Article
Ask iLounge 3-29-07
By Jesse David Hollington
Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007
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:
Has the performance of photo transfers from a Canon Powershot SD700IS to the latest 5G iPod model improved from the iPod photo? I have not been satisfied with photo transfer performance to my iPod photo 60GB and would like to know whether it makes sense to upgrade to an 80GB 5G iPod or buy some other portable storage device for quick photo transfer/backup ?
- Gregory
A:Unfortunately, the performance of photo transfer has improved little from the iPod photo, and most users will probably still find the performance to be unacceptable for transferring large numbers of photographs. The slow performance results in part from the processing that the iPod undertakes to convert each photo into a thumbnail image for display on the iPod itself. In recent testing from a Sony DSC-R1 to an 80GB 5G iPod, 249 ten-Megapixel pictures totalling 1 GB of storage took approximately 40 minutes to transfer, whereas 339 five-Megapixel pictures totalling 680 MB of storage took only slightly less time (35 minutes).
Further, the combined transfer of both of these sets of pictures drained the 80 GB 5G iPod battery well into the red. None of the iPod picture transfer accessories offer any way to charge or power the iPod while performing a photo transfer.
Keep in mind as well that the only direct-from-camera photo transfer accessory presently available for the 5G iPod is the Apple iPod Camera Connector (iLounge rating: B+), although another option, called the iAlbum, transfers content directly from Secure Digital or Memory Stick cards.
I’m trying to sync my photos with my iPod, which are arranged in chronological order (via the names of the photos) in various subfolders in one folder on my computer. However, once I sync them with my iPod via iTunes, the order of photos in each subfolder ends up as different from the order that they’re in by name. It seems like iTunes sorts the photos by the order in which they were copied to the subfolders on my computer, instead of sorting them by name. Is there any way to change this such that I get my photos sorted by name?
- Anonymous
A:Actually, iTunes does sort the photos on the iPod in chronological order, however it bases this upon the date stamp on the image file itself from the underlying operating system, rather than the file name or the date stamp stored within the file itself. Depending on the method that you are using to copy these photos to your computer, the date stamp may in fact reflect the date the image was copied as opposed to the original date on the file.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to change this sort order behaviour in iTunes itself. The good news is that the original time stamp is still contained in the Exchangeable Image File Format (EXIF) data within the file, and there are a number of utilities available that can be used to copy the EXIF date back onto the actual file-system date of the file. The classic option for Windows users is a program called Exifer, although there are many other alternatives available. While Mac users who are using iPhoto won’t normally have this issue since iPhoto handles the sort order, the same problem could occur for those Mac users who are simply syncing from their “Pictures” folder rather than from iPhoto. On OS X, A Better Finder can also be used to adjust file dates based on the EXIF information.
I just purchased the iAlbum device that allows me to transfer my digital photos from my SD cards onto my iPod. Does this device live up to its name? How is it in handling RAW images as well as JPEGs? Have there been freezing problems when uploading onto the iPod, especially in RAW format? I was also wondering if i have to enable disk use on my iPod to get it to work?
- Adam
A:While we have not specifically reviewed the iAlbum as of yet, this device simply provides an interface into the photo transfer capabilities built into the 5G iPod firmware in much the same way that the Apple iPod Camera Connector (iLounge rating: B+) does. Although this device takes SD/MS memory cards rather than a direct connection to a digital camera, most of the limitations described in our review of the Apple Camera Connector would also apply here in terms of transfer times and battery life.
The iPod is capable of transferring RAW format images from memory cards, provided the images are stored in the same directory containing your non-RAW files. However, the iPod will not create a preview for RAW images (so you won’t be able to view them on the iPod’s screen), and the additional size of the RAW files will increase the transfer times.
You do not have to specifically enable disk use to get these devices to work, since the “Disk Use” setting in iTunes only affects how iTunes interacts with the iPod; the iPod always presents itself as an external hard disk. Further, the iAlbum does not use “Disk Mode” per se, but rather leverages the iPod firmware’s own photo transfer capabilities.
I have a Mac mini with an external hard drive containing all of my iTunes content which I currently sync with my iPod. I also have a MacBook Pro for personal use and don’t want to load it with all the same iTunes data as the Mac mini, however I would like to find a way to sync my iPod with the MacBook so I can get all of the contacts and calendar information, but also somehow still get the iTunes data on the Mini’s external drive. Can this be done using the Airport function on both machines?
- Cesar
A:It is possible to access the iTunes content on your Mac mini from your MacBook simply by using file sharing. First go in to System Preferences on the Mac mini and ensure that you have Personal File Sharing enabled (under the Sharing Preferences):

