Alternitives to Itunes?

Patricide

Ok got my new Ipod today and i must say that i find itunes to be the biggest pile of rubbish EVER. Amongst the massive flaws in it that i see is you cant rename tracks once there on the ipod which can make **** VERY unorganised, and more importantly every time you are putting somthing new on you gotta wipe it then put your i tunes library on, so therefore if your like me and have feck all hard drive space your screwed.

Anyway rant over, next onto my question. What are the alternitives, prefrably free. Ive already tried the win amp plug in which i didnt really like and ephpod which wiped my ipod clean. Im really looking for something with features along the lines of creative media source which was nothing short of exellent.

Is there any programme anybit like it out there?

silvine

Patricide wrote:

. Amongst the massive flaws in it that i see is you cant rename tracks once there on the ipod which can make **** VERY unorganised, and more importantly every time you are putting somthing new on you gotta wipe it then put your i tunes library on,

Take a look at the settings for managing your iPod in iTunes. You can adjust which playlists/songs go onto the player. You can also setup your Pod so it does not erase/sync everytime you connect it up to your computer.

Try configuring it for manual transfer of songs only. If you rename songs in iTunes it will rename them on your iPod for you.

iTunes is more customisable than you think but if you are not happy with it there are a number of alternatives discussed elsewhere on Boards.

Also have a look at www.about.com and run a search for iTunes alternatives. They generally have good discussions about these things.

Patricide

Yea checked that out already, they gave me a list of options but all of them were poor, apart from anapod but that costs 30 smackeroos.

Also no way in hell am i using itunes, after spending a few hours with it,....its just not an option.

mikeruurds

Anapod is your only alternative afaik.

It saved my PC from being thrown out of the window.

quarryman

anapod is brilliant. well worth the money.

faceman

Patricide wrote:

Yea checked that out already, they gave me a list of options but all of them were poor, apart from anapod but that costs 30 smackeroos.

Also no way in hell am i using itunes, after spending a few hours with it,....its just not an option.

if you spent a few hours with it and couldnt figure out auto and manual sync, maybe you should read the instructions! It aint rocket science!

Aside from the fact that itunes wont let u take music off ur iPod, i find it very easy to use. I used to use anapod, winamp to name but a few. I now use Senuti to take tracks off my ipod

Patricide

No offence dude but im not braindead, i just couldnt be arsed figuring out somthing that i know im going to replace cause of the whole lack of being able to bring tracks back off my ipod .

Looks like im gonna have to go down the anapod route i guess, darn ipod, saved up 310 quid for it then 30 for good software and another 30 for a wall charger.

Mr E

Give Media Monkey a go (www.mediamonkey.com).
I use it to manage my Nano, and its the biz. Free too.

BostonB

TmB wrote:

Give Media Monkey a go (www.mediamonkey.com).
I use it to manage my Nano, and its the biz. Free too.

I use it too. think its great, not prefect but better than most other things.

Creamy Goodness

if you're use to winamp the ml_pod plugin works wonders.

i use it anytime people give me an ipod to stick music on.

tallaght01

areeeeet faceman , whats the storeeeeee?

Patricide

Thanks lads but i got anapod since, its no creative media source but it does what i want.

Cheers anyway.

Makaveli

Why would you want something similar to Media Source? The worst piece of software I've ever had to use.

Patricide

How is it bad, it sorts everything out by band then by album as oposed to every single track being layed out. It doesnt delete stuff off your player and it makes making playlists SIMPLE.

pleasant Co.

ditto, I've used many bundled and non bundled software packages and mediasource is one of the better ones, none the less MediaMonkey cannot be beaten. Also, Makaveil, if mediasource is the worst piece of software you've ever used then I recommend you try out Sonicstage, just to give yourself a lesson in awful software .

There are free programmes similar to anapod such as PodPlayer and YamiPod.

neacy69

TmB wrote:

Give Media Monkey a go (www.mediamonkey.com).
I use it to manage my Nano, and its the biz. Free too.

I've used this also and agree it's very good...easy to use lots of features and a nice interface

BostonB

Mactard wrote:

ditto, I've used many bundled and non bundled software packages and mediasource is one of the better ones, none the less MediaMonkey cannot be beaten. Also, Makaveil, if mediasource is the worst piece of software you've ever used then I recommend you try out Sonicstage, just to give yourself a lesson in awful software .

There are free programmes similar to anapod such as PodPlayer and YamiPod.

I use MediaMonkey mainly. But also use Sonicstage, (well since 3.2) never really had a problem with it tbh. Whats wrong with it?

Makaveli

Patricide wrote:

How is it bad, it sorts everything out by band then by album as oposed to every single track being layed out. It doesnt delete stuff off your player and it makes making playlists SIMPLE.

