[Jaey]

Party Shuffle doesn't do anything for me... How does it work?

[starman]

Originally posted by Jaey:
Party Shuffle doesn't do anything for me... How does it work?

Have a party

[Jaey]

Originally posted by starman:
Have a party

Ah, of course.
No seriously, what does it do?

[car1son]

Originally posted by timmerk:
WMA conversion does not work on my Mac.

Me, neither.

I looked more closely at the Apple iTunes 4.5 page, and in a small box on the right side it says "(Windows only)" next to that feature. (link)

Too bad, the prospect of listening to some WMA on my iPod was the main reason i downloaded it.

So, now even Apple makes software that works better on Windows than on a Mac.

[Jaey]

Might my Party Shuffle problems be related to this error?

The playlist "Library" does not contain any songs playable by Party Shuffle.

And why might I be getting that error?

[gunnar]

Does the new lossless format allow gap-less ripping? I would assume so, but then again, why wouldn't MP3 or AAC except for the header info.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by car1son:
Me, neither.

I looked more closely at the Apple iTunes 4.5 page, and in a small box on the right side it says "(Windows only)" next to that feature. (link)

Too bad, the prospect of listening to some WMA on my iPod was the main reason i downloaded it.

So, now even Apple makes software that works better on Windows than on a Mac.

1. How did you get WMA onto your Mac?
2. What are you doing with WMA on your Mac?
3. Are there any apps that play WMA on Macs other than Media Player (and vlc?)

It's not what you're looking for but there are two apps that convert from WMA to MP3 on Macs. But lemme tell you that converting from lossy to lossy is just not what you want to do.

You can't really listen to WMA on your iPod...it has to be converted to MP3 or AAC.

[typoon]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
1. How did you get WMA onto your Mac?
2. What are you doing with WMA on your Mac?
3. Are there any apps that play WMA on Macs other than Media Player (and vlc?)

It's not what you're looking for but there are two apps that convert from WMA to MP3 on Macs. But lemme tell you that converting from lossy to lossy is just not what you want to do.

You can't really listen to WMA on your iPod...it has to be converted to MP3 or AAC.

You forgot one question. Why would you want to listen to WMA on your iPod or Mac?

[car1son]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
1. How did you get WMA onto your Mac?

I downloaded it with Safari.

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
2. What are you doing with WMA on your Mac?

Listening to World.com news and NPR news.

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
3. Are there any apps that play WMA on Macs other than Media Player (and vlc?)

Yeah. iTunes running under Windows under Virtual PC.

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
It's not what you're looking for but there are two apps that convert from WMA to MP3 on Macs.

Thanks for not sharing.

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
You can't really listen to WMA on your iPod...it has to be converted to MP3 or AAC.

Duh.

That's why it's too bad iTunes 4.5 for Mac doesn't do that.

[mitchell_pgh]

The WMA thing is a joke... why shouldn't we have it as well. I would love to convert WMA files to AAC...

After tinkering with Party Shuffle, I'm at a loss for what I would actually use it for (over a regular smart playlist or standard playlist.

The printing thing is interesting, but it's limited (great for a 1.0, but it needs to be much more flexible)

[OAW]

The thing about the Party Shuffle feature is that it is dynamic. It will scan your library or your existing playlists and build a playlist "on the fly" so to speak. If you take the default settings, it will list the last 5 songs played (grayed out) and the upcoming 15 songs that it will play. Now you can adjust the upcoming songs manually or just let the Party Shuffle feature pick the songs for you. As songs play, the oldest song already played rolls off the list and a new one is automatically added to the upcoming list for you.

The best way to think of these three types of playlists is as follows:

Regular Playlist - Static
Smart Playlist - Dynamic
Party Shuffle - Rolling

Hope this helps...

OAW

[chabig]

Does the new lossless format allow gap-less ripping?

I would assume so. The other encoders already support gapless ripping, why would this one be any different?

Chris

[macgyvr64]

EasyWMA should solve problems.

