Tech Talk

[hawkingvsreeve]

Well, dont buy mp3s.

[amyzzz]

I haven't since then.

[TomAz]

I'm having an itunes issue.

So I downloaded the folders of mp3s from the P2K thread, and when I put them into a playlist, itunes rearranges them without me telling it to do so, and the order that it places them in appears to be completely arbitrary. In the folder that the mp3s are stored in they are numbered from 500 down to 001 and I would like to keep that order. I dont want to go through and manually put 500 songs in the proper order, as that would take forever. I have tried unchecking the "keep itunes organized" box as well as the "group compilations together when browsing" box in the itunes preferences but this does not appear to change anything. Does anybody know why this is happening or have a solution for me (that is not telling me to not use itunes)?

You're talking about the order in a playlist? not the order in the main library?

[TomAz]

the songs I bought a few years ago from Itunes (Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel and a couple Eisley EP's) don't work on any current versions of Itunes

this doesn't make any sense. I am not believing that this is a true statement.

[marooko]

Were they DRM? Don't those not work anymore? I don't use itunes so i don't know if they ever sold DRM.

[amyzzz]

It's true.

[marooko]

Well that settles it.

[amyzzz]

Marooko, probably. I don't understand it, and Jacob tried to explain it to me, but I can't really repeat it.

[TomAz]

Oh, I see now amy.

[TomAz]

amy -- if what you say is actually true and not just something you've messed up yourself -- you should write itunes and demand replacement copies.

[marooko]

hahahahaha. Write them.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I'm having an itunes issue.

So I downloaded the folders of mp3s from the P2K thread, and when I put them into a playlist, itunes rearranges them without me telling it to do so, and the order that it places them in appears to be completely arbitrary. In the folder that the mp3s are stored in they are numbered from 500 down to 001 and I would like to keep that order. I dont want to go through and manually put 500 songs in the proper order, as that would take forever. I have tried unchecking the "keep itunes organized" box as well as the "group compilations together when browsing" box in the itunes preferences but this does not appear to change anything. Does anybody know why this is happening or have a solution for me (that is not telling me to not use itunes)?

there are columns in iTunes that allow you to see tracks in order alphabetically by song title, artist name, track number, etc. the only reasons I CAN THINK OF iTunes would be "arbitrarily" setting it in an order that doesn't make sense is:

for some reason the ID tags on the files are set to a strange order. in that case you might want to check the info of a couple tracks and see what number they are (like track 5 of 500, etc)

Another thing, would be that you had shuffle hit for the playlist and just didn't notice it

How are the .mp3 files labeled in the folder to keep them in that order? If the titles are literally "01artist-song," "02artist-song" etc in the file name, all you really need to do, despite what the tags might be is hit the "song" clolumn and arrange it alpha-numerically.

If these seem like stupid answers to you, i'm sorry, but it's what comes to mind without actually sitting in front of your iTunes

[amyzzz]

Not sure if this is related, but my Blur Think Tank CD broke after I used it in my work computer years ago (2003?). I think I ended up buying it on itunes to replace it. The CD itself had some special content on it and the computer probably didn't allow wonky downloads, and I figure that's how it broke the CD. *shrug*

[TomAz]

for some reason the ID tags on the files are set to a strange order. in that case you might want to check the info of a couple tracks and see what number they are (like track 5 of 500, etc)

one thing I have found*, esp downloading compilations and playlists, is that sometimes some file tags have the Album Artist field filled in, and other files don't, and for some reason that fucks with the play order.


* - actually I think I learned this from yablonowitz.

[TomAz]

The CD itself had some special content on it and the computer probably didn't allow wonky downloads, and I figure that's how it broke the CD. *shrug*

Yes, this is correct. Most CD drives have a special hammer device built in. If the CD contains downloads the computer identifies as 'wonky', then the hammer device is triggered, thus physically fracturing the disc.

[amyzzz]

I know I sound ridiculous, but it happened. The CD stopped working completely after I used it at work.

[TomAz]

your grasp of hi tech stuff exceeds mine, I'm afraid, amy.

[menikmati]

I can't believe people actually still put up with itunes. You guys seriously need to drop that shit.

[amyzzz]

I barely scraped by with a C in my "computers" class at college. I never went. Technology frightens me and yet I enjoy sci-fi stories.

[TomAz]

itunes works fine for me erik. what am i missing?

[menikmati]

I'll take winamp over itunes any day of the week.

[amyzzz]

I can't believe people actually still put up with itunes. You guys seriously need to drop that shit.

Apparently we can never get a new version of Itunes now if we want to use it to manage our Palm Pre phone playlists because Itunes disallowed that in the newest version.


*another reason why Itunes frustrates me

[menikmati]

have fun updating itunes and it's 84mb install files every 3 weeks...so much fun.

[menikmati]

and don't even attempt to play .FLAC, that's a no-no too.

[TomAz]

I'll take winamp over itunes any day of the week.

why though?

I'm serious. I am ignorant. please educate me.

[miscorrections]

I just ignore the updates. It works fine for me.

[menikmati]

why though?

I'm serious. I am ignorant. please educate me.

For me personally, there are a number of reasons, a couple which I already sort of brought up.

1) The updates...Apple seriously likes to release updates and tries to force you to download the itunes/quicktime install files like every 3 weeks it seems, and then most of the time it would give me issues telling me to uninstall first (wtf???)

2) Doesn't support lossless codecs like the popular .FLAC and the once popular .shn (while winamp does). 95% of all live music and bootlegs is flac...I really don't want to waste time downloading these flacs if I have to convert to mp3 just to listen in itunes...of course Apple won't support flac because it wants to push it's own apple lossless codec on us (which no one uses or cares about). Be thankful itunes supports mp3, if Apple had their way, it would only be playing .aac files.

3) EVERY TIME (sooner or later), when I would play files in itunes, the music would sound like it was being shat on under water...it was so garbled, you couldn't listen to it...so then you would go through the fun stuff of trying to allow quicktime settings to accept waveout (safemode) or some shit, then that did nothing, then you would uninstall and reinstall and find that the problem wasn't fixed because quicktime is a piece of shit...again so much fun!

4) If you have a library of music that is like 80gb or more, itunes would move at the pace of sap strolling along tree bark.

5) If you're not careful, it tries to organize your files for you in a bs manner.

[TomAz]

does winamp support video as well as audio?

[menikmati]

yes winamp supports video...I really don't use it for organizing video files though...most of the time I'll just use the default WMP for videos or VLC, or PowerDVD for DVD's.

[TomAz]

itunes compresses video files for playing on the ipod, which makes sense to me since the screen is so small. does winamp do this?