing multiple devices to one iTunes library

10-23-09: Using a laptop with an iTunes library on an external hard drive, Transferring YouTube videos to iPod, iPod touch accessibility settings, Disabling Shake to Shuffle on iPod nano, Purchased songs fail to download from iTunes Store, Charging and powering off iPhone

10-16-09: Moving iTunes to a new computer, Transferring contacts from Blackberry to an iPhone, Disabling iPhone Backups, Using AV cables for audio only, Problems syncing photos to iPod touch, Memorex iFlip and iPhone compatibility

10-9-09: iPhone OS and external keyboards, Adjusting ratings in a remote iTunes library, Excluding tracks from Genius Mixes, Moving iTunes library out of My Documents, Playlist folders on iPod touch, Refreshing random Smart Playlists

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: iDesign: The Art of V-Moda's Vibe Earphones

Previous: Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iTunes 7.6 (Updated)

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