[typoon]

Originally posted by macgyvr64:
EasyWMA should solve problems.

I was about to post that. I just downloaded the newest version.

[dfiler]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
The WMA thing is a joke... why shouldn't we have it as well. I would love to convert WMA files to AAC...

In windows, iTunes uses parts of WMP to convert the file from WMA to AAC. I don't think the Mac version of WMP can do this... hence the feature is not available on the mac.

It didn't involve much extra coding for windows iTunes. For the Mac, I suspect it would take quite a bit of work, having to reverse engineer WMA and then fight MS legal.

[Big Mac]

Originally posted by dfiler:
In windows, iTunes uses parts of WMP to convert the file from WMA to AAC. I don't think the Mac version of WMP can do this... hence the feature is not available on the mac.

It didn't involve much extra coding for windows iTunes. For the Mac, I suspect it would take quite a bit of work, having to reverse engineer WMA and then fight MS legal.

dfiler wins the prize. There's no reason to be angry at Apple for failing to include a feature of limited appeal on the Mac and one which would have required significant coding effort. The fact that it isn't supported on the Mac and that it is a MS format being dealt with leads one to believe iTunes has to rely on Windows for the functionality. Apple can be criticized for a number of things, but this isn't one of them.

[MrBS]

Well Party Shuffle is looking pretty good. Couple little things: I really would like the 'recently played' songs were really the recently played songs, instead of just the 5 songs before the current song. I would like them to be locked, so if I play songs 1 and 2 and 3 and then switch to 12 I want to see 1 2 and 3 in recently played, not 6-11.

If I play 1-2-3 and then select 2 again, I don't want 2 and 3 to become 'unplayed'.

Also, it would be nice if it (auto, or maybe add another check box) weighted song selection by recently played. Or maybe just disallow it from popping up in the queue if it's been played (by party shuffle) in the last 15 songs or 10% of the playlist, whichever's less.

Lastly, they should add a different visual option for the party list, that locks the computer but keeps itunes active. Keep the itunes window, put the visualization behind it, if no one's touching it for awhile the itunes fades out. Some button to unlock it obviously (with user password or any admin).


And one preexisting issues not yet fixed: I want to be able to add a playlist into another playlist (Like have a condition that "Song is [not in | in] (playlist)"). That fixes lots of problems with the smart playlists not being smart enough.
~BS

[chabig]

Lastly, they should add a different visual option for the party list, that locks the computer but keeps itunes active. Keep the itunes window, put the visualization behind it, if no one's touching it for awhile the itunes fades out. Some button to unlock it obviously (with user password or any admin).

I know what you want and it's a good idea. I think you could handle this by creating a special "party" user account. And in the System Prefs make iTunes the only application allowed to run.

And one preexisting issues not yet fixed: I want to be able to add a playlist into another playlist (Like have a condition that "Song is [not in | in] (playlist)"). That fixes lots of problems with the smart playlists not being smart enough.

I am very happy to report to you that Apple has added this!

Chris

[MrBS]

Originally posted by chabig:


I am very happy to report to you that Apple has added this!

Chris

HaHA! So I'm an idiot. Happy to be one in this case though. Can't see how I missed it when I took a quick look to see if it was there... must have been scanning for an 'Is In' prefix.

Now to make some smart playlists!

~BS

[chabig]

I missed it too...saw another forum where someone mentioned it.

[BannanaFiend]

So the new quicktime, and subsequently the new iTunes, has a vastly improved aac encoder, according to apple.

Would the forum audiophiles please do some comparisons so i can evaluate whether to re-rip my collection?

Thanks

[kovacs]

Originally posted by BannanaFiend:
So the new quicktime, and subsequently the new iTunes, has a vastly improved aac encoder, according to apple.

Would the forum audiophiles please do some comparisons so i can evaluate whether to re-rip my collection?

Thanks

If you can't hear the difference what's the point of re-ripping your entire collection ?

