iPod Question(s) - new user needs help

[Dallas91]

Hey gang,

Not looking to get into a debate about which MP3 players are best, I just need some information about the iPod product and iTunes.

I figure there are a number of you out there who are iPod users. I've just bought an iPod Nano for my wife (2GB). I'm not totally new to portable audio, but am to the apple products. My wife has been using a 512MB - MP3 player (Sandisk Sansa model). I can't stand Windows Media Player and I want things to be very easy for creating & transferring playlists (so I've chosen the iPod and iTunes). I've been happy using iTunes as a music jukebox and now want to use it With an iPod. Regardless of one's personal preference for players or programs (I know we all have opinions which is cool), can anyone answer the following?:

Okay, the question(s):
If I use iTunes and have an EXACT copy of my music library on 2 different PCs, can I take my Nano and sync between the two different PCs (say my work PC and my home PC)?

Someone yesterday told me "you can't do it as it will wipe out everything you had on it and replace it with whatever you are now synching on the second copy of iTunes (and vice-versa)".

Basically, is there anything that would prevent me from putting 100 songs on at home, then going to work and adding another 150 songs for a total of 250 songs all differnent songs, but still from an identical copy of the songs found on my home PC)? The songs would be found on either pc regardless of where I sync, but I didn't know if it gives each file a specific id stating which pc it synched from/with that might cause a problem with the second sync.

My plan is just to take a portable harddrive to work and load the songs into my wifes iTunes library at work. So, at that point she would be working with identical copies of the music at home and at work (assuming no new music imports at either location).

I know there are limitations to the Apple product, but I can't remember if it is "you can't sync more than 5 devices up to 1 copy of iTunes" or "you can't sync a single device (iPod) up to more than 1 copy of iTunes"

I hope this made sense and I look forward to any help anyone can provide.

THANKS in advance

[KrisandCandi]

I have encountered the same problem. I still find it hard to believe that you can't hook an ipod to more than one computer with itunes. The only thing I thought about it is that it may keep people from going and getting every one elses music for free . Please, if you find this not true fill me in on the details too! Sorry I was of no help but just feeling your frustration!

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by KrisandCandi

I have encountered the same problem. I still find it hard to believe that you can't hook an ipod to more than one computer with itunes. The only thing I thought about it is that it may keep people from going and getting every one elses music for free . Please, if you find this not true fill me in on the details too! Sorry I was of no help but just feeling your frustration!

No, thanks for the feedback. It is just confirming what I was told yesterday and what surprised me as well.
I understand what they are trying to do, but it seems to me that if you could only sync from the iPod to the PC for files(songs) that already exist on that copy of iTunes, it shouldn't matter how many PC's you are doing it on. At that point, you are not copying anything 'new' to the PC so you can't "steal" songs.
I may just return the new portable harddrive I got if it's not going to let her sync her songs in both places. No sense in having it if you can't use it IMO.
-Adam

[jtm1631]

I have no problem doing exactly what you indicate.

I have my iTunes at home and my iTunes at work. I can take my iPod and dump music from home on to it, come into work plug it in and see all the music on the iPod and than dump additional songs from work onto the same iPod.

What you can't do it take songs from home, dump them on the iPod and than use iTunes to get them from the iPod onto the work computer. You can however use widows to work around this.

I do the same thing at home with several machines and several iPods. When you are going from machine to iPod it does not matter what computer you use. When you go from iPod to computer it matters.

You can also set up the iPod to not automatically synch the music between computer and iPod. You tell iTunes that you want to manually transfer songs between computer and iPod and than you are in control of the process.

[bubba8356]

Try this software. It works for me.
Zelek Software - Products

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by jtm1631

I have no problem doing exactly what you indicate.

I have my iTunes at home and my iTunes at work. I can take my iPod and dump music from home on to it, come into work plug it in and see all the music on the iPod and than dump additional songs from work onto the same iPod.

What you can't do it take songs from home, dump them on the iPod and than use iTunes to get them from the iPod onto the work computer. You can however use widows to work around this.

