Oh, but no clue if there's source, and hence, no Windows version. Oh well.

I don't understand how Rendezvous could help in this situation. Doesn't it just provide for searching for network services on your local network? Or does it provide some sort of data transfer function I'm not aware of?

Nevermind. I see now that iTunes somehow uses Rendezvous to stream music on one computer to another. I bet that it only uses Rendezvous to find said remote computer, and another protocol to stream the music. So I think the trick is figuring out how to manually input the remote computer into iTunes. Of course, that's all speculation, including the part where I implicitly assume that Windows iTunes has this feature at all.

I installed i-Tunes and rebooted but it is chopping up my mp3s on playback. Anyone have any idea why? WinAmp plays them fine. All are Lame VBR.

There's always Foldershare as another alternative. I believe it has automatic updates.

I scoffed at Tom (Drakino) when he IM'd me yesterday with the news about iTunes on Windows. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that.

Now you know why I own a Mac. Just that extra bit of work Apple seems to do over everyone else that makes good programs great. I'm hooked on iPhoto the most out of all the iApps. iTunes, is decent, but my empeg still sits as my main music player, since my MP3s are archived to CD, and not stored on any computer.

Personally, I don't like iTunes (at least the Mac version; I haven't touched the PC version yet) because it wants to take control over all of my music. It's hard to keep it up to date with everything else, and, as such, I'd just prefer a good MacOS player. The closest I've gotten so far is Whamb, but it's got some bugs and still doesn't quite work the way I want.

(iTunes) wants to take control over all of my music.

I decided to let iTunes take control, moving all my MP3s into its own folder and deleting the originals. It was a leap, but I'm glad I did it. Now, the file names and tags stay consistent whenever I fix typos and otherwise rearrange things in iTunes. I sync the iTunes folder directly onto my empeg, using a number of soup views to give me different ways of looking at my tunes in the car. I'm pretty happy with this setup.

It's hard to keep it up to date with everything else

Yeah, you pretty much need to buy into it all the way.

I'd just prefer a good MacOS player.

But then, you can't do anything to the iTunes database and any changes you make to ID3 tags won't necessarily be noticed by iTunes.

I'm enamored with all the other random features of iTunes. In particular, for my DJing needs, iTunes BPM Inspector lets me tap-count my tunes, and it dumps the results directly into the iTunes database and the ID3 tags. Once you decide to buy into iTunes, it seems to reward you for the effort.

iPhoto doesn't preserve the original photos correctly, sadly, and doesn't interpret EXIF rotation tags. So, my Canon S45's ability to tag which way was "up" doesn't help.

See this article for similar complaints.

If I could easily feed the empeg from it, I might be convinced. I might instead put daapd on the empeg. I'm not sure.

I'd buy into it if (1) I trusted its extraction methods and (2) I didn't have a number of other computers on which I'd like to play my tunes. (2) is the bigger one; I'd like to keep my tunes on my file server so I can access them from anywhere. Of course, you might say that I could just move that store to my Mac, but (a) I don't like having a workstation double as a server and (b) it's a laptop that spends at least 50% of its time asleep.

You can always tell iTunes to use a different folder, perhaps on your server over the network. That would address your #2 concern.

Yeah. I tried that, but then you have to manually import all the new tunes you've ripped into iTunes' database. I suppose if I ripped with iTunes that wouldn't be as big a problem.

Oh, the other thing about iTunes that's really annoying is that it wants to import everything you ask it to play into its database. So if you listen to a 30-second sample on eMusic (for example), it puts that into its database. Not that it's even a reusable URL. There should be a button that says ``This is a temporary track. Click here to import into the permanent iTunes database''. Or they could be put into a special playlist, making them easier to edit out. As it is, there's no good way to find such items.

I 'd just prefer a good MacOS player.

Have you looked at Audion? A few people I know moved to it on the Mac as their main MP3 player.

I have, a while back, but it's not free. I refuse to pay money for something I use so infrequently. There were a couple of other quirks with it. I think I still didn't like the way it dealt with playlists. Pretty much, I want a tool that will play what I tell it to play when I tell it to play that, not what I was playing last time, or what I listened to weeks ago. The way most Windows players work, really. I don't know why the Mac folks can't figure out how to do that.

Wow, way to go Apple. Talk about an out-dated looking app!

Really, you'd think they would at least try to follow a couple more XP UI guidelines. Unless of course you're running some kind of UI theme? Those Aqua thumb bars don't fit in to well with XP's native look nor do they look appropriate on Apple's own iTunes UI without the rest of Mac OS X being "around" it. Are the other 2K-looking windows because you're not running a native XP theme?

Bruno

They break their own UI rules by using that stupid brushed metal thing anyway, even under MacOS X.

Really, you'd think they would at least try to follow a couple more XP UI guidelines.

Why? No other media player (including the ATI stuff *cough*) does. So, making iTunes look as close to the OS X version dosen't seem like such a bad idea.

For the record, that system, as with any of my XP systems, has the Themes service disabled, so iTunes was looking like that by default.

Yeah no kidding. I tried to find an mp3 player (besides wmp) that matched the windows interface. I finally gave up and just use freeamp (znif).

