So educate me about iPods ...

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Does iPod use a proprietary format? I thought it played standard mp3's. I've ripped a CD in iTunes before, burned it to another CD, then played that CD in a Windows machine -- but I haven't played with an iPod, so I don't know.

 

[Sephiroth no Miko]

iPods can play mp3s files just fine. Songs purchased from the Apple iTunes Music Store uses a proprietary format called protected AAC because standard .mp3 and .aac files do not have DRM (digital rights management) technology to protect against piracy. Currently, iPods are the only mp3 players that can play protected AAC files (since that format was developed by Apple). Most other mp3 players on the market use a different proprietary format developed by Microsoft, which since Apple didn't license from them, iPods can't use. But this is all if you intend to buy music from an online music service.

Regardless, if you own CDs and rip them to mp3, then they will play on an iPod just fine, as they would on any other mp3 player.

 

[John Crichton]

http://www.ipodsdirtysecret.com/

I can't believe I haven't seen that before!

Hilarious.

It would concern me that I would have to buy a 3rd party battery for a $300 investment.

 

[MarauderX]

iPods can play mp3s files just fine. Songs purchased from the Apple iTunes Music Store uses a proprietary format called protected AAC because standard .mp3 and .aac files do not have DRM (digital rights management) technology to protect against piracy. Currently, iPods are the only mp3 players that can play protected AAC files (since that format was developed by Apple). Most other mp3 players on the market use a different proprietary format developed by Microsoft, which since Apple didn't license from them, iPods can't use. But this is all if you intend to buy music from an online music service.

Regardless, if you own CDs and rip them to mp3, then they will play on an iPod just fine, as they would on any other mp3 player.

This is incorrect. Apple changes the mp3 format, and not to prevent piracy but to force a proprietary system that Apple uses. The other mp3 players use mp3s directly, which is not a proprietary developed by microsoft. Should you download a bunch of mp3s, say via a file sharing program, you will be able to use them regardless of the device (ipod or other), as iTunes is essentially a translation program to convert the mp3s to it's format. This is generally why it takes longer to upload songs to an ipod from a windows PC than an apple, as the apple will (typically) have converted them already. Have no fear whatsoever if you have a hard drive full of mp3s waiting to be uploaded to a new portable device, as you will be able to do it no matter what brand you get.

 

[Sephiroth no Miko]

Ehr, but I beg to differ. You can add mp3s into your iTunes library without changing format. You can also use iTunes to rip CDs tracks into mp3s-- it doesn't have to be aac files. In any case, any CD tracks you do rip into aac format still do not have any DRM built into them (i.e., restrictions on copying and burning them). Only tracks downloaded from the iTMS have those. That was what I meant about the protected aac files. Aac files are not Apple proprietary actually; they're part of the mpeg-4 standard developed by a bunch of companies. But since Apple is the only company that uses them, people have come to associate them with Apple.

I know mp3s are not a proprietary format; that wasn't what I said, though perhaps my delivery was poor. The proprietary format I was referring to for the other online music stores is wmv files, which is indeed developed by Microsoft. I should have mentioned the wmv format by name, instead of referring to it obliquely.

iTunes is not a translation program to convert mp3s into Apple's own format (though it can do that). I don't know where you got that idea, but iTunes is perfectly capable of playing mp3s. Most of my collection is in mp3 format and I use the program to rip mp3s as well (under the program's importing preferences, all you have to do is select the mp3 encoder instead of the aac encoder, which is on by default).

If anyone wants to learn about the aac format, here's a link to its wikipedia entry to get you started.

 

[Alan Shutko]

This is incorrect. Apple changes the mp3 format, and not to prevent piracy but to force a proprietary system that Apple uses.

You are misinformed. The ipod can play MP3s just fine. In fact, you can mount the drive and pull them off, although the directory structure is a bit strange.

Apple does have their own format used for songs from their store, and you can rip into that file too, but it doesn't need to convert MP3s to throw them on an ipod.

 

[MarauderX]

You are misinformed. The ipod can play MP3s just fine. In fact, you can mount the drive and pull them off, although the directory structure is a bit strange.

I cannot take a mp3 and throw it onto an ipod and have it play without using itunes. I can put it on, using the ipod as a hard drive, or I can put the mp3 through itunes in order to get it to play on the ipod. While itunes can play mp3s, the ipods I have loaded songs on to cannot unless itunes is employed to 'translate' them. Like many I have uploaded tons of material to ipods through windows machines, and itunes is an absolute necessity for the ipods to play the songs in every case. There is no way I can drag-n-drop a pile of mp3s onto the player and have it access the songs to play them, no matter how the mp3s were made. The company has explained this to me via service, a few times actually, as I wasn't content to listen to a guy at the Apple store make up some story just to tell me what I wanted to hear. I didn't make it the way it is, but that's how it works or doesn't work.

 

[Sephiroth no Miko]

Yes, that's true. You need iTunes to *load* mp3s (or any other kind of music files the iPod can play) into your iPod. But it doesn't *translate* (change) them in any way. You can later pull those files directly off your iPod (with the use of 3rd party software to reveal the invisible directory they're hiding in) and they will continue to work with any other software or hardware mp3 player. It's a now largely a matter of semantics, but I just wanted to make that clear to everyone following this discussion.

 

[Alan Shutko]

I cannot take a mp3 and throw it onto an ipod and have it play without using itunes.

Yes, you can, assuming you also update the iTunesDB and follow the right directory structure. That's somewhat hard to do by hand, but there are non-iTunes programs which do it. (Personally, I use gtkpod.)

There's no translation of the file involved. Just bookkeeping since the iPod doesn't scan its hard drive for songs. You can pull the file off the drive and compare it to the original, they're identical. (Just did it and confirmed it.)

There are some valid reasons for the program to do it this way... this way, the iPod doesn't have to parse id3 tags, and doesn't have to scan all the songs after
being used as a drive. Makes the experience a bit faster. Sure, it's sad you can't drop it in directly, but there are enough tools now to update the iTunesDB it's not a practical problem.