2010 iPod + iPhone Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 4-17-09

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By Jesse David Hollington

Contributing Editor
Published: Friday, April 17, 2009
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:

I was wondering what the easiest way is to convert music tracks to higher bit rates (ie, from 56kbps to 128kbps).

- Ross

A:

There is little point in converting your existing lower bit-rate tracks to higher bit-rates as you will not gain back any quality. Audio formats like AAC and MP3 are “lossy” formats, which means that audio quality is lost when you convert them from the original source. This “lost” fidelity is gone and cannot come back simply by converting to a higher bit-rate, in much the same way that you can’t increase a picture’s quality simply by enlarging it to a higher resolution.

Converting a lower bit-rate file to a higher bit-rate will serve no purpose other than to waste space by creating a larger file with no increase in quality. The only way to get your music tracks encoded at a higher bit-rate is to re-convert them from a higher bit-rate source, ideally by re-importing them from the original CD or converting them from another lossless source such as a WAV, AIFF or FLAC format.

Q:

How do I transfer my own music to my iPod? Do I have to go through iTunes and pay to use their system if I already have my own music? If so why did I waste my time buying it? I want my own music I’ve already purchased on CDs in my iPod!

- George

A:

Some confusion arises from the fact that iTunes is both the name of the software application used to manage your music collection and your iPods and also the name of Apple’s online digital media store. Although you can access the iTunes Store through the iTunes software application, you most definitely do not need to purchase anything from the iTunes Store in order to use your iPod. The iTunes software application can easily import your own CDs directly simply by putting them into your computer’s CD-ROM drive and clicking the import button, and you can also import any other MP3 or AAC files that you may already have on your computer or may have acquired from other sources.

In fact, you do not even technically need to use the iTunes application; there are a number of other applications available out there that can be used to manage your iPod’s content, although it’s definitely recommended that you give iTunes itself a try before deciding, since it’s the only solution available that supports all of the features of your iPod.

Check out our Beginner’s Guide to Filling your iPod for more information on how to get started with iTunes.

Q:

I have all my iTunes music on my external drive. I travel a lot and when I returned home and reconnected my external drive, Autoplay came on and moved (or copied) all of my iTunes songs back to my C drive. If I look at Preferences/Advanced, my iTunes Music folder now shows up on my C drive. What now? I don’t want these on my C drive as they take up too much room with music, videos and movies.

- Barry

A:

It’s most likely that the Windows Autoplay feature detected the media files on your drive and assumed that you wanted to import them to your computer in general, as opposed to importing them into iTunes in particular.

Further, the change to the iTunes Music folder path is not likely connected to the autoplay import, but rather simply a result of running iTunes while the external hard drive was disconnected. Normally, if you shut down iTunes and restart it after the hard drive is connected, the path should automatically switch back to the external hard drive location, but it does sometimes need to get changed back manually.

Normally with the autoplay import, the media files should have been copied rather than moved from the original location on the external drive. As long as you haven’t poked around too much in iTunes itself in trying to reset paths manually on individual tracks, you should be able to just set your “iTunes Music folder” path in your iTunes Advanced preferences back to its original location on your external drive and iTunes should go back to finding everything there.

Once you’ve confirmed that it’s set back to the original location and iTunes is working properly with the files in that location, you can clean off the copied files from your C: drive at your leisure, which will likely just be located right under your “My Music” folder in Windows. You should also of course disable the Autoplay feature to prevent this from happening in the future.

Q:

I downloaded an iTunes Store rental movie, transfered it to my iPod classic, and watched it on my TV. After the 24-hour expiration period, the movie no longer appeared in my iPod’s “Rented Movie” library accessed by iTunes, as expected. But on my iPod itself, the movie is still listed under Video/Rentals and says “Reconnect to iTunes” under the movie title. When I access the movie, my iPod says “This movie cannot be played. Please reconnect to iTunes to watch this movie.” Needless to say, reconnecting to iTunes does nothing. I’m assuming my iPod has the remains of a corrupted file. Since then, I’ve downloaded and watched other rented movies on my iPod that have successfully expired. While this “stuck” movie on my iPod is not a big problem, it is annoying. What are my options? Do nothing? Attempt to remove the corrupted rental movie?

- Bob

A:

This was a problem that occasionally occurred with earlier iPod firmware versions, so you may want to try upgrading to the latest iPod classic firmware if you haven’t already done this.