You can then connect to the Mac mini’s external hard drive from the MacBook through Finder’s Network folder, which should allow your MacBook to see all of your iTunes music and video files. Go into iTunes Preferences and ensure that the “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” option is turned OFF, so that iTunes will leave any files you import onto the MacBook in their original locations (in this case the external hard drive on the Mac mini). You can then import the content from the Mac mini into your MacBook iTunes library as you normally would.
As a disadvantage, however, this method will not share playlists, ratings, or playcounts from the main library. It may also be considerably slower than connecting directly to your Mac mini, depending on the speed of your home network. There are ways in which you could even share the same library database between both machines, although this is somewhat more complicated to set up and maintain, and is not recommended as it can leave you open to corruption of the iTunes database unless you’re particularly careful to not leave iTunes running on both machines at the same time.
However, if the goal is just to get your contacts and calendar from your MacBook onto your iPod, there are a couple of simpler ways to approach this:
Firstly, if you’re managing the content on your iPod manually from the Mac mini, you can still sync your calendar and contacts from your MacBook automatically. Manual mode only applies to Music, Movies, and TV Shows—other content such as Podcasts, Photos, Contacts/Calendars and Games are always synced automatically. In this case, simply connect your iPod to your MacBook and enable the settings to sync contact and calendar information as desired, ensuring that you leave the “manual” setting on the Summary tab untouched.
Further, since the automatic sync of contacts and calendars is set separately from the sync of your other media content, you could even leave your iPod set to automatically sync your music, videos and podcasts from your Mac mini, and your calendar and contacts from your MacBook. When you connect your iPod to your MacBook, you will receive a prompt similar to the following, warning you that your iPod is already associated with another iTunes library:

If you select Cancel iTunes will not touch your audio or video files at all, but you can still configure the calendar and contact information to sync with your iPod from the MacBook. This will work for subsequent sync operations as well.
Lastly, if you subscribe to Apple’s .Mac service, an even better alternative is to simply use your .Mac subscription to sync your calendar and contact data from your MacBook back to your Mac mini. To do this, you would simply go into your .Mac settings under System Preferences and enter your .Mac userid and password and set this information to synchronize:

This would keep your Address Book and iCal synchronized from your MacBook to your Mac mini, using the .Mac service. You would then have this information available to synchronize to your iPod directly from the Mac mini.
When you purchase a movie from iTunes, where is it stored on the computer’s hard drive and what format is the movie in?
- Michael
A:Despite the somewhat confusing name, iTunes actually stores all of your media content, including movies and TV Shows, in the “iTunes Music Folder” path specified in iTunes’ Advanced Preferences.
Movies are stored directly in a folder under this location named Movies, TV Shows are stored in sub-folders under a TV Shows folder, organized by show name, and Music Videos are organized in the appropriate artist and album folders alongside those artist’s audio tracks.
All Movies, Music Videos and TV Shows downloaded from the iTunes Store after September 12, 2006 are in H.264 format, using the Baseline Low Complexity profile, which provides a 640 x 480 maximum resolution, suitable for playback on a standard television set. These files are protected by iTunes’ FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) however, and therefore cannot be played on non-authorized computers, converted to other formats or burned to a video DVD (although the files themselves can be transferred to a data DVD for backup purposes, they will remain protected and can only be played on an authorized computer or device).
How can I convert my iTunes AAC files to MP3?
- Anonymous
A:The iTunes “AAC” format, or Advanced Audio Coding, is actually a standard audio format, specifically MPEG-4 part 3. As such, there are a number of software tools-including iTunes-that can convert unprotected AAC files to MP3 or any other audio format.
iTunes’ conversion tool may not be completely obvious. Hidden on the “Advanced” menu is a Convert Selection to… menu option that allows you to convert selected audio files to the default format used in iTunes.
The default format and bit-rate used by iTunes for importing audio CDs and converting audio tracks is set under iTunes Preferences, in the Advanced, Importing tab:

