On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

[vovat]

Well, actually, it was my true love bethje's relatives who gave me gifts. I got two shirts, an electric razor, a Game Boy carrying case (so I don't have to borrow Beth's anymore), a new wallet (which I desperately needed), the Posies' live CD In Case You Didn't Feel Like Plugging In, and some candy. I really appreciate that Beth's relatives gave me presents.

After opening those presents, Beth and I watched the extras on her new Texas Chainsaw Massacre DVD (which she had also opened last night, it being one of the items from the Amazon order that hadn't arrived until after we had exchanged gifts for the first time). Most of the deleted scenes didn't have audio, which was kind of weird. We'll probably listen to the commentary pretty soon.

To change the subject, I'm kinda-sorta considering getting an iPod. I know some people who read this have their own iPods, and I have a few questions, so I might as well ask them here. I've heard that you have to use iTunes (which doesn't work on my computer, but I'd probably be able to use it on Beth's) to transfer songs to the iPod. Is this true? If so, will it only work with CD audio tracks and stuff downloaded from iTunes itself, or can you add other music files from your computer? Also, how can you hook it up to play in the car? And how is the technical support, if something goes wrong with it?

I keep forgetting to get a haircut. I really do need one.

Hmm, whoever put this CD information into the Windows Media Player database mixed up two songs.

Comments

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

I don't have an iPod, but from what I've heard it's better to invest in something like a Rio of similar capacity because you don't have to use iTunes, you can just drag and drop from any source (I think mp3 or wma). And you don't need that special Apple battery, which was a big source of brouhaha when they all started breaking or whatever, since they cost almost as much as the iPod itself.

[onib.livejournal.com]

I know that iTunes will let you transfer songs into it from either other mp3s or directly from CDs. But, I believe you do have to use the iTunes service to transfer these files to your iPod. There are a lot of other players (like the Rio that zimbra1006 mentioned) which sometimes have larger hard drives for less money. I think Amazon.com sometimes runs pretty good deals on MP3 Players, so you could do some comparison shopping.

As far as playing them in the car, they just have a headphone slot. Thus, you can use any means you would normally use for playing CDs in a car without a CD player. The two methods that spring to mind are firstly a tape adapter kit, which is a cassette tape attached to a wire. This requires a cassette deck to insert the tape into and the other end of the wire plugs into the headphone port on the iPod. I used to use this for my CD player, but my cassette deck started getting finicky and would eject the tape at random moments. Alternately, you can get an FM transmitter. This requires batteries and will also plug into the headphone port of the iPod, but it will transmit the audio signal to 88.1 - 88.7 FM. These cost about $20 at K-Mart/Wal-Mart/Target, and have the downside that you must replace the batteries and occasionally switch the signal if you come close to an area with a station broadcasting on that frequency. I've found that 88.3 works quite well all around the Philadelphia region.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I used to have a CD-to-cassette adapter, and while the adapter part worked fine, the cords that I plugged into the cigarette lighter for power kept going bad. I guess that wouldn't be a problem if the MP3 player had its own power source, though.

I don't really know much about Rio. Do you know if that's a reliable brand? It's weird, because I always see people on the Internet mentioning how non-Apple brands of MP3 player have more capacity, but when I look at stores, mostly what I see are more expensive players that don't hold as much. I guess the higher-capacity ones have to be mail ordered, or else I'm just missing them.

[onib.livejournal.com]

Rio seems to get pretty good reviews all in all. I can't speak from experience since I've never used an MP3 Player. I just have a CD player that reads MP3 discs - that way, I burn what I want to CD and swap them out. I think I've fit all of my TMBG material on about 4 discs, but that's ripping songs at 320kbps for best possible quality, you could fit a lot more on if you weren't as anal.

You can check out a lot of MP3 Players on Amazon, which has reviews. Also, I'd suggest you take a look at Epinions, which has very thorough reviews of hundreds of players.

