New to i-pods

[D.J.KRIME]

I personally do not own a i-pod (use my Nokia N95 as MP3 player personally) But my Wife is dropping serious hints that she wants one for Christmas. What worries me is that I have read that it is illeagle to put CD's or MP3 files that you all ready have onto your i-pod. Is this the case?

 

[professorhat]

In the absolute letter of the law it is, but the labels have already said they have no intentions of prosecuting anyone who does this - they are only actively targeting those who use bittorrent software and the like to share their music around the internet.
Since just about everybody who owns an iPod (or any kind of MP3 player at that) does this, I can't see half the population of the UK being prosecuted for it!

 

[fatboyslimfast]

*EDIT* I didn't see prof's response until after I replied, but here it is anyway...

Well yes. But that applies to any portable music player.

As the law stands, if you make any copy of a pre-recorded piece of music, whether it's CD to CD, or Vinyl to MP3, the act is illegal.

In practise, if you have all the physical CDs, then you would be highly unlikely to be prosecuted. If you sold them all after ripping them though, then it might be a different outcome.

Also, if you don't do anything else illegal (run a market stall selling "backups", use P2P file sharing like limewire et al, download dodgy images from websites) then no-one will ever know, and you will never be called to account.

In other words, if you have the CDs, you should be OK in reality.

 

[John Duncan]

D.J.KRIME:I personally do not own a i-pod (use my Nokia N95 as MP3 player personally) But my Wife is dropping serious hints that she wants one for Christmas. What worries me is that I have read that it is illeagle to put CD's or MP3 files that you all ready have onto your i-pod. Is this the case?

Yes, and your phone, so you're going to hell already DJ

 

[Anonymous]

Also remember that if you play a cd on your cd player and there are more than 3 people in the room who listen to it at the same time, this is credited, in the eyes of the law as a public preformance, so you need to purchase a proforming rights licence at £2500, it does make one laugh.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

JohnDuncan:D.J.KRIME:I personally do not own a i-pod (use my Nokia N95 as MP3 player personally) But my Wife is dropping serious hints that she wants one for Christmas. What worries me is that I have read that it is illeagle to put CD's or MP3 files that you all ready have onto your i-pod. Is this the case?

Yes, and your phone, so you're going to hell already DJ

Definatly going downwards lol

So do I simply drag and drop as I would my phone or does the i-pod only use the i-tunes interface? if so does this let you place your cds onto the i-pod? or is there other software to use? All this i-pod business is just French to me! Whats wrong with good old vinyl lol

 

[John Duncan]

D.J.KRIME:
JohnDuncan:D.J.KRIME:I personally do not own a i-pod (use my Nokia N95 as MP3 player personally) But my Wife is dropping serious hints that she wants one for Christmas. What worries me is that I have read that it is illeagle to put CD's or MP3 files that you all ready have onto your i-pod. Is this the case?

Yes, and your phone, so you're going to hell already DJ

Definatly going downwards lol

So do I simply drag and drop as I would my phone or does the i-pod only use the i-tunes interface? if so does this let you place your cds onto the i-pod? or is there other software to use? All this i-pod business is just French to me! Whats wrong with good old vinyl lol

An iPod will by default only sync with iTunes. There are other applications out there which circumvent this and allow you to drag and drop, though I can't vouch for them (podshare is one I think).

 

[fatboyslimfast]

I would stick to using iTunes - it makes a good job of organising the music, and syncing it to your pod...

Also, which iPod is she hankering after? If it's a classic, then make sure you are taking advantage of the extra space by ripping in Apple Lossless format. If it's a nano or touch, then I would set it at 256kbps AAC...

 

[Anonymous]

I'm a big fan of iPods having had a few over the years.

To decide which one is best you need to determine what you're other half will use it for. I know, I know she wants to listen to music.

If the intention is to store your full music collection go for an iPod Classic, but if your wife wants to listen while at the Gym, I'd opt for an iPod Nano as it's smaller and less likely to get damaged (the Nano uses solid state memory as oppose to the Hard Disk in the Classic).

Having said that I have an iPhone and (if money is not an issue) wouldn't hesitate to recommend the iPod Touch.

One thing I find is that I get more enjoyment from using my iPhone as oppose to my iPod Classic.

With the classic (80gb) I may have all of my music on tap but find that I spend time scrolling through looking for something to listen to. On my iPhone (8gb) I take a more structured approach to the songs I sync to the machine (using playlists etc) due to the relative lack of space.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

It will be mainly used for listening to music at home via a docking station (was thinking of the BOSE one?) and when watching the kids play football. I was leaning towards either the Pink Nano or the Touch as from fiddling with them at the weekend I found the Touch more easy to use. Any ideas as to which? and is the Bose a good Docking station?

As for using I-tunes will this let me put her CD's onto the i-pod?

 

[John Duncan]

Yes, you loads the CDs into iTunes and then sync the iPod with it.

And I'd get the Touch if you can spend that much, it's fabulous.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

I did find the touch more user friendly and to be honest it is not that much more than a 16gb nano but sacrificeing a little memory.

What about docking stations?

 

[John Duncan]

Well I;ve never found one I really liked - I'd rather get an Apple Universal Dock and plug it into a pair of Audioengine A5s, tbh. Even the B&W Zeppelin was below par for me - don't think I've heard the Bose.

I do like the Harman Kardon Soundsticks though, if you want something funky.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

I need something quite small but modern to sit on kitchen work surface, preferibly in white or black.

 

[John Duncan]

I have the CD version of the Pure Chronos alarm clock, but they do a dock version as well. Small, funky, sounds pretty good. Not hifi, but may be just what you need. About a hundred quid if I recall.

If you want to spend hundreds, then the Bose is the obvious choice if it needs to be reasonably compact. Still not hifi though.....

 

[Anonymous]

I reckon the obvious dock picks are the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere (the second version of which will be printed in the January issue), which is very compact, stylish and capable for £100, or the B&W Zeppelin if you've got more space and £400 to spare.

The review of the last Logitech is available here - http://whathifi.com/Review/Logitech-Pure-Fi-Anywhere/

While the B&W review is here - http://whathifi.com/Review/BandW-Zeppelin/

 

[professorhat]

Audioengine A2s - they're tiny and fabulous! Just get a cheapo dock (like this Cambridge Audio one) to hook into them and bob is your mother's brother.