[Laminar]

My girlfriend's mom got her a Insignia Pilot mp3 player for Christmas. 8GB, video, 25 hr battery life, Bluetooth, etc. I had to break the news to her that all of the music she'd bought off of iTunes wouldn't work with it, and she was kind of pissed, until she tried it...and it worked. I looked into it, and Best Buy's site says

Music Service Compatibility: Best Buy Digital Music Store | Rhapsody | Rhapsody To Go | iTunes

I searched on here but didn't find anything...when did Apple start letting outside players use their stuff?

[Dakar the Fourth]

Is her iTMS stuff DRM free?

[Laminar]

I was just looking into that. The tracks she tried were from Colbie Caillat, which aren't available on iTunes Plus.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I'm going to need some nude pics to come to a conclusion.

[TETENAL]

It doesn't say it supports AAC. If it would, it would work with iTunes Plus music (and of course all the music you ripped yourself as AAC from your own CDs). The non-Plus music you purchase at the iTunes Store only works with iPods and the iPhone.

If an mp3 player doesn't support AAC it only works with music you rip yourself in mp3-format.

[The Godfather]

Glad to hear she got a bluetooth-enabled PMP. Tell her to spend a few US dollars in an A2DP set.

Cheapest without phone compatibility: Macally Bluewave BlueTooth Wireless Stereo Headset for iPod Macally BLUEWAVE

Cheapest with phone compatibility: Foldable Bluetooth A2DP Stereo AVRCP Remote Headphone E - (eBay item 290193370049 end time Dec-26-07 11:05:36 PST)

Godfather tested and approved: BSH01 Stereo Bluetooth Headset - Bluetooth Stereo Headsets (A2DP)

The brand you can trust: Sony Ericsson Stereo Bluetooth Headset HBH-DS970 A2DP - (eBay item 160192042150 end time Dec-26-07 16:01:14 PST)

Matching style: Insignia® - Bluetooth Wireless Behind-the-Head Headphones - Black - NS-BTHDP

Also tell her to take advantage of DRM-free music stores, such as the Amazon MP3 Store, and import such bought files to iTunes.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

The non-Plus music you purchase at the iTunes Store only works with iPods and the iPhone.

...except it works with this one too. She put an iTunes-protected song on the mp3 player and it played. The link and quote provided specifically said it's compatible with iTMS purchases.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

I'm going to need some nude pics to come to a conclusion.

Of the daughter or mother?

[funkboy]

This would be a first... Apple has not licensed that technology to anybody, and has made no formal announcements regarding this...

If so, can I make an iPod competitor now?

[Chuckit]

Just to check, you're positive the track was bought off iTunes? iTunes says it's a protected track? (Not trying to be condescending, it just seems like the sort of thing that must be a mistaken assumption.)

[Laminar]

Oh, I understand your disbelief, since I share it too. I made her tell me several times that she's sure she bought the track off of iTunes, and she's sure that it actually played on the player. I'll see her again on the 2nd or 3rd, I'll verify it in person then. But I'm also curious what it means when it says it's compatible with the iTunes music service.

[TETENAL]

It's an iTunes Plus song then.

Either that or Best Buy will find itself in a nasty lawsuit for violating the DMCA.

[Laminar]

Colbie Callait isn't available on iTunes Plus. I'll verify this in person when I see her again.

[AngelaBaby]

I don't see why iTunes songs wouldn't work. If not then reencode them.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by AngelaBaby 

I don't see why iTunes songs wouldn't work. If not then reencode them.

Because they're protected and you CAN'T encode them. Not that I should be replying to you...

[Eriamjh]

Maybe they figured out how iPods can play protected AACs and put that function on their players?

[The Godfather]

They might have taken DVDJon's QTFairUse source code as inspiration of their own iTunes DRM bypassing software.

[BRussell]

I don't believe it. Not iTunes DRM-ed tracks.

[- - e r i k - -]

My interest is piqued.

[The Godfather]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

It's an iTunes Plus song then.

Either that or Best Buy will find itself in a nasty lawsuit for violating the DMCA.

Not Best Buy. Think Insignia.

Smaller pockets, but the true responsible entity behind this feature.

Maybe Fairplay licenses are being announced in MW, now that the iPod has reached maturity, and Apple wants to focus on the iPhone and OSX.

[turtle777]

Something doesn't sound right about it. The Insignia specs don't even list AAC as a compatible format, unless they include it as part of MPEG4:

Digital Audio Formats
MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV, Audible, MPEG4 (30 fps), WMV (30 fps) and JPEG

At any rate, I'm also having a hard time believing it would play protected AACs. My bet is that your g/f is mistaken.

-t

[vmarks]

iTunes used to support about 20 to 50 mp3 players that were non-Apple. This was in the pre-iPod days.

That support still exists in iTunes, and for players that identify themselves like these old players, it still works.

I have a friend that bought a new creative brand player, and it works fine.
because creative hasn't changed how it identifies itself in 7 years.

iTunes for Mac OS X: Compatible Players

Someone else that I can't recall picked up the engineers from SonicBlue, and I think they still use the same means of identifying the player as well.

[Chuckit]

Well, I can see other MP3 players being supported by iTunes, but I'd be surprised if those MP3 players can grok FairPlay.

[Laminar]

Mystery solved. You point the best buy music store to your iTunes library, and if it finds iTunes protected files, it actually downloads an unprotected version from Rhapsody. So she had the Colby Callait track downloaded from iTunes, the BB music store saw those tracks, and then downloaded unprotected versions from Rhapsody onto the player.

[The Godfather]

Genius! That Insignia company must have a supernatural leverage with the music labels.

[strike]Check that those specific Rhapsody music files are MP3s and not protected WMA. If the latter, the Rhapsody music may become unplayable after certain date.[/strike] Nevermind, you already said these tracks are unprotected.

Is this Rhapsody service available for the Mac? I'd like to un-DRM my AACs. If not, I'll do it via my VM.

[Jawbone54]

Wow.

This thread has suddenly become verrrrry interesting...

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by vmarks 

iTunes used to support about 20 to 50 mp3 players that were non-Apple. This was in the pre-iPod days.

By support you mean that those MP3 players will sync with iTunes, right ?

But those players don't support protected AAC files.

-t

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by The Godfather 

Not Best Buy. Think Insignia.

Insignia is a brand of Best Buy.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Mystery solved. You point the best buy music store to your iTunes library, and if it finds iTunes protected files, it actually downloads an unprotected version from Rhapsody. So she had the Colby Callait track downloaded from iTunes, the BB music store saw those tracks, and then downloaded unprotected versions from Rhapsody onto the player.

For free? Or is this the rental thingie?

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

Mystery solved. You point the best buy music store to your iTunes library, and if it finds iTunes protected files, it actually downloads an unprotected version from Rhapsody. So she had the Colby Callait track downloaded from iTunes, the BB music store saw those tracks, and then downloaded unprotected versions from Rhapsody onto the player.

That's actually pretty neat. I'm impressed with the ingenuity.

[The Godfather]

Is this Insignia product sync-able with a Mac?

[mitchell_pgh]

I wonder if there is a way of tricking Rhapsody into downloading whatever song you want?

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by The Godfather 

Is this Insignia product sync-able with a Mac?

According to the link in the first post, yes it is. It really isn't a bad player: 8GB, SD card slot for more memory, 25hr battery life, 3" screen, bluetooth, FM radio, etc. for $160. Granted, the scroll wheel feels very cheap...it's not crisp at all, but overall it's well featured for the price.

[The Godfather]

Seems like the peeps at this tech blog paid some interest in this development

Link