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[ronsou]

Hi -
   A search on this forum shows me there are many many IPOD users that also use MediaJukebox.    I am thinking of buying an IPOD but want to first check out how well it would integrate into my existing music library.   I have several thousand tracks all ripped from my own CD collection, and all managed by MediaJukebox.   My computer has a digital audio out connection to my stereo, and all that works great.   Over the years I have tried various file formats, so I have mp3, wma, mpc, ogg, et al.    One format I have exactly zero of is "aa" (or is it "aac"), which I understand is what the IPOD uses.

I do see there is a "beta" plug in for IPOD available for download.

Would MediaJukebox work smoothly with an IPOD in terms of moving tracks to the IPOD, converting the files to AA format (or whatever) that the IPOD uses but without changing the format on the "mother" computer ?    

Also, if I buy the IPOD, I will likely also try the ITunes (for Windows) service.   If I buy and download a song from ITunes, can I add it to my MediaJukebox library and play it from MediaJukebox.   MediaJukebox really is the foundation for my music collection, so I would be pretty reluctant to have to use a different player or media manager.   The downloaded songs would be played on:
1. The computer it was downloaded to.
2. The IPOD.
3. Potentially burned to a cd-rom for play in car.  

Comments as to whether an IPOD/ ITunes would be a happy marriage with my existing MediaJukebox situation ?  

Thanks.

[xen-uno]

IPOD handling (or any external device) is handled much better by Media Center (9.1). Check it out here...

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=3;action=display;threadid=17049

10^-27

[SteveG]

ronsou,

If you want to integrate iPod and JRiver, Media Center is definitely the way to go.  

Would MediaJukebox work smoothly with an IPOD in terms of moving tracks to the IPOD, converting the files to AA format (or whatever) that the IPOD uses but without changing the format on the "mother" computer ?    

Yes. Ipod plays mp3, wav and AAC format. We can convert files to mp3 during the transfer to the iPod so you do not need to change the format of you files in MC.

If I buy and download a song from ITunes, can I add it to my MediaJukebox library and play it from MediaJukebox.

Yes. You can use iTunes to purchase the files, import them into MC and then transfer them to the iPod. One thing that is not currently recommended is transferring tunes to iPod with iTunes and switching to transferring tunes to iPod with MC. What you have described doing should be OK.  The other caveat is that you will not be able to burn an audio CD with AAC from MC. A data CD should be no problem.

Steve

[ronsou]

Thanks a lot.    I guess I will proceed and hope Santa brings me that Ipod.   (Oh, what the heck, I'll go buy it myself this week.)

Just to confirm, since I already bought MJ8 Plus but haven't used MC.   MJ8 would not be able to do this, at least not nearly as well ?   No happy IPod users with just MJ8 ?

And MC would nicely "upgrade" my current MJ8 libraries and provide all the capabilities I get from MJ8 (and more) ?

Thank you.

[JimH]

There is an upgrade price for MC.  Details are here:
www.mediajukebox.com/license

MC will convert your database.  Backup your library first and make a copy of your jmd files in a safe place before you install MC.

[themurph]

ronsou - i originally tried getting MJ8 and the Ipod plug in to work. tried for about an hour or two with no luck. then i tried MC9 - worked instantly. having some playlist issues, but there are people on the other board working on these (which is nice).

what kinda sucks is that it doesn't work on MJ8. i'd much rather pay $25 for Ipod synching software instead of $40. that's a lot for one little thing (which is all i'm really looking for). i've still got 14 days left to figure it out.

[ronsou]

Thanks Murph.
   The cost is a bit of an issue, but since I already have everything set up and working with MJ8 for over a year now, I hate to have to change it all.   Thats even bigger issue for me.

    btw, if you download songs from ITunes, are they .AA or .AAC format ?   Does the "convert" feature in MJ (or MC) work to convert them to something else (e.g. MP3 or WMA), or does the ITunes encoding prevent that from working ?   Thanks.

[xen-uno]

They are *.aac's. MC uses Quicktime for playback AFAIK. You will not be able to transcode because they are DRM'd files...though that has been cracked recently.

10^-27