I'm a audiophile and I have never done a test like this before, so this is what I did, I ripped three songs, one piece of jazz, some R&B and a blues song from the stereophile test CD, I compared them with the versions I ripped earlier. The first two are ripped at 128 and the last at 160 kbps. I connected a Grado headphone to my iMac and compared the old version with the new one. I could hear a slight difference with the first two songs encoded at 128, they both sounded a little bit fuller and richer, but I couldn't hear much difference through my computer speakers ( Apple pro speakers ). The difference in sound quality is pretty small and I don't think non-audiophiles will notice it. The last song encoded at 160 sounded pretty much like the old version, it didn't really sound the same but it didn't sound any better either, just a little bit different. I also listened to the original CD and it had some of the same sonic problems as the 160 AAC song compared with my main system, so part of the sound quality imperfections I heard in the 160 AAC song wheren't really the fault of the format itself but of the soundcard in the iMac, which still sounded much better than most other computer soundcards. I'm not going to re-rip my entire collection because most songs in my collection are already 160 AAC and even if they were encoded at 128 I wouldn't re-rip them simply because I don't care if it would sound better or not, as long as they sound OK through my computer speakers than that's fine by me, for serious listening I listen to the original CD through my audio system which is 3 feet away from my Mac. You should only re-rip your CD collection if you can hear a difference and if you think it's worth your time... Personally I think it's a waste of time...

[Krypton]

I've found that 4.5 can eject my iPod without freezing for a few seconds, which is great.

Also I like the snap back and eject arrows for media

[iBean]

Originally posted by BannanaFiend:
So the new quicktime, and subsequently the new iTunes, has a vastly improved aac encoder, according to apple.

Would the forum audiophiles please do some comparisons so i can evaluate whether to re-rip my collection?

Thanks

I have all my music encoded at 128 AAC and there's a tremendous difference in quality (at least for me) - the sound is much more richer and clear.

So I'll be re-ripping some cds....

[typoon]

One thing I noticed was faster ripping of CD's I used to rip around at 5-6K now it's constant at around 10-11 or so.

[Krypton]

Originally posted by typoon:
One thing I noticed was faster ripping of CD's I used to rip around at 5-6K now it's constant at around 10-11 or so.

I get better speed too (must be QT 6.5.1). Therefore it's probably better optimised encoding, rather than better quality.

[BannanaFiend]

Originally posted by kovacs:
If you can't hear the difference what's the point of re-ripping your entire collection ?

Truth be told I haven't really compared yet. I have been bogged down with the end of semester computer science assignment attack that my university seems so fond of.

In any case, I probably will test out my Debussy, if not also a bit of Dream Theater or King Crimson when I get the chance.

[themarvelous3]

Originally posted by funkboy:
Five computers can now play purchased music... yay! They listened to some of us with too many machines in the house.

Anyone know if this fixes the problem with Windows machines and burning to certain DVD-Rs? My friend is totally distraught over the fact that he can't burn his purchased music with his new DVD-R. I told him I'm sure the new version will fix the problem.

go download and buy AudioX

people who dont like the protetion on iTunes mp3s (aac) files will be pleased. i say no more.

[alex_wlu_82]

damn.. i wish i could select my iPod in Party Shuffle... 4000 songs on there and 0 in my library. I can't really see any legal reasons why they would do this, do you?

[chabig]

Apple has never allowed us to copy songs from the iPod to the computer, because then the iPod would have enabled piracy. When my iPod is set up manual updating of playlists, I am able to play songs directly off of the iPod. Why we can't then drag those songs into the Party Shuffle, I have no idea. Perhaps it's planned for the next version.

Chris

[RooneyX]

Dragging WMV to iTunes doesn't work. Windows only, right?

[typoon]

Originally posted by RooneyX:
Dragging WMV to iTunes doesn't work. Windows only, right?

Yes. But you can use a program called EasyWMA to convert on the Mac.

[rsh]

Added functions in contextual menu in 4.5:

If you right-click on a song in your library it shows you which playlists include the selected song.

