Can you use an iPod with Windows Media Player?

[Parm]

The missus wants new music on her iPod nano, but I don't want iTunes on my PC. What do you do?

Is it possible to get the thing to work with Windows Media Player?

[matty-hodgson]

this is a good program. i used the free trial a few months ago with my iPod and it worked pretty well

[Parm]

Thanks Matty, that looks handy. I'll give it a go later on.

[NeedMoarFarms]

What's up with itunes on your pc? I think it's a really good way of sorting out all your music (since you can easily add album art, edit tags for whole albums really easily and stuff).

Just wondering, I know there are better alternatives, but what's wrong with just having it on your pc?

[matty-hodgson]

Originally Posted by NeedMoarFarms

What's up with itunes on your pc? I think it's a really good way of sorting out all your music (since you can easily add album art, edit tags for whole albums really easily and stuff).

Just wondering, I know there are better alternatives, but what's wrong with just having it on your pc?

cos it tries to take over.
you also need to install Quicktime with it which takes over on Firefox and IE.
and you need the Apple Software update which pretty much forces you to have Safari.
and it also has 3 processes running at all times, whether or not you're running iTunes or Quicktime.

basically.. iTunes = the root of all evil

[floppybootstomp]

It's also not particularly good software.

Imagine 200 albums loaded into folders.

You want an album with tracks from 40 various artists in another folder.

So you rip them using I-Tunes. Now try and find them all, it takes you forever.

The backup isn't too clever either.

[Parm]

I'd echo the comments above, iTunes just wasn't for me. Was a long time ago when I last tried it mind you, newer revisions might be better. Always found that it worked a whole lot better on the Mac than it did on the PC.

[HDriver GTR]

Originally Posted by matty-hodgson

cos it tries to take over.
you also need to install Quicktime with it which takes over on Firefox and IE.
and you need the Apple Software update which pretty much forces you to have Safari.
and it also has 3 processes running at all times, whether or not you're running iTunes or Quicktime.

basically.. iTunes = the root of all evil

pretty much sums up all of apple's crp

[SiM]

This works very well:
http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/
Integrates with explorer very nicely

but when I was using it (before going to rockbox), the company had a very poor rep for support iirc

[slypie]

The new opensource Songbird works I think with IPod's

[finlay666]

I use mediamonkey, lets you do all your syncing etc aswell as play music already on the ipod

winamp is meant to work aswell

[BlackKnight_UK]

I've been using iTunes for ages and have no problems or complaints with it at all. The people who say its hard to find files obviously haven't got iTunes set up right because it puts all albums in folders sorted by artist unless its a compilation, if compilation is ticked in the properties the files are in the "Compilations" directory.

Someone told me MediaMonkey was better but I've tried it a couple of times and its useless, when I sync my player with MediaMonkey I just end up with every track on it two or three times.

My advice is stick to iTunes but check the preferences before you slag it off.

[finlay666]

Originally Posted by BlackKnight_UK

I've been using iTunes for ages and have no problems or complaints with it at all. The people who say its hard to find files obviously haven't got iTunes set up right because it puts all albums in folders sorted by artist unless its a compilation, if compilation is ticked in the properties the files are in the "Compilations" directory.

Someone told me MediaMonkey was better but I've tried it a couple of times and its useless, when I sync my player with MediaMonkey I just end up with every track on it two or three times.

My advice is stick to iTunes but check the preferences before you slag it off.

I used iTunes for 2 years, then took it off as a bloated piece of software that tried to bully me into installing other apple products against my will (quicktime & safari to name 2)

You don't have mediamonkey set up properly then, I plug mine in, it syncs everything and works fine.

[mip1225]

Are any of these programs also good for the video ipod as i use mine for vids a lot

[funke_munke]

Another for winamp here, been syncing with my pod nicely for months - the second I found out a new version could do this I ditched Itunes and it's multitude of processes instantly .