Now that iTunes is out for Windows.....

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: 50

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: 50
Hey, just finished downloading (at an amazing speed of just ender 1 hour 30 min on dialup). A few things I like about it more than WMP9

1. Built in music store
2. Less resources
3. Better visualizations
4. Faster response
5. Really cool organizer
6. Mp3 ripping
7. Easier to update Mp3 tags
8. MUCH BETTER QUALITY Mp3 PLAYBACK

Things I don't like

1. Not maximized to screen
2. They don't have a mini player type thing on your taskbar, like WMP9 (I doubt they can get this, windows will stop them I bet)
3. I'm not really sure about this one, but the auto playlists were cool in WMP9, I didn't see any in iTunes.
4. IMO it looks ugly...
5. It renames the tracks themselves...on my archos it does it by alphabetic order, and the iTunes organized it with track number then title (REALLY ANNOYING).
6. It should omit all unusable characters when renaming the Mp3's. Whenever there is a : or something else, it adds a _.

My .02

#6 is a preference that can be turned on/off.

I'm not familair w/WMP9, what was the function of hte auto playlist? Have you created any smart playlists yet? If not go mess around w/them. Smart playlists w/live updateing kick ass.


Lethal

How do you turn it on/off?

Edit->Preferences->Importing

It's the middle checkbox. But if you import music w/the box checked I think you are stuck w/the number in the file name unless you manually rename the file(s). At least this will keep it from happening in the future.


Lethal

 

[vshah]

Anyone know if it has a SuperTagging feature like musicmatch did? I've used mmjb for so long, i'm scared of anything else. and GForce is still one of the nicest visualizations out there (even if it is virtually the only one for mmjb).

If someone made an mmjb/wmp9 skin for iTunes.............


-Vivan

 

[Ferocious]

It's SWEET!

 

[zodder]

Anyone know if it has a SuperTagging feature like musicmatch did?

That's the one thing I miss about MMJB. I hope they have it in there somewhere and I just haven't found it yet.

 

[zodder]

I've been reading over at iPod Lounge and it looks like there is no way to use any internet based tagging inside iTunes for already ripped mp3s. They do offer a host of suggestions over there for 3rd party apps that work well, though.

 

[50]

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: 50

Originally posted by: LethalWolfe

Originally posted by: 50
Hey, just finished downloading (at an amazing speed of just ender 1 hour 30 min on dialup). A few things I like about it more than WMP9

1. Built in music store
2. Less resources
3. Better visualizations
4. Faster response
5. Really cool organizer
6. Mp3 ripping
7. Easier to update Mp3 tags
8. MUCH BETTER QUALITY Mp3 PLAYBACK

Things I don't like

1. Not maximized to screen
2. They don't have a mini player type thing on your taskbar, like WMP9 (I doubt they can get this, windows will stop them I bet)
3. I'm not really sure about this one, but the auto playlists were cool in WMP9, I didn't see any in iTunes.
4. IMO it looks ugly...
5. It renames the tracks themselves...on my archos it does it by alphabetic order, and the iTunes organized it with track number then title (REALLY ANNOYING).
6. It should omit all unusable characters when renaming the Mp3's. Whenever there is a : or something else, it adds a _.

My .02

#6 is a preference that can be turned on/off.

I'm not familair w/WMP9, what was the function of hte auto playlist? Have you created any smart playlists yet? If not go mess around w/them. Smart playlists w/live updateing kick ass.


Lethal

How do you turn it on/off?

Edit->Preferences->Importing

It's the middle checkbox. But if you import music w/the box checked I think you are stuck w/the number in the file name unless you manually rename the file(s). At least this will keep it from happening in the future.


Lethal

This doesn't help, it only gets rid of the track number, the "_" still stays on the files and folders.
Also does anyone know how to change it so that when you download from music store, it isn't in AAC? Is this possible? I downloaded my first file and it is in AAC format

 

[VTEC01EX]

I don't believe that's possible, all iTunes store music is in AAC format for the copy protection...