You also see "Play Next in Party Shuffle" and "Add to Party Shuffle".

I thought these were both nice touches.

[krove]

The contextual menu options that shows to which playlists the song belongs was already there in the last version, if I'm not mistaken.

[MartiNZ]

I really like the "Play next in Party Shuffle" option, but it behaves inconsistently. If I do this with a song or songs from my main library, it puts them at the top of the party shuffle playlist, as you might expect. And then if I press Refresh in the party shuffle, the previous command overrides that and the ones I told to play next still do play next.

But if I do the same thing with songs in the party shuffle list, the refresh overrides that and I lose those along with the rest of the list. This is not only not consistent, but not desirable if you ask me.

The other thing is that Apple has gone against its own guidelines again with having those options in the contextual menus, but nowhere else! Isn't this quite a crime in their eyes? They would also be very useful items to have shortcut keys for, but there are none, or at least none on record... Do the shortcut keys in system preferences allow for things only in contextual menus?

[dreilly1]

Remember when I said that the new iTunes still behaved badly with gaps between songs? Well, I think I was mistaken. Which is good, sort of...

All the details are here. I put it in another thread so that this thread won't get bogged down with gapless discussion...

[southtdi]

Here's a feature I would like to have besides the moving songs, playlists, library between computers I mentioned earlier in this thread.

I would like the abbility to play songs in iTunes from my ipod. By that I mean if the ipod is docked with anyones iTunes i want to be able to play songs form it on that computer. Thsi could be useful for when you go and visit someone and want to play them a song you have they have not heard before. For me it would really be useful for streaming music.If they never did the other idea i had this would still solve my, and hopefully others, problems for streaming music. In my sitiuatation I have to keep two seperate copies of my library on both my PB and my PM. If they did the ipod bit then I could connect the ipod to my PM (since my PB is more of my primary computer) and stream out using the itunes on the PM. I could then stream out to my stereo without having to maintain two seperate libraries.

I cannot see how this would violate copyright laws since you still are only using the music files themselves the same way as before but now you can basically use a computer with itunes as a means of listening to music. They could easliy treat the ipod on another computer the same exact way they do a shared playlist currently.

[MartiNZ]

Hmmm, I don't have an iPod, but I can definitely see the benefits of being able to do that. In fact I'm quite surprised that you can't! I didn't even know that you couldn't copy from iPod to computer until recently, although that does make more sense.

I suppose that if someone was really desperate, they could record a file playing in that way with something like WireTap, and that could be a justification for not allowing it, but not that good a justification I fancy!

I suppose the alternative has to be just plugging the iPod into external speakers when you are in that situation.

Anyway, in answering my own question from above, no you can't set shortcut keys for contextual-menu-only items via System Preferences .

[holygoat]

Originally posted by MartiNZ:
Hmmm, I don't have an iPod, but I can definitely see the benefits of being able to do that. In fact I'm quite surprised that you can't! I didn't even know that you couldn't copy from iPod to computer until recently, although that does make more sense.

I suppose that if someone was really desperate, they could record a file playing in that way with something like WireTap, and that could be a justification for not allowing it, but not that good a justification I fancy!

Of course, if you're determined you can easily get songs off the iPod: the music folder is hidden, but still accessible through the Terminal when it's mounted as a drive. There are several apps that allow you to copy songs off a connected iPod with no trouble - you just can't do it through iTunes.

It's just stopping the majority, which is what they want as an appeasement measure.

[chabig]

Originally posted by southtdi:
I would like the abbility to play songs in iTunes from my ipod.

I think you can already do that. All you have to do is set the iPod to manual updating. This makes all of the songs on the iPod selectable. Then you can select one, and play it--at least on my iPod (which happens to be paired with my machine.)

Chris

[southtdi]

Hmmm, have to try that. Thanks for the info.

