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iTunes 5 announced (Page 2)
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Originally Posted by kman42
What's VBR AAC?
Variable Bit Rate Advanced Audio Codec.
Variable bit rate will achieve the desired bit rate on average. It will use a a higher bitrate when needed at complex parts and a lower bitrate when encoding less complex parts (like a pause). Constant bitrate will encode at 128 kbit/s even when there's only complete silence for example.
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^ what he said ^
I hope things get more consolidated over time, interface-wise. This is getting ridiculous. And I don't like the blue sidebar. Anyone know if there is a hack to change this?
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Originally Posted by porieux
Pretty easily accomplished actually, just type the artist name in the search field then sort colums by year.
great if you're searching.
Crap if you're browsing.
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Originally Posted by kmkkid
Just because. I'm sure dev's would love to have iTunes running speedily on their boxes instead of being a lagging POS through rosetta.
Oh and dload size isn't an excuse. It would only add a few more MB, which once compressed in the dmg would be negligible.
I think it's a good thing that Apple doesn't want developers listening to tunes on the fake Mac Intel PC developer boxes. All a fat binary would do at this point would be to encourage piracy, which Apple will most likely lose the battle with anyway. Besides, we don't know with any certainty that Intel binaries won't add non-trivial bulk to size of Mac applications. Please, why not just allow Apple to make viriginal Mac applications for a while longer before it becomes a PC box stuffer.
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Originally Posted by DeathMan
^ what he said ^
I hope things get more consolidated over time, interface-wise. This is getting ridiculous. And I don't like the blue sidebar. Anyone know if there is a hack to change this?
Simply switch to Graphite in System Preferences: gets rid of the blue side bar and is quite a match this new theme
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
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iTunes visulaiser seems faster/smoother on average to me. Hope it isnt a placebo effect!? Im sure its better.. I think.. Hmm?!
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Clinically Insane
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I really don't want to restart right now just to install it. Look at my uptime:
16:31 up 35 days, 23:41, 2 users, load averages: 1.46 1.26 1.19
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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I think the new interface is pretty ugly. The top window corners are different from everything else in the OS, the borderless thing goes against most of brushed metal's use, the info display window has lost its nice roundedness and they still haven't made the preferences window have a proper toolbar (which is possible with carbon apps, isn't it?). And they didn't change the colour of the icon! ugliTunes.
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
I really don't want to restart right now just to install it. Look at my uptime:
16:31 up 35 days, 23:41, 2 users, load averages: 1.46 1.26 1.19
hey, restarting periodically is good for your machine, flushes memory, etc.
anyway...there's no prize for uptime! then again, maybe guiness book of records...??
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"At first, there was Nothing. Then Nothing inverted itself and became Something.
And that is what you all are: inverted Nothings...with potential" (Sun Ra)
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Any changes to the iTMS DRM? Do hymn'ed files still work (I'm guessing yes)? Does hymn work on a file you buy today? I'm gonna go buy a Sony Ericsson K750i or W800i phone any day now, and I intend to put my smattering of purchased tracks on there when I feel like hearing them..
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Originally Posted by Grrr
iTunes visulaiser seems faster/smoother on average to me. Hope it isnt a placebo effect!? Im sure its better.. I think.. Hmm?!
I think it is. However download G Force instead. It's what iTunes visualiser is based on, but has much better visuals, and quicker to boot.
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Originally Posted by slugslugslug
Any changes to the iTMS DRM? Do hymn'ed files still work (I'm guessing yes)? Does hymn work on a file you buy today? I'm gonna go buy a Sony Ericsson K750i or W800i phone any day now, and I intend to put my smattering of purchased tracks on there when I feel like hearing them..
Scrub them using the new version.
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Bug:
If you export your library - and you have folders - some playlists will be saved to the root level of your library instead of within those folders.
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The interface.. I like it because it is the similar to the one in the Mail.app although a bit darker.
I guess I'm hoping that Apple is moving towards an interface consistency, and by the looks of things they just might be. The end of brushed metal and hello.. OS X look or something. I give it the thumbsup. Still, not 100% consistent but hey. Good enough. Apple isn't UI king these days and has lost the eye for detail so when they more or less get it good, I'm happy!