 

[Sunner]

I've been kinda interested in trying it out, but this thread sure doesn't make it sound like something I'd like.
Summary, based on what I've read:
1: All the music I can buy is in AAC format, which is a closed format, much like Windows Media?
2: It's entirely based on ID3 tags, hence filenames would be useless?
3: Ignoring #1, assuming I'd wanna buy some music, I can't since I don't live in the US?
4: As a music player(MP3, AAC, WM Music, etc), it offers nothing that Winamp doesn't?

If even two of these points are correct, iTunes is one bigass no-no.

And a question, can it play other formats, such as Ogg Vorbis?

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Sunner
I've been kinda interested in trying it out, but this thread sure doesn't make it sound like something I'd like.
Summary, based on what I've read:
1: All the music I can buy is in AAC format, which is a closed format, much like Windows Media?
2: It's entirely based on ID3 tags, hence filenames would be useless?
3: Ignoring #1, assuming I'd wanna buy some music, I can't since I don't live in the US?
4: As a music player(MP3, AAC, WM Music, etc), it offers nothing that Winamp doesn't?

If even two of these points are correct, iTunes is one bigass no-no.

And a question, can it play other formats, such as Ogg Vorbis?

1) Yes
2) Not sure what you're asking
3) Only US for now. Europe is rumoured to be May, and Canada is rumoured to be the end of this year. Where do you live?
4) As an organizer, I think it's superior to the others, but for pure playback the best feature is network streaming.

Ogg, yes, with a plugin.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Sunner
I've been kinda interested in trying it out, but this thread sure doesn't make it sound like something I'd like.
Summary, based on what I've read:
1: All the music I can buy is in AAC format, which is a closed format, much like Windows Media?
2: It's entirely based on ID3 tags, hence filenames would be useless?
3: Ignoring #1, assuming I'd wanna buy some music, I can't since I don't live in the US?
4: As a music player(MP3, AAC, WM Music, etc), it offers nothing that Winamp doesn't?

If even two of these points are correct, iTunes is one bigass no-no.

And a question, can it play other formats, such as Ogg Vorbis?

1) Yes
2) Not sure what you're asking
3) Only US for now. Europe is rumoured to be May, and Canada is rumoured to be the end of this year. Where do you live?
4) As an organizer, I think it's superior to the others, but for pure playback the best feature is network streaming.

Ogg, yes, with a plugin.

1: This one alone makes it useless to me.
2: Well all my mp3's and ogg's are organized by filenames rather than ID3 tags, hence iTunes wouldn't have an easy time making sense of them.
3: Sweden, so, even if #1 wasn't relevant, I'd still be missing a major feature.
4: Big list, press "j", that's all the organizing I need

Oh and before people start calling me an Apple hater, have a look at my previous posts in regards to Apple and their products, I've been quite pro Apple, but iTunes is just crap as far as I can tell(for my needs, as always, people's needs differ).

I guess if this was "just another music jukebox" I wouldn't care, but I just don't see what all the hype is about.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Sunner
I've been kinda interested in trying it out, but this thread sure doesn't make it sound like something I'd like.
Summary, based on what I've read:
1: All the music I can buy is in AAC format, which is a closed format, much like Windows Media?
2: It's entirely based on ID3 tags, hence filenames would be useless?
3: Ignoring #1, assuming I'd wanna buy some music, I can't since I don't live in the US?
4: As a music player(MP3, AAC, WM Music, etc), it offers nothing that Winamp doesn't?

If even two of these points are correct, iTunes is one bigass no-no.

And a question, can it play other formats, such as Ogg Vorbis?

1) Yes
2) Not sure what you're asking
3) Only US for now. Europe is rumoured to be May, and Canada is rumoured to be the end of this year. Where do you live?
4) As an organizer, I think it's superior to the others, but for pure playback the best feature is network streaming.

Ogg, yes, with a plugin.

1: This one alone makes it useless to me.
2: Well all my mp3's and ogg's are organized by filenames rather than ID3 tags, hence iTunes wouldn't have an easy time making sense of them.
3: Sweden, so, even if #1 wasn't relevant, I'd still be missing a major feature.
4: Big list, press "j", that's all the organizing I need

Oh and before people start calling me an Apple hater, have a look at my previous posts in regards to Apple and their products, I've been quite pro Apple, but iTunes is just crap as far as I can tell(for my needs, as always, people's needs differ).