[methodshop]

Originally posted by typoon:
Nice new features

Automatically convert WMA to AAC. Convert the music you saved in Windows Media Player (unprotected WMA files) to AAC format.

"iMix," a new way for users to publish playlists of their favorite songs on the iTunes Music Store for other users to preview, rate and purchase. iMix creates a virtual iTunes community, enabling users to discover new music recommended by fellow music fans and rate the iMixes published by other iTunes users;

The iMix function is great, but my favorite new feature in iTunes 4.5 is the ability to add song previews to your playlists. For example, I thought it would be funny to submit an iMix called *One to Tango: Songs with a Masturbation Theme* to the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). But most of the songs on the list were pretty lame and I had no interest in buying them just to make a silly iMix. Honestly, I'd rather go to the dentist than purchase the Britney Spears single for "Touch of my Hand." Instead, I found the songs in the iTMS and built my playlist using 30 free samples that were all available online. I rearranged my tracks according to a desired sequence and submitted it.

http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/articles/iMix/

[blackbird_1.0]

It's being said that video on the iTMS is a new feature in 4.5. I remember, though, watching the Hulk trailer on the iTMS with a previous version. Hmm.

[Mr Scruff]

Originally posted by methodshop:
The iMix function is great, but my favorite new feature in iTunes 4.5 is the ability to add song previews to your playlists. For example, I thought it would be funny to submit an iMix called *One to Tango: Songs with a Masturbation Theme* to the iTunes Music Store (iTMS). But most of the songs on the list were pretty lame and I had no interest in buying them just to make a silly iMix. Honestly, I'd rather go to the dentist than purchase the Britney Spears single for "Touch of my Hand." Instead, I found the songs in the iTMS and built my playlist using 30 free samples that were all available online. I rearranged my tracks according to a desired sequence and submitted it.

Can't believe you didn't include 'Girls of Porn'

[xenu]

Ok, how does one create folders in the source column?

I'm sure I used to be able to do this. One folder would contain all my playlists, and another would have my partner's. Clicking the arrow next to the folder would show the contents.

My apologies if this is trivial, but it has been annoying me lately.

[macgyvr64]

Originally posted by xenu:
Ok, how does one create folders in the source column?

I'm sure I used to be able to do this. One folder would contain all my playlists, and another would have my partner's. Clicking the arrow next to the folder would show the contents.

My apologies if this is trivial, but it has been annoying me lately.

As far as I know, it's not implemented yet. I've submitted a feature request several times (each time iTunes gets updated and the feature still isn't there). You'd think it would be easy to add. The Music Store can act like a little folder for shopping cart mode, so why can't they take that chunk of code and use it to create folders? And on the iPod, it would just be another "sliding screen" to flip through.

[The DJ]

Originally posted by dfiler:
In windows, iTunes uses parts of WMP to convert the file from WMA to AAC. I don't think the Mac version of WMP can do this... hence the feature is not available on the mac.

It didn't involve much extra coding for windows iTunes. For the Mac, I suspect it would take quite a bit of work, having to reverse engineer WMA and then fight MS legal.

This is completly correct, besides the fact that i might not even be possible to use WMP mac to do this, there would be licensing issues involved.

Apple can't use the method from EasyWMA etc either, because that would probably violate a couple of dozen of American patents...

Exactly the reason why WMP and Real suck so much on the Mac.

[lenox]

As for the gapless playback, there's an easier/better way to do it without joining all the files into one big file (which doesn't make much sense to me). Just turn on 'crossfade playback' and set it to the very lowest setting.

As for 'overlapping' tracks...that's more of a blurry thing. I am not sure which method is better in that case.

[OAW]

FYI,

Just noticed that from within iTunes you can save the movie trailers as a standalone Quicktime file even if you don't have QT Pro. So this option is disabled if I view the trailer from a web browser, but enabled if I do it from iTunes. If you like saving movie trailers and don't want to pay for a QT Pro license for that feature alone you might want to take advantage of this "hole" while you still can.

OAW

[mrtew]

nm