Granted there have probably been a lot of software revisions and updates since I last used it but it was the buggiest piece of crap I've had to use.

Constant ctd.
Refusual to look up cd info.
Refusual to rip cds.
Crashing if too many songs are transfered at a time.
Regular freezing.

I uninstalled it pretty quickly and used Notmad Explorer instead. No problems with that, smaller memory footprint and it actually worked the way I wanted it to.

As for Sonicstage, well I'll never need to use that because I don't own any Sony players.

pleasant Co.

Makaveli wrote:

As for Sonicstage, well I'll never need to use that because I don't own any Sony players.

Me neither.

BostonB

Mactard wrote:

Me neither.

Then why criticise it...I use it a lot for my HiMD, with no problems. Its not slick but it works ok. At least with the versions released in the past couple of years. Earlier than that I didn't use it.

pleasant Co.

because i have used the software of course dude... Its downloadable you know . I was highlighting that one does not need to own a sony dap to use the software, obviously you did not cop to that

Its a crap piece of software, espescially given that it is coming from such a big company.

BostonB

Mactard wrote:

because i have used the software of course dude... Its downloadable you know . I was highlighting that one does not need to own a sony dap to use the software, obviously you did not cop to that

Its a crap piece of software, espescially given that it is coming from such a big company.

The only purpose of SS to put music on/off Sony devices and you said don't have one, and you said you'll never need to use it. I don't see how that's highlighting you can use it without a Sony player. I asked whats wrong with it. If you can't answer the question, except with "its crap", then that says it all tbh. Its been mainly trouble free for the past couple of years. Most people complaining about it are usually talking about the earlier versions that came around the era of NetMD, and the first few Sony HD, DAPs, when Sony were still trying to enforce DRM. That been a non issue for quite a while, and its robust now.

IMO. There isn't a perfect music manager out there. As much as I like Media Monkey, its not flawless either. iTunes is ok, again not flawless. Strangely quite a lot of people don't get it, and struggle with the iPod/iTunes synergy. Which is illustrated by the number of iPod users with their tracks/music in a complete mess.

Patricide

BostonB wrote:

The only purpose of SS to put music on/off Sony devices and you said don't have one, and you said you'll never need to use it. I don't see how that's highlighting you can use it without a Sony player. I asked whats wrong with it. If you can't answer the question, except with "its crap", then that says it all tbh. Its been mainly trouble free for the past couple of years. Most people complaining about it are usually talking about the earlier versions that came around the era of NetMD, and the first few Sony HD, DAPs, when Sony were still trying to enforce DRM. That been a non issue for quite a while, and its robust now.

IMO. There isn't a perfect music manager out there. As much as I like Media Monkey, its not flawless either. iTunes is ok, again not flawless. Strangely quite a lot of people don't get it, and struggle with the iPod/iTunes synergy. Which is illustrated by the number of iPod users with their tracks/music in a complete mess.

itunes biggest problem is it deletes stuff if its not left in your harddrive imo, if it didnt have that and it had the ability to transfer stuff back it wouldnt be half bad.

Makaveli

BostonB wrote:

The only purpose of SS to put music on/off Sony devices and you said don't have one, and you said you'll never need to use it.

That was me who said they'd never need to use it.

pleasant Co.

BostonB wrote:

The only purpose of SS to put music on/off Sony devices and you said don't have one, and you said you'll never need to use it. I don't see how that's highlighting you can use it without a Sony player. I asked whats wrong with it. If you can't answer the question, except with "its crap", then that says it all tbh. Its been mainly trouble free for the past couple of years. Most people complaining about it are usually talking about the earlier versions that came around the era of NetMD, and the first few Sony HD, DAPs, when Sony were still trying to enforce DRM. That been a non issue for quite a while, and its robust now.

IMO. There isn't a perfect music manager out there. As much as I like Media Monkey, its not flawless either. iTunes is ok, again not flawless. Strangely quite a lot of people don't get it, and struggle with the iPod/iTunes synergy. Which is illustrated by the number of iPod users with their tracks/music in a complete mess.

BostonB, you DID NOT ask me what was wrong with it. Where the Hell did you say that?

I used SS to try out its MEIDA MANAGING functions for which i DO NOT NEED A SONY DAP. The software was buggy (random crashing and freezing) sluggish. Sluggish not only in general use but also upon initial start up. It had issues reading my mp3 tags and worse of all I could not completely remove it from windows XP.
In regards to the issues with mp3 tags, by issues I should clarify that it did not read the tags.
I was also mistaken,I actually did use my old old netmd with a version of sonicstage,1.5 i think, and I founf 1.5's limited abilities to be far more funtional and stable than the lattest one I used.
Further clarification to help you distinguish that the SS I refer to in my previous posts is not the 1.5 version but a newer version released in the 3rd quarter of 2006.

