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The Free iPod + iPhone Book4

Ask iLounge 3-16-06

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By Jerrod H.

Contributing Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, March 16, 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.

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: Hi, I’ve noticed that some of my songs now have 1/2 star ratings (i.e. 2 1/2 stars, 4 1/2 stars, etc.) since I upgraded to the latest version of iTunes (6.0.4.2). Problem is I can’t figure out how I did that. Is there a keyboard shortcut or something?

- Rich

A: In one of the recent point releases to iTunes 6, these half-star graphics were added to iTunes’ underlying structure, but you’re right - there’s no built-in way to use them, and according to someone who’s done extensive research on the topic, they don’t seem to be ready quite yet.

When iTunes stores ratings, it stores them in its database on a 100-point scale in 20-point increments. Since iTunes 6.0.2, if the score “happens to be” at a 10-point increment, the user interface will display a half rating. However, only these 10-point increments are recognized by iTunes. For example, 30 points registers as one and a half stars, but 31 rounds down to one star.

Without an official interface for assigning a half star, what’s the best way to use the new capability? Well, if you use a Mac, you can use Synergy Advance or a set of AppleScripts from Doug’s AppleScripts, which will add or subtract a half star from the currently selected or currently playing song.

Q: I just went on holiday in New Zealand with the family, and transferred all my Canon IXUS digital still images to a newly purchased 60gb 5G iPod via the Apple Camera Connector, thinking I could upload them to iPhoto via iTunes when I returned. How wrong was I! iTunes doesn’t see the images, even though they are there! Can I get the images to iPhoto or am I just stuck with the images on the iPod only?

- Les

A: You most certainly can, but you’re right - it’s not automatic, and you’ll need more than just iTunes. You have a few options, depending on how you’d like to operate:

First, make sure iTunes’ “Enable disk use” option is checked.

The easiest way is to simply launch iPhoto when the iPod is connected. At least in Apple’s latest iPhoto 6, the program automatically detects the iPod and its imported photo content, and gives you a camera-style import screen:

Alternatively, you can use Image Capture, and take advantage of its process-on-import features:

Finally, if you just want the files themselves, (or if you’re on a PC), you can simply access the files by browsing the iPod’s hard disk in the Finder or Windows Explorer: all full-resolution imported images are stored in the “DCIM” folder.

Q: I have just bought a music video on the iTunes Music Store, and I am trying to put the video on my Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), but my PSP library doesn’t seem to accept it. How can I put it on my PSP?

- Matt

A: Like its AAC-encoded songs, all of iTunes’ video content is protected with Apple’s proprietary FairPlay digital rights management system. Currently, the only devices and software capable of playing this content are the iPod, iTunes, QuickTime, and Apple’s iLife software for the Mac.

So, despite any video compatibility similarities the PSP and iPod may have, you’ll never get an iTunes-distributed protected video file to play on the Sony device, at least without manipulating them in violation of iTunes’ Terms of Service.

Q: I have my 60GB 5G iPod set to automatically update video. I have a lot of full length movies on it and I’m starting to run out of room. I decided to delete a few of the movies to make more room. To delete the movies I simply unchecked the box next to their titles and then updated my iPod. For some reason this isn’t deleting the movies. I want to keep the movies in iTunes, but not upload them to my iPod. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

- Anonymous

A: If you take a close look at iTunes’ iPod Preferences, the Music panel and Video panel have at least one difference in feature set, which you’ve noticed in practice already: in Videos, there’s no option to “Only update checked videos.”

Here’s how we’d solve the problem. Instead of using “Automatically update all videos,” we’ll use “Automatically update selected playlists only.” For this, we’ll need to create a smart playlist that returns only checked videos:

Simply select this playlist in iTunes’ Video panel in iPod preferences, and you’ll have essentially duplicated the “Only update checked songs” preference for videos!

Q: Why does my iTunes player sound sick (slow and scratchy playback) when playing a cd while ripping it to my library? It never used to be this way. Do I need more memory? I tried updating to the latest iTunes software and this did not help.

- Anonymous

A: When you play an audio CD while you’re importing it, you’re actually placing quite a demand on your computer’s CD-ROM drive, whose hardware is undoubtedly the bottleneck. To play real-time audio from one portion of the disk, and still rip audio at high speed from another portion of the disk is very taxing on the disk’s mechanism. If we play while importing, our Powerbook’s CD-ROM frequently makes unpleasant noises, and the ripping speed is significantly degraded.

There’s one simple solution, here: don’t do it this way. Instead, make a habit of allowing iTunes to finish ripping the first song, and begin playing the newly-encoded files from your iTunes Music Library instead. If you have the “Play songs while importing” setting enabled in iTunes’ Importing preferences, then this is automatically done for you - you don’t need to start playing the files manually!

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Ask iLounge Archives:

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

8-29-08: Disabling data on iPhone 3G, iTunes Plus and Apple Backup, Deleting photos from iPod, iPhone v2.0 and TV Out accessories, Consolidating multiple iTunes libraries, Restoring iPod touch from backup

8-22-08: Cleaning up applications in iTunes, Playing back all songs on iPod, Excluding podcasts from Smart Playlists, Bookmarking tracks, Playing tracks back at a consistent volume level

8-15-08: Transferring play counts back to iTunes, Playing iPod while charging, Customizing iPhone alerts, Syncing movies to iPod nano, iTunes not recognizing new CDs, Sudoku reviews

8-8-08: iPhone and SIM card contacts, Syncing iPhone contacts, Hiding SMS previews on iPhone, Playing iPod touch on secondary computer, Syncing photos to iPod, Resuming interrupted iTunes WiFI Store downloads

See the rest of the Archives...

Shop in the loungeStore for iPod + iPhone Accessories.

Next: Ask iLounge 3-23-06

Previous: Ask iLounge 3-9-06

Comments

1

What’s up with this:

“Sorry, but the site you just came from is not allowed to link to this site.

This is probably due to the site you came from being jackasses.

Thanks for your interest though.”

When you click on the last link in the first question.

Posted by mtnagel in Cincinnati, OH on March 17, 2006 at 12:34 PM (PDT)

2

Apologies, and thanks for the heads up.

For those PC users looking for a solution, be aware that JavaScripts are available that can accomplish the same tasks… A Google search will prove useful, in the absence of a working link.

Posted by Jerrod H. in TX on March 17, 2006 at 5:59 PM (PDT)

3

Hi.  I would liek to charge my ipod at work.  Can I do it from a computer that doesn’t jave iTunes installed?

Yes, I have the cable.

Posted by bambinoz on March 21, 2006 at 10:27 AM (PDT)

4

Have been uploading CDs into iTunes w/no problem; except for 1 set of CDs that won’t load- doesn’t spin up- just starts to spin, and stops, over and over… these discs play just fine on a reg. CD player…

How can I get these discs into iTunes?

Posted by bams50 on April 19, 2006 at 4:45 PM (PDT)

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