Article

Ask iLounge 6-23-05

Author's pic

By Kirk McElhearn

Contributing Editor
Published: Thursday, June 23, 2005
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

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

Top five questions most recently asked by iLounge readers:

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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 have several albums that have the same name, but by different artists. For example, I have Greatest Hits albums by both Fleetwood Mac and Eurythmics. When I print out an album listing using iTunes, it groups all the Greatest Hits albums together as one album. However, on my iPod it doesn’t confuse the albums; each group has their own Greatest Hits album. How can I get iTunes to recognize each group’s Greatest Hits album as a separate album when I print out my album listing?

- Miall

A:The only way we were able to reproduce this is if the songs on like-named albums are tagged as compilations. In that case, printing a list combines all the songs under the album name; if they are not tagged as compilations, then the printed list shows each album separately. You can remove the compilation tag by selecting all the songs, then selecting File > Get Info, and from the Compilation section, selecting No.
Q:

I want to encode my music at the highest possibly quality yet still keep the file as small as possible due to my large and ever growing music collection. Digging around through your site I noticed talk about a VBR iTunes Music Encoder. Do you know where I can find this?

- Shaun

A:

iTunes includes a VBR option. Open the iTunes preferences (iTunes > Preferences on Mac, Edit > Preferences on Windows), then click the Importing tab. Select MP3 Encoder from the Import Using menu, then, from the Setting menu, select Custom. You’ll see a Use Variable Bit Rate Encoding (VBR) option that you can check. Select your bit rate, check this option, then click OK.

Note, however, that AAC files generally sound better than MP3 files at the same bit rate. AAC at 160kbps sounds as good as or better than MP3 files encoded at 192 kbps, even with VBR. So if you want to save space, you might want to consider such a choice (you can, of course, use a higher bit rate if you want even better quality, though you may not hear the difference). Note that if you plan to use your music files on devices other than the iPod, or with software other than iTunes, you should stick with MP3, since not much hardware or software supports AAC.

Q:

I recently downloaded several songs from Pure Volume that have .php extensions. I want to put them onto my iPod but couldn’t import them into iTunes or convert them to MP3 files.

-Jim

A: These are not music files; PHP is a language used to dynamically generate web pages from a database, and Pure Volume uses PHP links which should point to the appropriate MP3 file links. We tried downloading some files, and had no problem. You should probably try again, or check the way your web browser downloads linked files.
Q:

I “ripped” a DVD-A disc using iTunes. It is now a 53-minute long track. I read somewhere that long tracks should be broken up into multiple shorter tracks in order to save wear and tear on the iPod. The website did not provide information on how to do this.

Any suggestions on how to break up this long track before loading it onto my iPod? I have a Windows system.

- Silvio

A:

While Apple says that long files (or, more correctly large files), will use more battery life, they will not, in any way, cause “wear and tear.” The only difference is that the iPod will read the file a bit more often than smaller files. But even this is not a problem, since it only reads part of the file into its buffer.

We have many files that are longer than that, and have never had any problems with the files or our iPods.

However, if you want to split files, one good program that you can use is Audacity, which is both free and multi-platform.

Q:

One of your tutorials talks about pausing tracks on the iPod mini, but it doesn’t say how to stop a track. I can pause tracks and go back to the menus, but I always have the two lines on the screen | | showing that the track is paused. I actually want to stop tracks, not pause. Can you tell me how to do this?

- Jane

A: You have discovered part of the Zen-like nature of the iPod. As Yoda might say, “Stop button there is not.” You cannot stop a track. Really. You can pause, then you can start another track, but the iPod does not have a Stop button. The only times that tracks actually stop is when you get to the end of an album or playlist; at that point, the iPod stops playing, then returns to the main menu. (The iPod will also stop playing if you sync it, or reset it.)
picKirk McElhearn is the author of several books including iPod & iTunes Garage. His blog Kirkville features articles about the iPod, iTunes, Mac OS X and much more.






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Ask iLounge Archives:

6-26-09: Recovering a dead iPod touch after 3.0 update, Battery Percentage Display on iPhone 3.0, Options hidden after 3.0 update, iPhone locked after 3.0 update, Managing videos on iPhone, iPod classic accessory compatibility

6-12-09: Conserving power on iPhone, Syncing iPhone Notes, Syncing Apps on new iPod touch, Block pop-ups in Safari, Syncing new iPhone, Playing multiple albums

5-29-09: Sorting tracks in iTunes, iPhone Bluetooth Headset Dock, Recovering Mac-formatted iPod on Windows, Screen damage on 4G iPod nano, Syncing purchased tracks back to iTunes, Managing a class set of iPods

5-22-09: Syncing iTunes content between computers, Importing music into iTunes, Re-transferring apps from a new iTunes library, New iPods and charging accessories, Using multiple iTunes libraries

5-15-09: Starting out with an external hard drive, Syncing playlists manually, Recovering lost iPod serial number, Music count vs Playlist count, Multiple iTunes Store accounts on the same computer, Optimizing album artwork

See the rest of the Archives...