Now as a rebutal, you got rather annoyed at me not answering a non existant question so I ask you, what "flaws" does itunes have accoding to you? what "flaws" does media monkey have according to you?

BostonB

Patricide - Never had it delete stuff. Must be the way you have it configured. Makaveli - If you recall, Mactard agreed with your comment. Thats all. Mactard My none existent question is in post 17. Boards is acting up for me atm I've lost my replies twice now. So I'll respond to you other questions when it settles down.

Patricide

BostonB wrote:

Patricide - Never had it delete stuff. Must be the way you have it configured. Makaveli - If you recall, Mactard agreed with your comment. Thats all. Mactard My none existent question is in post 17. Boards is acting up for me atm I've lost my replies twice now. So I'll respond to you other questions when it settles down.

it deletes stuff if you take stuff out of your itunes library, which i have to do as my comp dies with that much music.

pleasant Co.

Patricide wrote:

it deletes stuff if you take stuff out of your itunes library, which i have to do as my comp dies with that much music.

have you it set to auto sync?

If not, could you elaborate further on what you mean by "if you take stuff out of your itunes library"

Many thanks, Mac.

Jip

Many people think iTunes is ****e simple because they don't use it correctly. Many people issues, including some on this thread, can be solved simply by turning off auto synch as has been mentioned.

BostonB

Patricide wrote:

it deletes stuff if you take stuff out of your itunes library, which i have to do as my comp dies with that much music.

I don't understand that. I add and remove stuff from iTunes all the time with out deleting the files.

Makaveli

Jip wrote:

Many people think iTunes is ****e simple because they don't use it correctly.

Many people think it's ****e because it's bloated and a memory hog.

pleasant Co.

Makaveli wrote:

Many people think it's ****e because it's bloated and a memory hog.

kinda like the windows opperating system, ironic that...

Patricide

nope auto sync is off whenever i plugged my ipod in if the piece of music wasnt in my itunes library it was gone, i know this sounds like autosync but it doesnt put anything else on and auto sync is DEFFINATLY off. Might be just me, i also dislike the way editing tracks that are already on the ipod is difficult and of course the main problem that you cant rip stuff back off it.

And yes it is a memory hog, not a problem on my good computer but on my bad one it crashes it often like. Also im pretty sure the vista debate has no point here but my 2 cents its a memory hog but its designed for good pcs in the first place like and its still in its early stages.

BostonB

If the track wasn't in your iTunes how did it get on your iPod?

Solution to memory problems is learn to manage it and use less, or buy more.

Makaveli

He could have added it from a different computer he owns.

You shouldn't have to buy more memory to compensate for the fact that one program uses far more than it needs to. Solution, find a better program with a smaller memory footprint. Whether your PC can handle or not is not the issue, the issue is why can so many other audio players have much smaller memory footprints while iTunes has to try and gobble as much as it can. It's a nice looking program and it can do a lot but it is bloated and with enough tweaking foobar can do pretty much everything iTunes can.

BostonB

Makaveli wrote:

He could have added it from a different computer he owns.....

If that was the case it would explain why music disappears....;)

pleasant Co.

BostonB wrote:

If that was the case it would explain why music disappears....;)

hows that then? sorry for my ignorance but I've never had songs delete from my ipod because I got them off a different comp (I used to switch between my PC and Mac, I am a former 5g ipod owner btw)

BostonB

Me neither. But obviously a lot do as its a very common iTunes troubleshooting subject. Sync to a different computer and hey presto your iPod tracks are gone. It obvious once you know about it, but its not intuitive.

DermoMIO

im new to itunes only started using it in january when i reluctantly bought a 80gb ipod after my iriver 1hp120 died but at first i hated itunes all my tracks were all over the place crazy amount of artists but then i figured it out and found ways of reducing time fixing d libary like putting music directly onto the ipod instead of libary then ipod which i was told was d only way.

my only problem with itunes is its picky on what mp4 videos it believes are actually a mp4 video. anapod is a good alternative i use to backup my ipod but still use itunes to manage my ipod

pleasant Co.

BostonB wrote:

Me neither. But obviously a lot do as its a very common iTunes troubleshooting subject. Sync to a different computer and hey presto your iPod tracks are gone. It obvious once you know about it, but its not intuitive.

Yes but we have already established that the OP is not syncing his ipod which prompted my question dude

BostonB

Mactard wrote:

Yes but we have already established that the OP is not syncing his ipod which prompted my question dude

I guess that depends if you take the OP comments as accurate. It sounds exactly like autosync on at least one of the machines hes getting his music from. IMO

http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/5698

pleasant Co.

BostonB wrote:

I guess that depends if you take the OP comments as accurate. It sounds exactly like autosync on at least one of the machines hes getting his music from. IMO

http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/5698

I agree there boston, that is how it sounds.