Article
Ask iLounge 1-19-06
By Jerrod H.
Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, January 19, 2006
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.
How do I copy music from my iPod onto my computer?
Click here for the answer.
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, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Mac)
The Complete Guide to iPod, iPhone and Apple TV Video Conversion (Windows)
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!
Q: In the latest version of iTunes (6.0.2) on my Mac, I’m having some odd issues with Smart Playlist creation. If I create a Smart Playlist that uses “My Rating,” I can’t seem to select the right number of stars.
If I click one star, I get two. If I click two, I get four. If I click three or four, I get five. Not only is this annoying, but I’ve completely lost the ability to select three stars. I’ve tried reinstalling iTunes, but that doesn’t help.
- Will
A: This is a known issue with iTunes 6.0.2, and as such, Apple will almost surely have it fixed by the next release.
In the meantime, there is a roundabout way to select 3-star songs; simply create the following Smart Playlist:

Since this uses the “Match All” methodology, you can easily add another criteria in order to, for example, extract 3-star “Alternative"-genre tracks.
If you need to use the “Match Any” option with 3-star songs, then this workaround won’t return only 3-star songs. Instead, you’ll get songs from all rating levels. How could you get around this? Create the Smart Playlist pictured above and call it “3-Star Songs.” Then, create this one with your “Match Any” logic:

The example above will return 3-star songs AND songs tagged with “Relaxed” in the Comment field. What is supposed to be easy with one playlist now takes two.
It’s not the most elegant solution, though this is undoubtedly a very temporary workaround until the next bug fix release is made available.
Q: I used iTunes 6.0.2 to convert a video file to one that is compatible with the iPod, but in doing so it has removed the sound track. Why would this be, and is there any way to avoid this?
- Paddy
A: QuickTime Pro and all applications which depend on it (iMovie, iTunes, and several 3rd party conversion programs) simply do not support the conversion video files which are “Muxed,” or multiplexed. This means that the video has been encoded such that the audio and video are stored in a single track, rather than independently.
Unfortunately, muxed MPEG files are fairly common, necessitating for all but casual users one of the third-party conversion utilities which support it. On the Mac, our favorite iPod-specific video conversion utility, Podner, supports muxed audio, as do several options on the PC.
Alternatively, non-iPod specific “demuxing” utilities exist on both platforms, which create an intermediate video compatible with iTunes’ converter.
To determine if the video you’re trying to convert is muxed, open it in QuickTime, and select “Show Movie Info” from the “Window” menu.
Q: I have a car stereo that plays MP3s, so I’d like to burn MP3 CD’s from my iTunes Library. I ripped a bunch of tracks, but iTunes won’t let me burn an MP3 CD. It will allow me to burn a data CD, but that won’t play in my car. Is there some way I can burn an MP3 CD? The error message it gives me doesn’t make much sense, telling me the tracks I’ve ripped are not MP3-ready. Clearly what I’ve ripped is some sort of MP3 if I can put them on my iPod.
- Jon
A: You’ve likely imported your iTunes Library using the AAC format, which is iTunes’ shipping default. To check whether or not this is the case, simply select any song you’ve ripped from a CD recently, and choose “Get Info” from iTunes’ “File” menu. On the “Summary” tab, if you see ”Kind: AAC audio file,” then this is the case. An MP3 file would display ”Kind: MPEG audio file.”
iTunes knows that when you ask for an “MP3” CD, it should only burn MP3s, precisely to ensure that all songs in the selection will be compatible with MP3 CD-capable stereos. A “Data CD,” as you’ve discovered, will burn any format track for backup purposes.
How can you create MP3 versions of your songs, such that you can burn MP3 CDs? You’re not going to like our answer: you have two choices. Our recommendation, depending on the number of CDs you’ve imported, is to rip them all again in MP3 format. (Change the format to MP3 in iTunes’ “Preferences → Advanced → Importing” panel).
If that doesn’t sound appealing, you can use iTunes’ mass conversion features, if you have room for a duplicate copy of your music library on your hard drive. To do this, change your Importing format to MP3 (as above). Then, select all the songs you’d like to convert to MP3 in your iTunes Library window. Next, select “Convert Selection to MP3” from iTunes’ “Advanced” menu. Finally, you’re free to delete the original AAC versions of the tracks that iTunes left behind.
Why don’t we recommend this second option? Well, conversion between formats usually results in some loss in sound quality. If you don’t mind this risk, then the second option is certainly easier.