I guess if this was "just another music jukebox" I wouldn't care, but I just don't see what all the hype is about.

1) Why? It still plays MP3 and OGG fine. If you buy music it's going to have DRM, unless you buy the CD.
2) Yep. I can't imagine why you didn't bother with tags though. It sure makes life a heluvalot easier, esp. if you have digital audio player.
3) I don't know if May's "Europe" will include Sweden or not.

I think it's pretty harsh to call it crap. I think it's awesome, but you may not agree. But to call it crap, even for your needs is a different story. It seems pretty well thought out and polished. It just happens not to suit your needs.

Indeed, all you seem to need is Winamp and Windows Explorer.

 

[LethalWolfe]

AAC is based on MPEG4 and so, unlike WMA, it is not a propriatary format. But, the AAC files you buy on-line have DRM and they company that supplies/applies that DRM is called Fairplay. How much it costs to license FairPlay I don't know, but I recently saw a Nokia phone that advertised it could play protect AAC files. If I can find the thread (from a Mac forum) w/the link I'll post it.

AAC is open like MP3 the only differences are AAC has superior compression and it came come in protected and unprotected forms.


Lethal

 

[MetroFly]

just downloaded it and tried it.

my opinions:
i'm a winamp guy so itunes is a bit too clunky for me just to play mp3s.
i don't have an ipod so can't use that function
i like the AAC stuff, i'll play with that later.

so i guess i'll use it to encode audio from now on.

my main big gripe is that I checked my task manager and its running stuff in the background even when i'm not using it. i'll try rebooting later to see if the background stuff'll go away. too busy atm though

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: MetroFly
just downloaded it and tried it.

my opinions:
i'm a winamp guy so itunes is a bit too clunky for me just to play mp3s.
i don't have an ipod so can't use that function
i like the AAC stuff, i'll play with that later.

so i guess i'll use it to encode audio from now on.

my main big gripe is that I checked my task manager and its running stuff in the background even when i'm not using it. i'll try rebooting later to see if the background stuff'll go away. too busy atm though

You can turn off the iTuneshelper.exe which I believe is for the iPod. You can also turn off the GEARservice, but I wouldn't since it's for the CD burning function of iTunes.

 

[MetroFly]

cool, thanks for the info. i'll play around with it some more later.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Turn off iTunesHelper.exe by using MSCONFIG.

Turn off ipodservice.exe in administrative tools-->Services. (unless you own an ipod)


I'm using it instead of Musicmatch now. All my MP3s were tagged properly, so no problems. I like some of the features it has, it looks great, and I was used to MM so it's actually an improvement in the bloatware department.

 

[Sunner]

1) Why? It still plays MP3 and OGG fine. If you buy music it's going to have DRM, unless you buy the CD.
2) Yep. I can't imagine why you didn't bother with tags though. It sure makes life a heluvalot easier, esp. if you have digital audio player.
3) I don't know if May's "Europe" will include Sweden or not.

I think it's pretty harsh to call it crap. I think it's awesome, but you may not agree. But to call it crap, even for your needs is a different story. It seems pretty well thought out and polished. It just happens not to suit your needs.

Indeed, all you seem to need is Winamp and Windows Explorer.

You're right, crap is the wrong word, more like...useless

Anyways, some of my MP3's have tags, some don't, and they're all in different formats, etc etc, it's a huge mess, and I don't see how ID3 tags are better than filenames anyway?
I download most of my mp3's even though I could rip them from my CD's, but that's mostly cause Im lazy, I keep all my CD's in my 300 disc changer, so it's simply much more convenient

 

[jazzhound]

It seems a number of you have purchased an Apple computer solely for the use of iTunes, which is disturbing.

I'm not a Mac fanboy, but my interest in owning one has to do with expanding my support knowledge of OS' and OSX seems to be gaining grounds. It also doesn't hurt that it's visually stellar. Having used iTunes for Windows, I can only imagine their other software are as interoperated. WMP9 does what iTunes can, but in a discombublated way. Stripped away iTunes Music Store and you have WMP9.

 

[mooojojojo]

Originally posted by: jazzhound
Stripped away iTunes Music Store and you have WMP9.

Yes, but with like 10x more usability thinking behind it.