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[Vocalpoint]

Sorry if this has been covered - but I am currently testing MC13 with a plan to purchase shortly.

In addition to a brand new Windows Home Server music library in FLAC format - I have a late 2006 5.5G iPod that has been very good to me. I do not use iTunes to purchase anything nor am I keen on having any Apple bloat on my machine - period. I use MP3 exclusively for the music (no aac) and h.264 vids now and then for movie rips.

Until I can confirm whether or not MC13 is for me - and to keep my iPod stocked - I have had to begrudgingly put iTunes on the box (I am running the very last v7 version 7.7) on a Vista Business 32 bit install.

So - if I want to start completely fresh with a brand new MC13 library to sync to my iPod - do actually need to install iTunes at all? Do the pics and movies work well? Does album art make the trip?

Any recommendations would be most appreciated.

Cheers!

VP

[JimH]

You don't need iTunes for iPods.  Only for iPhone or Touch.

[Vocalpoint]

You don't need iTunes for iPods.  Only for iPhone or Touch.

Jim,

Thanks for the update. Can you comment on playlists or album art. Do they play nice between MC and the iPod?

Do photos, movies, podcasts etc come across as well?

Cheers!

VP

[jack wallstreet]

I have 365 playlists on my Ipod 160 which I sync quickly all the time (playlists are constantly being updated).  I don't do much video but what I have done seems to update flawlessly along with the audio.  Others can give you more comments on that.

The only issue that I know of is that future Ipods may be encrypted like the Itouch and Iphone and then MC and anything other than Itunes won't work.

[bhageman]

I have an 80GB iPod Video. I am able sync playlist, smartlists, audio, artwork, podcasts and video with no problems.

I have iTunes installed, but there is an option to stop it from launching when the iPod is plugged in. Can't even remember the last time I launched iTunes.

[Vocalpoint]

I have an 80GB iPod Video. I am able sync playlist, smartlists, audio, artwork, podcasts and video with no problems.

I have iTunes installed, but there is an option to stop it from launching when the iPod is plugged in. Can't even remember the last time I launched iTunes.

Good to know. Did you Reinitialize your iPod (via MC) before doing the first sync? I am thinking about rebuilding the PC (without iTunes at all) and just wanted to know how the device will behave when it has tunes on it already...I was thinking about just repopulating "My Music" with brand new copies of the songs I want on the iPod and calling that a new library in MC....then trying my first sync..make sense?

Cheers!

VP

[jack wallstreet]

Intializing is similar to deleting all files.  I used to delete all periodically under MC, but initialize was recommended and works well.  Deleting all someimes did not yield desired results.  I recommend initialized f you are starting from scratch.  I sometimes do it if I am replacing or making major changes to my playlists, but sync works well and reliably.

[Vocalpoint]

Intializing is similar to deleting all files.  I used to delete all periodically under MC, but initialize was recommended and works well.  Deleting all someimes did not yield desired results.  I recommend initialized f you are starting from scratch.  I sometimes do it if I am replacing or making major changes to my playlists, but sync works well and reliably.

Jack,

Thanks so much for the update. I am getting stoked about using MC for this. 

Couple other questions:

1. Can anyone comment on album art. For the record - every single MP3 I have has the art embedded in the file (no sidecar files)...will the synce from MC13 to the iPod treat that appropriately?
2. What happens during a sync of a library containing mixed media? Say I have a few .wma albums scattered into a large MP3 library that I want to sync to the iPod. Traditionally - iTunes would see incoming wmas and convert them all to .acc - what does MC13 do it encounters this? Does it error out? Not copy the file? Comments?

Appreciate the input!

Cheers!

VP

[MerlinWerks]

The majority of the mp3 files that I have on my 60gb 5.5G have the cover art "inside file" and I have never had an issue, the same goes for the albums that have "side-car" only covers.

[Alex B]

1. Can anyone comment on album art. For the record - every single MP3 I have has the art embedded in the file (no sidecar files)...will the synce from MC13 to the iPod treat that appropriately?

iPods don't read file tags from individual files. All metadata comes from the internal iPod database. MC adds cover art to this database when it syncs files. External and embedded cover art should work equally well.

2. What happens during a sync of a library containing mixed media? Say I have a few .wma albums scattered into a large MP3 library that I want to sync to the iPod. Traditionally - iTunes would see incoming wmas and convert them all to .acc - what does MC13 do it encounters this? Does it error out? Not copy the file? Comments?

Set MC to convert unsupported file types in the Handheld options. You could try the "VBR - High Quality Portable" MP3 conversion setting. It produces a good quality/file size ratio assuming the source files are lossless or high bit rate lossy.

If the source files are of lower quality and bitrate (like 128 kbps wma or less) you should actually increase the encoder's quality setting because lossy to lossy transcoding always decreases the audio quality a bit and if the encoding quality setting is higher the additional loss is smaller.