I do the same thing at home with several machines and several iPods. When you are going from machine to iPod it does not matter what computer you use. When you go from iPod to computer it matters.

You can also set up the iPod to not automatically synch the music between computer and iPod. You tell iTunes that you want to manually transfer songs between computer and iPod and than you are in control of the process.

Good info. Thanks

What you can't do it take songs from home, dump them on the iPod and than use iTunes to get them from the iPod onto the work computer.

Is this true even if the same song (exact copy) exists on both the home PC and work PC? or is it that it looks at song X on your home PC as being different from song X on your work PC (unique identifiers in the transfer)?
-A

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by bubba8356

Try this software. It works for me.
Zelek Software - Products

Thanks Bubba.

I will eventually be getting a 30 GB iPod and will have most of my library on it. I think everything will be "okay" for the most part with the one-way communication (from PC to iPod). I already have my music library packed up to external storage. I just want to be sure that I can make minor changes/additions to a playlist regardless of where I am (at home or at work). I will definitely need to set it to "Manual" mode though as suggested.
-Adam

[jtm1631]

Originally Posted by Dallas91

Good info. Thanks


Is this true even if the same song (exact copy) exists on both the home PC and work PC? or is it that it looks at song X on your home PC as being different from song X on your work PC (unique identifiers in the transfer)?
-A

Reality is, if you have the same exact song on the iPod and the computer, it won't matter.

Bottom line is you can't transfer anything from your iPod to a computer other than the computer your iPod is linked to.

Like I say, you can use Windows. You can force windows to see the iPod as an external hard drive. Once it sees it as a hard drive you can copy all of the files onto your compter and than import them into iTunes. A couple of extra steps, but sometimes it is nice to be able to do.

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by jtm1631

Reality is, if you have the same exact song on the iPod and the computer, it won't matter.

Thanks JT. I appreciate all the feedback.

Yes, I know. My big concern was that I was (am) going to plug in the Ipod at work with some songs I had from home and it was going to erase them off the Ipod automatically when I tried to sync some new songs to it. Even though the songs may be in both places, I'd have to remember what I originally had on there before hitting the sync button. I just want to avoid having to "rebuild" the combination of the two playlists.

Right now this is all just ignorance on my part because I've never tried to sync with iTunes (I've only played with Windows Media Player--which is getting better but still sucks IMO compared to the iTunes interface-- and our existing MP3 player). I'm one to think of "worst case scenarios"

Like I say, you can use Windows. You can force windows to see the iPod as an external hard drive. Once it sees it as a hard drive you can copy all of the files onto your compter and than import them into iTunes. A couple of extra steps, but sometimes it is nice to be able to do.

I'm fairly tech savvy (seeing as it's my profession) and I have no problems with this but my wife is not the most computer literate person and thus would need some tutoring on treating the iPod as a hard drive. I'm the one right now who has to put songs on / take songs off her MP3 player because we have been using it as a 'harddrive'. My intent of getting the Nano and using iTunes is to try to make the process as simple as possible

From the sound of things, I'm in good shape as I don't really care so much about taking things from the iPod to the PC. I'm more interested in putting things from the PC to the iPod since the source data will probably always be coming from our iTunes library.

On another note, am I correct in saying you can only "register" your iPod to work on 5 PC's? I don't forsee me registering on more than 3 PC's, but I received a couple of songs from a friend when I first started using iTunes and those songs were registered under his apple login id. If I tried to export the songs, I'd get an error saying they could not be exported unless I register the PC using his login information.

Anyway, I understand DRM, etc. and I already had hardcopies of those CDs, so I just ripped them and had my own digital copy.
-A

[james]

Originally Posted by jtm1631

Bottom line is you can't transfer anything from your iPod to a computer other than the computer your iPod is linked to.

well, only if you use iTunes.

You can use Bubba's link, or many other options. I'm currently using Winamp with the ml_ipod plugin. It's also free for both programs and not goofy like iTunes. You can drag and drop to the device.

[Dallas91]

Originally Posted by james

well, only if you use iTunes.