Installation went fine, everything works as expected. The new search is good. All in all a worthwhile update.
Questionable that it should have gone from 4.9 to 5 but hey. Photoshop CS and Photoshop CS 2.. seems there is a serious inflation in the version numbering these days so this is just on par.
Nested playlists are good too. VBR AAC
iTunes is the best jukebox app out there for any platform. I'd say it's good to be a Mac user, but it is out for Windows too so I'll just leave it at that.
cheers
W-Y
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“Building Better Worlds”
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Clinically Insane
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Originally Posted by fisherKing
hey, restarting periodically is good for your machine, flushes memory, etc.
anyway...there's no prize for uptime! then again, maybe guiness book of records...??
Yup, the world record is what I'm shooting for. Seriously, I have multiple users who would rather not have their workflow disrupted. Of course, I also like touting the stability of my system.
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"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
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Well, it appears from initial testing that iTunes 5 'broke' the ability to share iTunes files across a small network using OurTunes 1.3.3 -- hope a new release comes out soon as I use this app to synchronize tunes I add in one library to another on my home network.
http://ourtunes.sourceforge.net/
So, until this nifty lil' job gets updated my master iTunes library will remain at 4.9
Nice look to the new 5.0 version though... YMMV, so don't flame me if you *don't* like it.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by Big Mac
I really don't want to restart right now just to install it.
But... you don't have to restart to install it... do you? I installed it with the QT 7.0.2 update so I had to, but, AFAIK iTunes doesn't make you do anything of the sort.
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Mac OS X 10.5.0, Mac Pro 2.66GHz/2 GB RAM/X1900 XT, 23" ACD
esdesign
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Originally Posted by Apfhex
But... you don't have to restart to install it... do you? I installed it with the QT 7.0.2 update so I had to, but, AFAIK iTunes doesn't make you do anything of the sort.
itunes update requires a restart (as does the qt update)
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"At first, there was Nothing. Then Nothing inverted itself and became Something.
And that is what you all are: inverted Nothings...with potential" (Sun Ra)
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There's a new pref that says Shuffle by: Songs, Albums, Groupings. What's a Grouping?
kman
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Originally Posted by Jerommeke
Yeah, I'm trying to install, but iut refuses, because I do need to close iTunes before installing. Like duh, but there is no iTunes open, even no iTunes Helper.
I had the same problem. my culprit (sp?) was an iTunes helper that I had to shut off in my system preferences
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Originally Posted by ort888
So there isn't an iPod update to go along with it? Do the iPods support nested playlists or will we have to wait???
No update thus far. And as far as the iPod photo is concerned, it doesn't see the playlist folders. Which seriously sucks.
OAW
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Originally Posted by TETENAL
Constant bitrate will encode at 128 kbit/s even when there's only complete silence for example.
Not true -- I have a few songs where I know there is a significant amount of silence, and CBR AAC doesn't encode the complete silence. I can tell, because the songs are around 10 minutes, with 5 minutes of silence in them (hidden tracks), and they are the same size as the 5 minute songs.
This was with iTunes 4.x, btw...
To answer the original question, VBR strives to average a target bitrate. If you set it to 128kbps, you should still end up with a file around the same size as a CBR 128kbps, but in theory, since the encoder can allocate more bits when needed and less when not needed, it should sound better than the CBR version.
I just wonder how well the iPods handle VBR at this point.
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dennis
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Originally Posted by SmileyDude
I just wonder how well the iPods handle VBR at this point.
I haven't listened exhaustively, but the samples that I put on my 3G seem to play just fine. I didn't look at things like: did the display update properly, is the time being reported properly, etc.
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by kman42
There's a new pref that says Shuffle by: Songs, Albums, Groupings. What's a Grouping?
It's used to group several songs. They added it for classical music (think movements of a symphony). I use it for subgenres.
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"I'm virtually bursting with adequatulence!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
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Professional Poster
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Originally Posted by PurpleGiant
Bugger, Podcasts in the Library??
So listening to the Library on Random will randomly play podcasts?
No. Look at the Options tab of Get Info. If the genre is Podcast, the last option, Skip when shuffling, is checked. Cool!
