What iTunes alternatives to use?

[mudda_t]

I have a couple nieces getting ipods this x-mas and my sis wants me to help them but I refuse to use itunes. (or at least install on my comp)
What itunes alternatives do you use/recommend? I've checked around and there are way too many to list.

Some help with the guess work would be much appreciated.:thanks:

[Inspector.Gadget]

I've liked Winamp. It handles podcasts/subscriptions pretty well and has autofill options if you'd prefer not to add music manually. It can also transcode non-compliant audio files to iPod compliance during the transfer process. FYI, this is all with the built-in iPod device support and not with the powerful replacement, ml_ipod.

For bare-bones simplicity if you don't plan to deal with podcasts, foobar2000 works well. It has a similar auto-transcode feature and I believe you can set up another plugin alongside foo_dop to convert REPLAYGAIN tags to iTunes Sound Check tags and thereby have lossless album-wide volume leveling on your iPod.

[mudda_t]

...and I believe you can set up another plugin alongside foo_dop to convert REPLAYGAIN tags to iTunes Sound Check tags and thereby have lossless album-wide volume leveling on your iPod.
Over my head there, could you explain further? (not totally but please humor me)
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Plus, does winamp and foobar only do audio or will they handle video files as well? (Assuming they're already ipod compliant)
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Thank You for your assistance.

[laserfan]

I have a couple nieces getting ipods this x-mas and my sis wants me to help them but I refuse to use itunes. (or at least install on my comp)Unless you live with them and are going to be sole manager of their iPod/PC usage I don't see why you'd bother to put itunes on your pc at all.

Choose that pc that they are going to use to manage/maintain/sync their ipods with and do a Minimal Install of itunes (search for this). It's easy to do and minimally invasive and I wouldn't install anything else--then they will have "real" itunes to work with, and all that implies wrt support and "what their friends have".

[mudda_t]

Unless you live with them and are going to be sole manager of their iPod/PC usage I don't see why you'd bother to put itunes on your pc at all.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I should have said "I refuse to use itunes or at the very least refuse to install it on my computer". My sis wanted me to load them up with some music before she wrapped them, and I've just been trying to decide the best non-itunes route to do it. After the girls open them they can put whatever the want on their comp to manage them.
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I personally use a Rockbox'd Toshiba Gigabeat so trying to understand the ipods has me a little confused.

Choose that pc that they are going to use to manage/maintain/sync their ipods with and do a Minimal Install of itunes (search for this)...
I guess I should of mentioned this before but these are ipod touches, from what i quickly looked up you cant minimal install itunes with an ipod touch.
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Thank You for the help.

[a.green817]

i use copytrans ex

[laserfan]

from what i quickly looked up you cant minimal install itunes with an ipod touch.First hit outta Google:

http://www.theinterwebz.info/2009/10/19/minimal-itunes-install-for-iphone-users/

This is the exact procedure that I used, and have done it successfully a couple of times now, for my wife's iPod Touch (which I manage on my computer, ugh) and for a friend's wife as well. Uses QT Lite and doesn't install garbage like Bonjour, but if you own an iPod Touch, and want to use any apps other than music, you gotta have iTunes, that's all there is to it.

Maybe irrelevant if you just want to load a few songs, dunno myself...

[Inspector.Gadget]

Over my head there, could you explain further? (not totally but please humor me)

Basically it means that if you're ripping CDs with foobar2000, Winamp, Exact Audio Copy, etc. or scanning the files later to use a tag-based volume leveling system (so one or more albums don't require constant volume adjustment on playback), you can translate that into a new tag that the iPod will recognize and use to do the same sort of volume leveling.


Plus, does winamp and foobar only do audio or will they handle video files as well? (Assuming they're already ipod compliant)

foobar2000 will sync video to the iPod when you add an .M4V file to the playlist but will only play back the audio in that file if you try to play it in foobar2000. Winamp should sync video, and if you install Winamp's video playback components it can probably play the videos right in Winamp.

[mudda_t]

First hit outta Google:
http://www.theinterwebz.info/2009/10/19/minimal-itunes-install-for-iphone-users/...
I ignored that link because of the 10/19/09 date and itunes9 talk and went with the 4th hit http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28727/how-to-install-itunes-without-extra-bloat/ because of the 9/14/10 date and itunes10 talk.
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Thank you for the input.
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i use copytrans ex
Thanks, i'll look into it.
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foobar2000 will sync video to the iPod when you add an .M4V file to the playlist but will only play back the audio in that file if you try to play it in foobar2000. Winamp should sync video, and if you install Winamp's video playback components it can probably play the videos right in Winamp.
I'm going to give it a try with winamp, i'll report back my thoughts. Thanks for the additional info.

[varekai]

@mudda_t

Have a look here: http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/27/featured/8-free-alternatives-to-itunes-for-windows.html

I've been using Sharepod for some time now and I ain't ever going back again to iTunes!

regards

"A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street..."

[laserfan]

I've been using Sharepod for some time now and I ain't ever going back again to iTunes!Looks nice for music-only iPods but that page says "not for ipod Touch". Is yours an ipod touch?

EDIT: according to the Sharepod "About..." page, it should indeed work w/ipod touch. If yes I'd try that before Winamp...