If you’re on the latest firmware and the item still remains stuck, the usual solution is to manually delete it from your iPod—the “Delete” option should be available when you attempt to access the item in question, and since it has expired anyway, you should just be able to delete it outright right from your iPod itself.

Failing that, you could also try to connect your iPod to your computer and delete the item via iTunes. This can be done either through the “Movies” tab where you normally transfer your movies, or you can set your iPod to manual mode and delete it from the “Rented Movies” section, which appears when you click on the small triangle to the left of your iPod to expand the folders and playlists that are on your iPod.

If for whatever reason none of these methods are successful, then your only remaining option will be to do a full “Restore” on your iPod and erase everything else on it as well. If you already have your music stored in your iTunes library and normally use automatic sync, this should not really be a big deal since you can re-sync all of your music and other media content back from your iTunes library following the restore.

Q:

Is it possible to record only a section of a song from my iTunes library? I need it for an exhibition I am doing.

- Judith

A:

There are a few different ways you can do this.

The simplest method is to use the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” settings in your track properties in iTunes. These two fields allow you to set a starting time and stopping time for the track in question so that only a portion of it plays back. You can access these fields by selecting the track in question, choosing File, Get Info from the iTunes menu and then selecting the “Options” tab.

Simply enable these two fields and enter the time in minutes and seconds where you would like the song to start and stop playing. Note that these settings will also transfer to your iPod or iPhone, so if you’re planning to use this to play back the track, then this may be all you actually need to do.

If you’re working with a non-copy-protected source file, you can also create a separate copy of only the selected section of that track. To do this, first ensure you’ve chosen your preferred format for the resulting track in your iTunes preferences by clicking on the “Import Settings” button on the General tab.

Once you’ve set your preferred format, simply select the track in question and choose Advanced, Create AAC/MP3 Version from the iTunes menu. iTunes will make a copy of only the portion of the track between the start and stop times that you have entered. You could then copy this track out of iTunes to use with another software application or device.

Note that if you’re working with DRM-protected files purchased from the iTunes Store, as opposed to “iTunes Plus” tracks or tracks you’ve imported yourself, then you will need to either use the start/stop times and play the original track from your computer or iPod, or record it to another device manually by using your computer’s “line-out” connection.

Q:

I have a fourth-generation 20GB iPod. After trying to do a restore on it, the adapter icon showed up and does not disappear no matter how long it is charged in the outlet. What can be done to fix this?

- Radam

A:

Unfortunately, the fourth-generation iPod models needed to be connected to a 12V FireWire power source in order to complete the restore procedure. The likely situation here is that your particular power adapter is USB-based, and only provides power on the 5V pins, which the 4G iPods did not recognize as a valid power source for restore purposes.

Note that the iPod does not need to be charged for any length of time from the 12V FireWire power source—you merely need to plug it in for a minute or two so that it can complete the restore procedure while connected to external power.

The only way you’re going to be able to solve this is to find a FireWire power source, either in the form of a charger or a powered FireWire port on your computer. The charger that came with your 4G iPod originally would have been FireWire based, so if you still have that around and it works, then this would be your best solution. Some other third-party accessories such as speakers and car chargers also still provide 12V FireWire power, so if you have other speakers or docks around it might be worth trying those to see if this allows the restore operation to complete. Speakers that are out on display at your local consumer electronics store would be worth a try if you don’t have anything at home—the original Bose SoundDock is still sold in many places and this definitely provides 12V FireWire power. If you leave near an Apple Store, the folks at the Genius Bar may also be able to assist you with this.

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Ask iLounge Archives:

11-20-09: Sharing iTunes libraries between two user accounts, Enlarging text on iPhone 3GS, Transferring an iPod to a new user, iPhone shuffles when walking, New 8GB iPod touch models, Transferring purchases from a remote iTunes library

11-13-09: Syncing different contact info with two iPhones on the same computer, iPod shows no content, Syncing music and videos in playlists, Exclamation marks next to tracks in iTunes, Playing podcasts on 3G iPod shuffle.

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

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: iPhone Gems: Azkend, Fist of Fury Boxing, Iron Sight + MLB World Series '09

Previous: Weird + Small Apps: Postcards, Clocks, Cosmic Nitro, FlipCup, FML, Flower Garden + More

Comments

1

i have a 30gb ipod i lost about a 1000 songs wich r irreplaceable how do i recover all music? i need of info

Posted by joe on April 19, 2009 at 6:11 AM (PDT)

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