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"I'm virtually bursting with adequatulence!" - Bill McNeal, NewsRadio
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(
Last edited by porieux; Oct 2, 2006 at 07:37 AM.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by lavar78
No. Look at the Options tab of Get Info. If the genre is Podcast, the last option, Skip when shuffling, is checked. Cool!
Nice I still prefer it with them left in their own area, but I'll deal with it
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by ahmed_88
Simply switch to Graphite in System Preferences: gets rid of the blue side bar and is quite a match this new theme
Doesn't work, still blue.
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Junior Member
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Not that anyone specifically cares about me, but here's my first impressions:
1) Lyrics are cool, except their implementation is a bit annoying. I think the reason lyric widgets have somewhat taken off is that they allow someone to pull up the lyrics of the current song quickly. Having to go to get info every time to view is ridiculous. A floater window that can be quickly accessed would be nice
Does it Matter: Not really
2) Search Bar:
Somewhat annoying, display it all. I don't have any booklets or videos, so is it really necessary for me to have those wasting my valuable pixels? Search Artist/Album/Name is nice, but not hugely necessary anyway. Being able to turn this off would be somewhat nice.
Does it matter; Somewhat
3) Podcasts in main library.
Let me explain my feelings on this with some sounds. GAHHHHHHHHHHH. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH. Apple has *REALLY* let me down here. Music and Podcasts are different...and even if you can skip podcasts in the shuffle, they still are there taking up valuable space in the library window where they aren't supposed to be.
Does it matter: I've deleted all the podcasts from iTunes and will not be using iTunes as a podcast client anymore. PLEASE FIX IT APPLE.
4) Columns.
The thing I really like about this new iTunes interface is that its more minimalist. No longer does iTunes feel like an app that has to take all of your screen to be efficient. Yet, Apple has made that impossible because they have loaded your library window with columns. If you turn them off, so you have say, only name/artist/album up, like I like it. You have all this empty column space. Oh well
Does it matter: At first I thought it did, but I'm getting over it
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This is probably not a big deal to you all, but I really want to use my "iTunes Album Art" screen saver while using my iPod as the music source when using my computer away from home.
I have a 17" PowerBook which only has a 100GB HD, so I have my music on my external LaCie 500 GB drive -and on my iPod, of course.
As things are now, when I hook up my iPod, iTunes will play all music and the album art does show in the little window. However I just get some kind of "Your iTunes Library does not contain music with album art" message when I start the screen saver. I guess for that, it's still looking for the external hard drive? Even though the art is right there in the iTunes window as it plays!
At the local Apple store (Santa Monica, Ca) I was told that this is not possible.
I'm just wondering if this will work now. Has anyone tried this?
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If the external drive is FireWire bootable and cloned, you should be able to do it. I think.
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This is a computer-generated message and needs no signature.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
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Thanks for the reply.
The iPod is plugged into FireWire. Bootable and cloned? I don't know? What is that and how would I know/do it?
-or-
Has anyone with iTunes 5 and an iPod tried what I am attempting?
It does not seem like it should be a difficult thing.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by lasvegasgamer
2) Search Bar:
Somewhat annoying, display it all. I don't have any booklets or videos, so is it really necessary for me to have those wasting my valuable pixels? Search Artist/Album/Name is nice, but not hugely necessary anyway. Being able to turn this off would be somewhat nice.
Shift-Apple-B
Originally Posted by lasvegasgamer
Apple has made that impossible because they have loaded your library window with columns. If you turn them off, so you have say, only name/artist/album up, like I like it. You have all this empty column space.
What are you talking about? You can resize your columns to use the leftover space.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by kman42
Best thing about iTunes 5: Podcasts are now added to the library meaning that Smart Playlists can pick them up as Genre Contains Podcast. Yippee! This means that G1 iPod users can easily put podcasts on their iPod.
kman
That's the WORST thing they did! I don't WANT the PodCasts in my freaking Library!
But forget about that. FINALLY! Folders in the Playlist list! God dang it's about time! And notice, if you select the folder, it displays and allows to play all the songs in all those playlists. Wow! Awesome!
