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venezuelanbass · Dec 21, 2005, 06:51 PM

i just bought a black 30 gb ipod video, becuase i have tons of tunes that ive downloaded from napster, but napster says that i need "napster to go" and a compatible mp3 player, which are not ipods? should i cancel my orderfor the ipod??

Heavy Fluid · Dec 21, 2005, 07:47 PM

You should be able to put any MP3 on your iPod.

Mastrap · Dec 21, 2005, 09:46 PM

The iPod doesn't work with napster. Check the faqs on the napster site for a list of compatible players.

Napster is nothing but a glorified streaming radio service, and not really designed to work with mp3 players like the iPod. The second you stop paying is the second you lose all of your downloaded music. Only you can decide if you feel that you're getting a good deal out of this.

icruise · Dec 21, 2005, 09:46 PM

I'm not familiar with the details of napster's service, but I'm pretty sure that napster doesn't use normal MP3s, but rather some other format that supports DRM. If that is the case, then you can't play them on the iPod.

Heavy Fluid · Dec 22, 2005, 07:43 AM

Wow, are you guys kidding? You pay for a music service, and then you don't even get to keep the music? That is horrible.

www.itunes.com <---go there.

ghporter · Dec 22, 2005, 09:06 AM

Originally Posted by Heavy Fluid

Wow, are you guys kidding? You pay for a music service, and then you don't even get to keep the music? That is horrible.

www.itunes.com <---go there.

You get to keep it, but not necessarily play it on every player there is. It's the same thing as if you bought songs with MusicMatch-it doesn't support iPods either.

But there IS hope!!! Burn the purchased songs to an AUDIO CD, then rip them into plain-vanilla MP3s. You are unlikely to experience any degradation of quality (rip for a high bitrate, 128k at least), and DRM goes away whith the conversion to CD Audio format.

I do this particularly to back up my iTunes purchases; much simpler than dealing with authorizations and such, and this way I can make MP3s that play on ANYTHING.

raymond · Dec 22, 2005, 11:57 AM

Actually Napster sells music in the same way as Apple does, but they also offer a subscription where you can download and play an unlimited amount of music if you remain a "member" and pay your subscrption. It works with certified players only and naturally Apple do not want anyone to use the Ipod to "buy" music downloads unless its from them. I'm sure they will implement a similar "rental" system as soon as they figure out how to do it and make it secure.

Mastrap · Dec 23, 2005, 09:03 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

But there IS hope!!! Burn the purchased songs to an AUDIO CD, then rip them into plain-vanilla MP3s. You are unlikely to experience any degradation of quality (rip for a high bitrate, 128k at least), and DRM goes away whith the conversion to CD Audio format.

Sorry, gh, you will lose quality that way. You're converting an already compressed format into AIFF, then compressing it again. The loss in quality is pretty substantial.

ghporter · Dec 23, 2005, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Sorry, gh, you will lose quality that way. You're converting an already compressed format into AIFF, then compressing it again. The loss in quality is pretty substantial.

What you get through each conversion is an approximation of the source medium's data. Since AIFF is not a compressed format, it will represent the original medium's errors (very well). Both Apple's and Microsoft's DRM-capable encodings are compressed, but they are very "good" compressions; they are not nearly as lossy as the basic MP3 format.

Now here's the gimick that makes my method work pretty well: use a VERY high bitrate for the MP3 encoding. I use 320kbps, the highest supported by MP3. Sure, the files are big, but that's ok with me-they're nowhere near as big as an AIFF or WAV file. I'm using about 25% of my 60 GB iPod's space for around 2000 songs right now, so I'm not at all concerned with space. And the higher the bitrate an MP3 is made at, the less lossy the resulting file will be.

So yes, I agree that there will be some quality loss, but it's possible to mitigate that, and at the same time the lost quality won't be too noticable to most people. (Frankly, the iPod's audio system is not what you'd call an audiophile's delight at either the high or low ends, and the mids can be kind of flat depending on what output device you use.)

analogika · Dec 24, 2005, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

(Frankly, the iPod's audio system is not what you'd call an audiophile's delight at either the high or low ends, and the mids can be kind of flat depending on what output device you use.)

Actually, the newest generation (5G, nano, and shuffle) sound surprisingly good, especially via the line out.

Mastrap · Dec 24, 2005, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

Now here's the gimick that makes my method work pretty well: use a VERY high bitrate for the MP3 encoding. I use 320kbps, the highest supported by MP3.

Ahhh, I missed that bit, sorry. Now it makes sense to me.

And as analogika says, the new iPods sound pretty sweet.

ghporter · Dec 24, 2005, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

Actually, the newest generation (5G, nano, and shuffle) sound surprisingly good, especially via the line out.

I agree; they're getting better generation by generation. My 4G sounds really good, but on a few pieces I can tell there's something missing.

I still hear people complaining about the "horrible quality" of CDs in general, while I still find them so much better than run of the mill vinyl, and getting better as the hardware matures. I think the both the hardware and the encoding are in that "maturing" process with all-digital music today, and that things will get better. But I'm still waiting for a "completely universal" high quality digital file format, one that can be used on every player and that conserves all the quality that goes into the original CD recording (at least).

ghporter · Dec 24, 2005, 12:20 PM

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Ahhh, I missed that bit, sorry. Now it makes sense to me.

And as analogika says, the new iPods sound pretty sweet.

Actually I don't think I mentioned this part before in this thread. And yes, the new iPods sound better and better.

STIdrvr4life · Jan 22, 2006, 08:36 PM

you guys say that napster is a glorified radio station...in your guys opinion what is the best download site in terms of virus control, speed, and selection...i dont mind paying for a site, but itunes isnt an option, 99 cents a song would throw me into bankruptcy.

analogika · Jan 23, 2006, 04:03 AM

Originally Posted by STIdrvr4life

you guys say that napster is a glorified radio station...in your guys opinion what is the best download site in terms of virus control, speed, and selection...i dont mind paying for a site, but itunes isnt an option, 99 cents a song would throw me into bankruptcy.

Over what timeframe?

Because remember, with Napster, you have to KEEP PAYING, or you have NOTHING.

And that as long as you live - or they do (which probably won't be too long).