Next: Beginner's Guide to Sharing iTunes Music

Previous: First Looks Special: Nyko Movie Player

Comments

1

I had a similar problem as Miall concerning multiple albums named ‘Greatest Hits’. In my case, when I printed an album list, each song from the ‘Greatest Hits’ albums was listed as a separate album.

The easiest answer is to make sure each album has a unique name. I simply renamed the album to ‘Fleetwood Mac: Greatest Hits’, for instance.

Gary

Posted by GRS1959 in Akron, OH on June 23, 2005 at 9:21 AM (PDT)

2

I am attending a music camp in July to which I was advised I should bring a cassette tape recorder and lots of blank tapes.

Is there an accessory available that could enable my 40 gig iPod to record instead of using old fashioned tapes?

Posted by SpankyII on June 23, 2005 at 9:57 AM (PDT)

3

How do you delete artwork from the album art box in i-tunes?

Posted by JHMIII on June 23, 2005 at 11:38 AM (PDT)

4

To delete the artwork all you need to do is press apple-i, once you have selected the songs that you don’t want the artwork for and select artwork and then delete. (Unless you have a PC)

Posted by tom.b on June 23, 2005 at 12:15 PM (PDT)

5

I need help,I forgot how to download to my ipod from my computer,I pluged the ipod into the computer and the ipod said donot disconnect,but nothing was transferred to the ipod do I need to do something else?
thanks,I am a beginner,hmindlin

Posted by henrys on June 23, 2005 at 1:14 PM (PDT)

6

Although there isn’t an actual stop button, you can mimic it’s behavior by pausing, then skipping forward to the next song or backward to the previous one.  If you want to stop on the current track, simply pause, skip forward, then skip back again.  At this point, the pause symbol is no longer present on the screen and pressing play will start the song from the beginning.  I had a previous MP3 player that advised this as the way to “stop” a song.

Posted by mikee385 on June 23, 2005 at 6:36 PM (PDT)

7

hi
i jus bought an ipod mini…but the ipod software just would not install!!!
The installation starts as usual with “preparing to install”, etc but then the install shield wizard does not show up…i can see the install shield installer at the taskbar below, but it does not show up on screen! it does not maximise or minimise…..in short nothing comes up on the screen and eventually i have to end task the process.
I use windows XP…and the same problem is with iTunes. ican load up the screen shot of the problem if required.

Please Help!!
Thank You

Posted by teen_spirit1869 on June 24, 2005 at 5:32 AM (PDT)

8

I thought when ripping a DVD, you could select to rip by chapter.  Many music DVDs will break the songs down by chapters.  I know all the ones I’ve done have.

Posted by BluesFan77 on June 24, 2005 at 11:05 AM (PDT)

9

I have tons of mp3’s on my old computer.  How can I import them into my iPod and input in all the information so that it can be file managed via song title, artist, etc…?

Posted by ndavaul on June 25, 2005 at 3:15 AM (PDT)

10

OK i have the same problem as most on here.my ipod makes a noise from the back side when i try to turn it on.the apple logo appears for about a minute then the folder with the ! show up then it shuts off.i have tried everything on here that was recomended but nothing works.it just keeps doing the same thing over and over agin.even when i get it to disk mode it does not work it just goes back to the apple logo when i connect it to my computer.it is under warranty but i dont want to be without my ipod if there is some way to fix it here.help im am miserable without it.

Posted by COLD on June 25, 2005 at 7:51 AM (PDT)

11

ok, here I have my iTunes and there I can do an EQ something that I can’t do in the iPod. Is it possible to put my personal EQ into iPod?

Posted by Hikari on June 25, 2005 at 11:14 AM (PDT)

12

itunes not letting not accepting my credit card signup information. Every time i attempt to buy a song the screen “your account info. has changed” and redirects me to a billing info page. On that page appears my name and credit card info. but not my street adress. telephone number and country are also there. so i fill in the needed info. correctly, press the done key and the sreen say “please enter your country” but they do not provide a space to do this. again, the country option is already filled in and does not allow me to choose a country. any ideas out there?

Posted by c10wishes on June 26, 2005 at 8:08 AM (PDT)

13

Recently my iPod has erased parts of songs that I haven’t listened to in awhile. So, when I try to listen to that song my iPod freezes or plays for awhile and just skips the rest of the song. My iPod is about 1 1/2 years old, and it’s Generation 1…so I think it might just have to do with the age, but does anyone know if there’s anyway to fix this?

Posted by thekster on June 26, 2005 at 9:28 AM (PDT)

14

My son has upgraded to a new iPod and has offered his iPod mini 4GB to me, loaded with several tracks from his Mac. How do I set up with my iMac and not lose his tracks?  Can you guide me to previous articles dealing with this situation?

Posted by jpoland on June 28, 2005 at 7:42 AM (PDT)

15

I’m travelling to India soon and want to be able to charge my IPOD. I notice that the A/C charger is rated for 100-240 VAC. The question is, do I simply need a pin adapter of a full voltage adapter to use the charger in India

Jayananda

Posted by Jayananda on July 2, 2005 at 5:54 AM (PDT)

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