For more information about MP3 and AAC formats, see our Beginner’s Guide to Compressing your CDs here.
Q: Is there a solution to remove double entries in iTunes automatically? When importing large music libraries this could be very helpful. Or should I go on doing it manually?
- Donald
A: iTunes doesn’t offer a way to automatically remove duplicates, but it can help you identify them:
When viewing your Library, select “Show Duplicate Songs” from iTunes’ edit menu. iTunes will choose similarly-tagged songs for you to inspect manual before deleting them.
The lack of automatic removal here is a valuable feature, not an unfortunate omission. By manually inspecting your duplicates, you have no risk of deleting that precious “Live” version of a track, simply because it’s similarly tagged to the studio version.
Take the time to do it right (with iTunes’ help in showing you the potentials), and you’ll be pleased in the end.
Q: For safety’s sake, when riding my bike I would like to listen to my iPod with one ear free to hear traffic, etc. Is there such a thing as a mono earbud, so I can hear both channels of audio?
- Evonne
A: An inexpensive adaptor such as this one from RadioShack will send the left and right channels of iPod audio to both earpieces on any stereo headset.
This sort of adaptor is also very useful to those who are deaf or near-deaf in one ear.
Ask iLounge Archives:
10-3-08: Displaying lyrics on iPod touch, Calculating playlist sizes, Transferring tracks to iPod in manual mode, Purchasing older iPod models, Using iPhone without phone service, Shuffle modes
9-26-08: iTunes HD TV episodes showing up twice, Shure MPA-3C and iPod touch, Synchronizing iPod to a new iTunes library, Problems updating iPhone applications, Managing iTunes media files on an external hard drive, Managing multiple iPods on one computer
9-19-08: Removing Genre column in iTunes 8, Syncing TV Shows by playlist, Recovering Mac-formatted iPod on Windows, Recovering photos from iPod, XtremeMac Luna X2, iPod flash memory capacity, Restoring older iPod models
9-12-08: Managing iPhone Backups, iPod disk mode and deleted items, iPod Plays only single tracks, iPhone and T9 predictive text, Copying ratings and play counts from iPod to computer, Automatically retrieving CD information and album artwork
9-5-08: AV output from iPhone 3G dock, New playlists not appearing on iPod, Transferring music on iPod touch from multiple computers, Resetting iTunes Store authorization counts, Editing tag information, iPhone task applications
Next: iLounge announces accessory coverage, policy changes
Previous: Converting Video for iPod with iTunes 6 (Mac & PC)
Shop in the loungeStore for iPod + iPhone Accessories.
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1
I am interested in purchasing an Ipod. I was wondering when should we expect a larger storage capacity, like say 120GB or maybe even 200GB?
Thanks,
B
Posted by Aqueous on January 19, 2006 at 5:59 PM (PDT)
2
What is the best way or what do I need in order to download DVD/movies into my IPOD? I’m on a Windows based PC.
Posted by matsncrew on January 20, 2006 at 3:30 PM (PDT)
3
To get video to your iPod, check-out this article by pcmag :
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1894678,00.asp
Videos already compatible with the iPod are also available on the iTunes music store as well as other websites, such as movie trailer sites or google video:
http://video.google.com/
Posted by mrthebunny on January 21, 2006 at 6:00 AM (PDT)
4
Regarding a 120GB or a 200GB iPod, be patient! 60GB models have been available for a little over a year, and Apple seems to have focused its attention more on reducing the iPod size than increase its disk space.
IMHO, a 80GB iPod could be a possibility in 2006. As far as 200GB go, I’d say not before 2 or 3 years.
Please keep in mind that those are my personal estimates and I could very well be wrong and those products would get here earlier!
Posted by mrthebunny on January 21, 2006 at 6:04 AM (PDT)
5
Use this to get videos/DVDs on a 5G iPod:
http://freddiemercury.sitesled.com/iPod
Posted by Freddie Mercury on January 21, 2006 at 8:18 PM (PDT)
6
i deleted ALOT of songs off my iPob, but now i want them back. is there a way to do it?
Posted by drekinator on January 26, 2006 at 5:47 PM (PDT)
7
Using “voice memo”, can I record at CD quality (16 bit 44.1 hz) in stereo on a G4 iPod or only on a G5? Is this a software or hardware issue? Thanks.
Posted by bear-nj on January 30, 2006 at 10:47 AM (PDT)