So if this is set to “Import Using MP3 Encoder” iTunes will offer the option to Convert Selection to MP3 on the “Advanced” menu. Other options include AAC, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV. You can convert to any of these formats, but of course will not gain quality from a lower bit-rate file by converting it to a higher bit-rate (or lossless) format.
To perform the actual conversion, simply select the tracks you would like to convert, and then choose Convert to MP3 from the Advanced menu. iTunes will queue the tracks for conversion, and you will see the queue appear in your source tree, under “Playlists”:


Note that this conversion process creates a copy of the original track, so following the conversion you will actually have two versions of the track in your library, and will need to go and delete the original track manually. Further, any ratings, play counts, or playlist entries are not transferred from the old track to the converted one. If you’re using a Mac, there are AppleScripts available that can take care of transferring this information onto the new track for you, however. You can find more information on this at Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes and in our own AppleScripts Discussion Forum.
You won’t be able to convert protected iTunes tracks (songs purchased from the iTunes Store) using this method. iTunes allows you to select the Convert to MP3 option from the menu, but if you attempt to do so on a protected file, you’re presented with the following response:

Here’s the workaround. Protected iTunes AAC files can be burned to an audio CD in the same way as any other track. Once burned to an audio CD, they are converted to the same CD Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard that commercially purchased audio CDs use, which is basically an uncompressed WAV format. You can then re-rip the CD into MP3s, which is time-consuming, but works.
I want to create an MP3 CD with several albums from my iTunes collection. I want them to be grouped as albums, so that my car (or stereo) Skip Album function works properly. iTunes seems to allow only one massive playlist to be burned (ie all songs from all albums). How do I go about burning a CD with distinguishable albums?
- Peter
A:How this works is going to depend largely upon your MP3 CD player. If your MP3 CD player can actually read MP3 tag information, the actual location of the files does not matter, as it will organize them based on the album names within the track metadata. In this case, an MP3 CD burned directly from iTunes should work without any problems, and if you’re unsure what method your MP3 CD player uses, it’s probably best to burn one and check it out if you haven’t done so already.
Unfortunately, if your MP3 player relies on a folder structure to organize tracks, it will be necessary to be a bit more creative, as iTunes does not provide any simple method for burning an MP3 CD with a specific directory structure. In this case, your best solution is to build a set of files outside of iTunes and then burn them to CD using another CD burning software. Fortunately, an MP3 is really just a normal data CD that happens to contain MP3 files, so there’s nothing particularly magical about its format and it can be authored in any CD burning application.
It’s a somewhat little-known tip, but to copy files out of iTunes you can just highlight a group of files and drag and drop them directly from iTunes into a folder of your choice. This method could be used effectively with Windows XP’s built-in CD burning capabilities: Simply lay out a folder structure on the CD, set up your playlists and/or albums in iTunes, then drag and drop groups of MP3 tracks from iTunes directly into your predefined folder structure and burn the CD.
Ask iLounge Archives:
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
9-25-09: iTunes 9 and Shopping Cart, Restoring iTunes to an external hard drive, Using an HTTP Proxy over 3G, Problems transferring movies from iTunes to IPhone, iPod touch shuffle mode, Using an iPhone without a SIM card
Next: Winners Announced: iLounge Wallpaper Contest
Previous: Ten Geek Details on Apple TV
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