Well I'm impressed. It installed without a hitch and I just ripped a CD while playing back existing tracks. All without a click or pop. That's something I wouldn't have tried with winamp/audioGrabber. Well, I have tried it and I get pops and farts all the way thru.
I'd love to be able to download stuff from the iTunes store, even to just see how it goes and what you get. All the album artwork coming with each song would be pretty neat.

I really wanted to like iTunes... really I did, but I guess I "just don't get it."

The thing I really don't understand is besides the integration of iTMS, there is nothing here that other players I've tried cannot do.

The library is nice, but both WinAmp and WMP9 have this ability. Both have a version of "smart playlists" that work great. However, with iTunes I can find no way of going to the "Now Playing" playlist... I select songs, start them playing and then where are they? I can make a special "Now Playing" playlist and jump to that, but then it opens an identical window and plays from there... Not wanting two giant windows open, I close the one I'm not using and everything closes!? There is no way of telling which is the master window.

It's a real shame... I won't nit pick the complete disregard of the XP UI guidelines other than to say the competition does this too, but not to the extent Apple seems to. iTunes looks the best out of the box. The layout of the library is better than WMP9's but doesn't automatically find the album covers I have carefully set up like WMP9 does. So far the best feature of iTunes has been to lead me to discover WMP9's auto tagging feature! Very cool...

I was also surprised to find the visualization for iTunes ain't all that... first of all, it's only "G-Force" that has been available for WinAmp forever. And it's twice as slow!? And still not as nice looking as "MilkDrop"?! No thanks...

It's a very nice simple player, but I don't get why some seem to rave over iTunes. It works and looks nice, yes... but that's it really.

Maybe I'll wait for version 5, but for now I'm sticking to WinAmp...

Apple wont have my business until I can have a non-protected AAC or some other semi-standard format. :/

If i cant play it on my Empeg, what's the point?

And no, I wont settle for loopback, or burn/rip as that applies a second compression to the music. :/

They fixed that in Panther by making the UI all about the brushed metal.

Bruno

Why would you ever use the ATI player? Ok, it can play the VCR files and can use FF/RW when some other players can't. But really, it stinks. I don't like MMC at all really. I mean, it works, but it's a usability nightmare.

I would have made some minor edits to the iTunes interface to help it look more at home. I don't mind iTunes all that much, but do have some of the same gripes already mentioned here. What I can't believe is that you actually like iPhoto. Wow. That's one of the iApps I definitely can't stand (because it doesn't make a good viewer and isn't a terribly good manager when you have a lot of images).

Ok, better get to work. Just came online to see if the jerks who stole my car would be stupid enough to try selling my audio stuff on eBay.

Bruno

I'm sure most of you have, but have you guys tried MusicMatch? I was one of the original beta testers back in, what, 1998? It was far ahead of the competition back then, and I think it has lost some ground but is still a well-intergrated app with a "decent" ripper (sure is fast), "decent" encoding if you know what to check (in the latest version), and a good library.

I actually use it mainly as a player and database now, using EAC/LAME to rip into my directory structure automatically.

I dunno what the restrictions are on the "free" version anymore, as I paid my $19 wayyyy back when and have lifetime upgrades.

I've got the paid version of MMJB ver 8. It is my opinion that it's a big, slow, confusing, steamy bloated POS. I haven't bothered with it since I learned the Alt+L library command in Winamp 2.9. </rant mode>

I'm old school: I rip EAC/Lame, use WA 2.9 for playback, MP3 Tag Studio 3 for tagging.

I agree with you about the earlier versions, it blew away the competition. They really F'd up with 8, in my opinion. I know there's folks who like it, but I don't use the streaming features which seem to be what people like best about it.

I haven't tried ITunes, just beacuse I really don't want it copying everything to it's directory and never plan on downloading anything from the Apple store, as I basically refuse to use any DRM'd products.

I guess I'm just a stubborn old fart!

-Zeke

If it's like MacOS iTunes, it has an option to leave the music where it is. You could try it.

Why would you ever use the ATI player? Ok, it can play the VCR files and can use FF/RW when some other players can't. But really, it stinks. I don't like MMC at all really. I mean, it works, but it's a usability nightmare.

Because I own the ATI Remote Wonder, a 27 inch PC monitor, and a Windows 2000 PC equipped with a All-in-Wonder Radeon card. I don't feel like getting the remote to work with other software, because of the pain already present in having to reset my button preferences every time ATI decided to release a .1 MMC update.

iPhoto, I haven't had problems with. I have about 800 photos in my collection right now, and it seems responsive enough. Guess I have never bothered to look at much else, since iPhoto also saves me a bit of time with not needing to manage the files from my camera.

Yeah, I saw that mentioned above. I can see how it'd be good for people who a) have an ipod, or b) want to use the iTunes store, but I can't see what's in it for me beyond another interface I have to learn. I'm just being curmudgeonly today.

-Zeke

I too have been using the various versions of MMJB since V2 or 3 and paid my 20 bucks for all the free upgrades.
I agree with Zeke though, V8 take forever to load, and is so bloated it almost includes the kitchen sink.
Most of the time I just use WinAmp 2.9

Anyone having trouble with iTunes becoming unstable on Windows? It used to be I could move a file and it would just complain that it couldn't be found, which was annoying enough on it's own, but all of a sudden, trying to play a file it can't find results in iTunes crashing completely. I'm about to reinstall it and see if that helps.

Stu