My new iPod

[Smoky]

Tom:

The Creative I had was the Jukebox 3 which I think was much newer than yours, though it is about 3 years old now.  There are many tings it did much better than the IPOd, IMO.  I added the IMO because these sorts of things can be very subjective depending on the person.  The thing I liked most about the Creative Jukebox is that it did not base everything on the assumption that you were going to always be synchronizing.  The iPod does have ways of getting around that, but I find it awkward.  With the Creative I could turn off the synchronization and it was then easy to treat the player as just another database.  I could also easily collect tracks from other sources than my PC and then easily upload them to my PC.  With the iPod you need third party software to do that.

For actual personal use in playing music, the iPod excels of course, and therein lies its popularity.  It is compact and the menu easy to operate.  I just find it more restrictive than the Jukebox.

Steve, the newer Creative players do not have the size problem.  I was referring to the older Jukebox 3 which was about the same size as a cd-rom player.  No way it was going to fit into my shirt pocket.

BTW I found a great IPOd kit.  It has a great FM docking station, with all kinds of pieces you can mix and match to fit the dash configuration around any cigarette lighter.  And it charges while it plays.  I especially like the Velcro arm band you can use when carrying around the IPOd on your person.  I find this much more convenient and out of the way than belt hitches, etc.

Smoky - currently parked in Lothian MD

 

[Tom]

The Creative I had was the Jukebox 3 which I think was much newer than yours, though it is about 3 years old now.

Sounds like they're about the same age and the same model. I downloaded the latest version of the Creative Play Center last night, although I don't see much difference from the old one. Sounds like it might just be different strokes for different folks.

 

[Pat]

Steve:  Important issue when selecting an MP3 player is that you want to be able to get your stuff OFF of the player.  I started with the Personal Jukebox back before Creative came out with its first model.  Because of copyright considerations, once you loaded music onto the old players, you couldn't get it off.  So people like myself who gave away their CD collection after loading the player and then thinking, "What if I want to upgrade?" or "What if this hard drive dies?" or "Oops.  I just fell off my bike, onto the Jukebox, into a mud puddle.  Wonder if I lost everything." had a problem.  Fortunately somebody reverse engineered the Personal Jukebox, wrote new firmware for it, and wrote new software to get the music off.  I had maybe 15gb on my 20gb player.  Took something like 18 hours to copy it off, but I was able to store it on my backup hard drive and transfer it to my iPod.  Needless to say I sent a contribution to that public software site.

--pat

 

[Steve CDN]

Pat,

Do I understand correctly  that the current version of Zen Creative Jukebaox does not allow you to get your music off once it's transferred to the device?

 

[Smoky]

Steve:

I don't know about the new Zen, but the Creative Jukebox 3 does a fine job of transferring its library back on to the computer, or a single song or whatever.  It also records directly off the radio or whatever you have hooked up to its input.  This can then also be uploaded back to the PC.  This is one of the big pluses I was trying to explain to Tom.  Of course, if one has no need to upload from the player to the PC, then there is no particular advantage of the Creative over the iPod, other than its easy release from synchronization.

As Tom points out, different strokes for different folks.

Smoky

 

[Tom]

there is no particular advantage of the Creative over the iPod, other than its easy release from synchronization.

Smoky, FWIW for the brief time I was using the new iPod software recently, I wasn't synchronizing anything. It was just like the file manager use of the Creative software. Actually, copying from a CD was easier and more flexible on the iPod. Remember that I have the Creative hardware and software, apparently the same vintage as yours.

 

[Smoky]

Tom:

Have you found a way to transfer files from the iPod to your PC?  So far the only way I see to do that is with 3rd party software.

As for synchronizing, I found with the iPod, if I left it in default mode, every time I changed my PC library it would try to match that on the iPod.  I had to go to some trouble to defeat that.  I found it an aggravation.  But perhaps you don't delete songs from your master library without wanting them to stay on the iPod.  Or don't use the iPod for just a subset of your master library.

Likely you are correct, it boils down to different strokes for different folks.  I found the Creative strokes more suitable for the way I use music management.  I found the iPod much more restrictive in terms of music management back and forth between pc and player.

But that is just part of it.  Overall I like the iPod better once I get music set up on it the way I want.