[dave-noisy.livejournal.com]

Hey dood - i'll mirror the batteries issue..there's no way i'd ever own a portable device like this where i couldn't easily swap dead batteries for fresh.

The iTunes software is annoying too..i'd much rather just have a virtual drive i can drag files into.

I find most Apple stuff annoying this way. =)

[tisok.livejournal.com]

unless you're a huge apple-head, i'd say getting any competitor would probably be a better choice. they've got more capacity and features for much less money.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I don't have the TCM DVD so I can't say for sure, but I'm assuming most of the soundless outtakes are ones with, say, Leatherface chasing what'shername with the chainsaw and that type of thing? If that's the case, it's probably that they just add the sounds in post, but by that time, they decided that those particular scenes weren't going to be in the film, so they didn't waste the money on fixing them up, since, well, with a low-budget film, anything you can save is good. (I think sometimes in a higher budget film, they will sometimes, depending on the director/studio/etc, just so that way, when doing the final editing, they've got more options -- i.e. a scene might turn out to work better with one of the outtake versions/there might be a good shot that can be plunked in/whatever, and that way they won't have to go back into the sound studio to do the new audio on that, where it could sound different and you've got to fight again with getting everything scheduled, like, when the actors can get together along with the director/other crew members who should be there and the actual studio and all that.)

And, for being silent in the first place? Well, a lot of times they do that if they know the audio's going to be unusable anyway because of outside sounds, so they just won't bother micing, because mic-rentals and stuff cost money. And, since Chainsaws make a lot of noise, you'd probably end up having something totally distorted and something that'd cover up _everything_, so it's best in that case to just not record audio, and put it together in the studio with sfx and whatnot.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

i'm a huge applehead, but i've been wary of the ipod after hearing about the internal battery woes. oh, and the astronomical price. (the minis are cute but why only $50 less than the regular one with so much less space?) i'd love 20 gigs for sure, but i wouldn't love to pay so much money that i don't have for something that i know will die in the short future. bleh.

i got a rca lyra mp3 player for christmas and i like it. my sister and dad have the same brand and have had no problems with theirs. it uses the drag and drop method of transferring, which is mind blowingly easy. mine has 256 mb, i think, which is roughly 50-75 songs (depending on quality). that's of course, virtually nothing, but it has a memory card slot. apparently there's 1 gig memory cards, which i plan on buying with my x-mas money. so that'll help. i use a tape adapter in my car and the sound is amazing compared to the tapes i always listen to. so that's cool.

it uses one AAA battery - and i haven't yet needed to change it, which is very cool.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

apparently there's 1 gig memory cards, which i plan on buying with my x-mas money.

Can the songs on the memory cards be integrated with those actually on the player, though? One thing that appeals to me about the iPod is the ability to put all of your songs in one playlist.

I probably wouldn't buy one of the small MP3 players, since the unit price tends to be a lot higher compared to the bigger ones. I would imagine the iPod costs less per megabyte than the RCA players. I'm not sure about the Rio, though.

it uses one AAA battery - and i haven't yet needed to change it, which is very cool.

Do you lose all the songs on it when it DOES die, though, or is there an internal backup system?

And I have to wonder about the iPod Mini. Would anyone really get one when they could get a whole lot more space for only $50 more? I mean, I might be willing to pay a little extra for something in a color I liked, but not as much as Apple seems to want to charge.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

yep, apparently you can play em all together. i like listening to a playlist of everything on random anyway, so.

no, the songs are saved on the player, not to the battery. just like any other device. :) (well, maybe except an ipod)

apparently people will pay for less technologically effecient things, so long as they have a choice of colours (ie, the imac)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'll often listen to all my MP3s on random when I'm using the computer. There's a lot of stuff I'd like to have on there and I don't, though, because I'm afraid putting on too much will slow down the computer. Actually, it might be about time for me to get a new computer anyway.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

oh yeah - and it also plays wma files too, which is awesome as windows media player is the only program i can rip files with at the moment.