[mudda_t]

@varekai
Thought I had a eureka moment with sharepod but tried to run it on a virgin ipod/touch and got "ipod not found" window which goes on to state "you need to have itunes 7 or later installed for sharepod to find your iphone/itouch"

Checked the help section on sharepod's site and found this
"SharePod cannot find my iPod even though it is plugged in
SharePod searches for a removable drive containing an 'iPod_Control\iTunesDB' file to detect your iPod. If your iPod has just been restored or new, it may not have the required files for SharePod to know the drive is an iPod. Please run iTunes, which will correctly initialize your iPod with all the required files. "

So I guess if I want to use sharepod i have to install and run itunes atleast once for a virgin ipod/touch. Which really sucks because I thought sharepod was the alternative I was looking for.

Which also begs to question
1. Why are ipod/touch's not initialized at the factory?
2. If itunes is required why isn't the exe preloaded on the ipods at the factory, why force users to download it?

Now I'm going to find out if I need to also run itunes first on a virgin ipod/touch to initialize it for winamp to recognize it, I'll post back.

[varekai]

@ mudda_t

Ahhh... I forgot about that "catch 22" situation. Sorry.
See if you can find someone who has iTunes installed on their
computer and that way get the required drives to your virgin ipod/itouch.

regards

"Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature."

[mudda_t]

Winamp won't even recognize it, looks like i have to run itunes atleast once to "initialize" the drive.

What a croc of $#%!, I hate being force-fed anything!!!

@Inspector.Gadget
I guess the newest version of ml_ipod has iphone/itouch support disabled "...due to Apple's implemented protection to keep us out of the game..." because of that i don't even know if pmp_ipod supports itouches now, and the only way to find out is to install itunes!

Guess it's time to put on my bib, sit in my high chair, and chow down!!!

*UPDATE*
I have an ipod itouch4, software version 4.1, with itunes 10.1.1.4 and my results have failed with both winamp and sharepod.

winamp pro v5.6 won't recognize or discover!

sharepod v3.9.7 will let me see/copy what itunes puts on but wont let me add anything i get "your ipod (iphone_itouch4, database version 53) is not writable. All ipod update features are disabled, but you can still copy files to your computer."

Looks like apple has locked the itouch4 v4.1 to only allow itunes to write to it. PATHETIC!!!

Plus, to set up the ipod you have to have a internet connection and set up an account with itunes!!!

[KiwiKid]

Please keep us informed with your progress or even your lack of it. Your situation is what has put me off upgrading from Classic to Touch. I use MediaMonkey to manage the music on mine and have used a couple of programs to manually transfer music and videos on my daughter's Nano and Shuffle. I have read MediaMonkey can get confused with multiple iPods though. I think you do have to "register" your iPods first for any program to see them.

[mudda_t]

*Update*
Trying to find an itunes alternative turned into a nightmare!!!

I tried:
-Winamp = fail, unsupported/unrecognizable
-Sharepod = fail, read not write
-Mediafour Ready,Aim,Drop = fail, unrecognizable
-Poddox = fail, unsupported
-FroddlePod = fail, unsupported
-Bigasoft ipod Transfer = Success *But, itunes will report file or directory is corrupted and unreadable*
-CopyTrans Manager = Success *But, itunes won't see anything put on by this program, and if you edit anything put on by itunes with copytrans then itunes will report that you don't own and are not authorized to access file and delete it if you can't prove ownership*
-Foobar2000 = Success audio, fail video *had no problem with audio after initial setup (exe,manager,codec) but had problems with m4v files. I stopped there so I don't know how itunes would have reacted*

The reason I added how itunes reacted was because NONE of these programs support apps. The only way to add apps is with itunes, so your S.O.L. if you want to use apps because itunes will S$%T a brick when it sees audio and video files on your ipod it didn't put there. And for the files it doesn't see you'll run into reported free space problems. (it reports half full but when you try to write (sync) it tells you your ipod's full)

I sooo understand now what Winamp meant when they said "...due to Apple's implemented protection to keep us out of the game..."!!!

I'll add more thoughts later.

[laserfan]

NONE of these programs support apps. The only way to add apps is with itunes...Where'd you say you wanted apps?

All you needed to do was a minimal install iTunes, and then uninstall when done (and it does uninstall cleanly). Might have taken you 10 minutes.

[mudda_t]

Where'd you say you wanted apps?

All you needed to do was a minimal install iTunes, and then uninstall when done (and it does uninstall cleanly). Might have taken you 10 minutes.
From the page I linked to earlier (9/14/10 itunes10 and NOT the 10/19/09 itunes9 you linked to)
"Here we’re going to go for the most minimum install that we can get away with using Ed Bott’s instructions.This will let us run iTunes and use an iPod Mini, Nano, Classic, or Shuffle. This method won’t let you use an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Apple TV, or other sharing features."

Like I said originally, this was for my nieces, what they manage with is up to them, BUT, if they want to use apps then they have to (forced to) use itunes. And if they used one of the alternatives it'll create nothing but problems for them. (which is clear this is by design by apple)

[laserfan]

First hit outta Google:

http://www.theinterwebz.info/2009/10/19/minimal-itunes-install-for-iphone-users/

This is the exact procedure that I used, and have done it successfully a couple of times now, for my wife's iPod Touch...
Believe what you want then; I used it and it works (iTunes 10.1 and ipod touch).:p

[codecdictionary]

try 'spotify'. much better!