 

[Tom]

Smoky

Since, as I said, I only used the iPod software for a brief time, I really didn't get to excercise all its capabilities. My niece, visiting from the UK, had bought herself a mini-iPod at Fry's Electronics and all I did was set her up to copy songs from some of the many CDs she'd brought along. I installed the software on my PC, copied the first few songs, then let her loose. The whole thing seemed quite intuitive.

One nice feature that I haven't found in Creative is the ability to rip to the PC-based library and to the iPod concurrently; i.e. no need to go back afterwards and copy from the PC to the iPod or sync with the library in order to get those latest rips copied to the iPod.

My perspective is probably colored by the fact that a couple of years ago, prior to Apple having any PC software, Robert and I spent two weeks copying his songs to his new iPod via my PC. The latest Apple software is such a breeze in comparison and definitely faster than Creative. When it's time to upgrade my Jukebox 3, I'll be seriously thinking about buying iPod next time around.

 

[Smoky]

No question, it is easier to rip from a CD direct to the iPod than Creative.  I have no need to do that however, as I always manage my master library and then occasionally transfer music from the master library to the iPod for traveling.  I have about 16,000 songs in my master library and currently carry about 2,000 on the iPod, though it could handle more.  I use Matchbox Plus for all my ripping because of its high quality.

 

[Pat]

Smoky:  I have forgotten how to rip from CD to the iPod via iTunes.

--pat

 

[rhmahoney]

Pat:"I have forgotten how to rip from CD to the iPod via iTunes."

You rip to iTunes in the computer then synch iTunes with the iPod.

 

[Tom]

Russ

It's possible to do it either way with the iTunes software I was using recently.

 

[Ned]

Why would you not want to add the tracks to the iTunes library?  The iPod is just a convenient way to carry a subset of your music with you.  I specify which of my playlists will be synchronized to the iPod when I plug it in so I can control exactly what tracks are downloaded to it.  I don't see any value in bypassing the library and ripping directly to the iPod.  Like so many things, maybe you can do it but why would you?

 

[Tom]

Why would you not want to add the tracks to the iTunes library? ..... maybe you can do it but why would you?

You're not paying attention Ned, so let's try this again slowly.  I have no reason or desire to add my niece's music to my library. All I was doing was providing a way for her to easily and quickly copy selected tracks from her own CDs to her newly-acquired mini-iPod so she could use it to listen to her own music for the remainder of her vacation. Her PC and future music library are 6,000 miles away. Ripping directly to the iPod was a fast and easy way to do it and it made more sense than ripping to my PC, synch'ing and then deleting from my PC.

If there's an easy way to do something, why do it the hard way?  ;D

FWIW iTunes provided the option to rip to both the music library and the iPod at the same time. If this was my music I was ripping to my own iPod and library, I'd like the option of performing both functions concurrently.

 

[Ned]

Oh.  I like to use my tools for the jobs they're designed to do and not drive screws with a hammer.  But, if it makes you happy, I'm happy.

 

[Tom]

Eh  ???

 

[Lorna]

Tom I understand what you are saying and I probably wouldn't want my son's or your niece's music on my computer either.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Lorna, now try explaining it to Ned  ;D

 

[Smoky]

Pat:

Insert an audio CD into your computer. After a moment, the songs on the CD are listed in the iTunes window.
Click to remove the checkmark next to any songs you don't want to import.
To remove the gap of silence that normally occurs between songs, make sure the songs on the CD are sorted by track number in ascending order (click the top of the first column so that it's blue and you see a triangle that points up), then select two or more adjacent songs and choose Advanced > Join CD Tracks.

iTunes imports any joined songs as one track. To change back to importing the songs separately, select the joined songs and choose Advanced > Unjoin CD Tracks.

To add the selected songs to your library, click the Import button in the upper-right corner of the iTunes window.

The display area at the top of the iTunes window shows how much time it will take to import each song. To cancel importing, click the small X next to the progress bar.

When the songs are finished importing, click the Eject symbol to the right of the CD in the playlist, or click the Eject Disk button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window.

The above from the help menu.  I find it easier to rip from Matchbox then import into the Creative Jukebox, but that is just me.  I am forcing myself to learn to use the iPod because it is more compact and better for MH use.

 

[Smoky]

LOL!? What this thread proves is that we all have our own personal methods for gathering music.? What is important is that we all have in common a love of music and technology has made it much easier to integrate music with our RVing lives!!? ?;D

Smoky - currently parked at Granite Hills CG, Gettysburg PA and enjoying the hell out of the 3rd week of fulltiming.