You can use Bubba's link, or many other options. I'm currently using Winamp with the ml_ipod plugin. It's also free for both programs and not goofy like iTunes. You can drag and drop to the device.

I haven't played with WinAmp in a few years. I'll have to take a look to see what they've done with the app. Thanks.

[ryberg]

I think everybody's pretty much covered the important stuff for you already, but I could a couple of minor points (well, not minor if you run up against them the hard way!).

The first is just that you can avoid a lot of risk of confusion with this stuff if you just go into your iPod's setting and select manual control rather than automatic synching. I much prefer this: you know what goes onto your iPod because you specifically went and told it to go there, and nothing ever gets knocked off just because you connected it and forgot about the auto-synch or connected it to someone else's computer (which of course you can in fact do) or that sort of thing. It's like taking off the cruise to give yourself more direct control, and has no negative effect on your system. Just my $.02 worth on that one.

The other relates to this:

Originally Posted by jtm1631

You can force windows to see the iPod as an external hard drive. Once it sees it as a hard drive you can copy all of the files onto your compter and than import them into iTunes. A couple of extra steps, but sometimes it is nice to be able to do.

However note that PCs will frustratingly not let you do this if you didn't originally format the iPod on a PC. It's one of those examples where PCs don't know what to do with a drive formatted on something else. There is no reverse problem, however: if you format your iPod on PC using Windows and connect it to a Mac, the Mac will recognize it and let you use it, no prob. So all in all you may experience more iPod joy if you format it using Windows.

Steve

[Beachnutt719]

Here's a sort of related question. If I have a computer with a DVR drive; can all of the videos in my
itunes library be converted to DVD and watched on my TV?

[HMH G]

Originally Posted by Dallas91

Hey gang,

Not looking to get into a debate about which MP3 players are best, I just need some information about the iPod product and iTunes.

I figure there are a number of you out there who are iPod users. I've just bought an iPod Nano for my wife (2GB). I'm not totally new to portable audio, but am to the apple products. My wife has been using a 512MB - MP3 player (Sandisk Sansa model). I can't stand Windows Media Player and I want things to be very easy for creating & transferring playlists (so I've chosen the iPod and iTunes). I've been happy using iTunes as a music jukebox and now want to use it With an iPod. Regardless of one's personal preference for players or programs (I know we all have opinions which is cool), can anyone answer the following?:

Okay, the question(s):
If I use iTunes and have an EXACT copy of my music library on 2 different PCs, can I take my Nano and sync between the two different PCs (say my work PC and my home PC)?

Someone yesterday told me "you can't do it as it will wipe out everything you had on it and replace it with whatever you are now synching on the second copy of iTunes (and vice-versa)".

Basically, is there anything that would prevent me from putting 100 songs on at home, then going to work and adding another 150 songs for a total of 250 songs all differnent songs, but still from an identical copy of the songs found on my home PC)? The songs would be found on either pc regardless of where I sync, but I didn't know if it gives each file a specific id stating which pc it synched from/with that might cause a problem with the second sync.

My plan is just to take a portable harddrive to work and load the songs into my wifes iTunes library at work. So, at that point she would be working with identical copies of the music at home and at work (assuming no new music imports at either location).

I know there are limitations to the Apple product, but I can't remember if it is "you can't sync more than 5 devices up to 1 copy of iTunes" or "you can't sync a single device (iPod) up to more than 1 copy of iTunes"

I hope this made sense and I look forward to any help anyone can provide.

THANKS in advance

I have an iPod from a year or so ago (so old, i know ) so unless they've changed that since then you have to upload all the songs you want on there from one computer. If you try to add more from another computer it will delete the songs already on the iPod.

[ANDY&JEN]

Originally Posted by Beachnutt719

Her's a sort of related question. If I have a computer with a DVR drive; can all of the videos in my ITunes library be converted to DVD and watched on my TV?

Same question but in reverse, i have around 50 films on my Archos (mp4) and laptop..is it somehow possible to covert these to watch them on my Ipod (80gb) .

.