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scrolling in iTunes 5, is alot worse than it was in 4.9 for me.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2001
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Originally Posted by PurpleGiant
I think it is. However download G Force instead. It's what iTunes visualiser is based on, but has much better visuals, and quicker to boot.
I took your advice and tried G Force (Had not used it in ages) But it really didn't run as well as the original iTunes 5 visualiser does for me. Maybe its a graphics card/cpu sensitive thing, or maybe that the copy of G force that i was using, was the freebie one. G force was definitely slower and not as high resolution.
Using it on a rev a 20" G5 iMac btw..
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The worst thing about having a failing memory is..... no, it's gone.
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Originally Posted by Jasoco
That's the WORST thing they did! I don't WANT the PodCasts in my freaking Library!
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What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
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...or...
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Why do people have an issue with Podcasts in their library? What difference does it make? Aren't audiobooks also in your library (I don't know; I never purchased one)? As pointed out above, you can exclude them from playing during shuffle mode. And as for them taking up space, well that's just silly. How many people actually scroll through their entire library, as opposed to using the browser and scrolling by artist or genre? Or using the search field? I only have about 5000 songs in my library, but I can't imagine just scrolling through the entire list.
In contrast, being able to actually use smart playlists now to organize podcasts is a great feature. If Apple decides to remove podcasts from the library then I hope they maintain the ability of smart playlists to find podcasts.
kman
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Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!
...or...
Exactly. That little search bar is awesome! Lots of people are opposed to Apple continuing to add different types of media to iTunes (videos, audiobooks, podcasts), but Apple has added a pretty ingenious solution. It doesn't take up much screen space and it lets you only look at the types of media you care about. Nice one, Apple.
kman
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by Amorya
http://www.amoryanorth.com/iTunes001.png
That works for some playlists, but until Smart [Insert anything smart here] comes with BOOLEAN operations "If this AND (that OR that)" it won't work on all. In other words, it'll only work on playlists I have set to "And". But not the ones that I have set to "Or". Why couldn't they just include a checkbox that says "Don't include Podcasts"?
Thanks for letting me know about the Search bar. Looks like I can have it on all the time, plus it's playlist specific.
Hey, I wonder if this is where we're headed..
(
Last edited by Jasoco; Sep 8, 2005 at 07:28 PM.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!!
...or...
That works well, except as soon as you cilck to another playlist, and go back to the Library, it's back on 'all'!
If it would stick with what you clicked, then it would be the ideal solution. Those who just want to see music in the Library click the Music button.
...OR have a Library, a Music Library, and Podcasts. Currently Podcasts have their own section *and* are in the Library. Yet music, the key focus of the app, doesn't have it's own section, just the main Library.
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You can easily make a smart playlist that contains only music.
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Mac Elite
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Not if you need to add more Rules and have to use the "Or" operator. With the "And" one it works great. But with "Or", you're stuck. So we just need to come up with other ways to get around it. Like unchecking all PodCasts and in the Playlist options set it to "Match only checked songs".
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That search bar wont go away when you're searching. So if you want to search, you *must* use it, even if you only have one type of media in your library. Command - Shift - B won't take it away.
But on to my actual gripe, iTunes is about music files. If Apple wants to add new functionality like podcasts, that's great...but it should be a seperate source since it is a distinctly different category of media. That search bar is not a good option because it just defaults back to All and because frankly, its a ridiculous idea to make users work to make your app like it was designed to.
And as for them taking up space, well that's just silly. How many people actually scroll through their entire library, as opposed to using the browser and scrolling by artist or genre?
Ask rhetorical questions that make no points if you wish, but that doesn't solve the actual problem of Apple cluttering up people's music librarys with things that were meant to be seperate. You use search, that's nice...but I enjoy keeping my library clean and scrolling through that list, and now I've got to deal with a bunch of misplaced podcasts.
This is horrid.
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Mac Elite
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I think it all started when they decided to allow videos in iTunes instead of making QuickTime into an iTunes-like app to manage them. With erffort they could have easily done it.
I don't mind Podcasts in iTunes, but they make my already cluttered Library even more cluttered. Booooo.
I like the smooth plastic look though.
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