Page 1 of Help !! .... IPOD question from a novice.....

Due to all the publicity and favourable reviews, I am currently looking to buy an IPOD .... However, what I would like to know is, will the included software allow me to transfer mp3 files that are already on my hard drive (both downloaded + ripped), or does the whole ripping/downloading process have to be carried out using thge i-tunes software...

I already have in excess of a 1000 tracks burnt to mp3 , and would rather hope that I could just drag and drop them into the supplied software.....Is this the case ???

If not, does anyone know how I can download these to an ipod ???

I think you might be able to down load the files as a batch into the iPod, as it will appear on your PC as another drive when you plug it in.
However, The iPod may not sort the files as you might like, i.e. into albums etc.
If you download iTunes from Apple (It is free!) then you can import your MP3`s into the Library via a command on its file menu, and do any organising and track labelling in there and then the synchronisation with the iPod is basically automatic.
I`ve been using iTunes for a while now, even though I don`t have an iPod, and it seems to be pretty good at importing digital music, either from MP3 or CD sources.
IMHO, It also does pretty good job of MP3ing WAV files ripped from cassette etc

In a word - yes.

Download iTunes from Apple`s site, load it up and import all your MP3s (should only take a short while). When you get the iPod, plug it in and it will appear in iTunes (as well as a separate drive in My Computer)...it will then automatically transfer all your MP3s onto the iPod.

You can also move all your MP3s into iTunes and alter things like the volume, equaliser etc.

BTW, when the MP3s go into iTunes, they will be sorted into categories such as artist and album. It`s really easy to use. :)


My DVD Collection

are i-pods easy to organise ? i`m getting an i-pod mini, but i will mainly use it for listning to audio books so each cd contains around 65 tracks each, so i would idealy like to keep them in folder order, (as i do on the n-gage) this means i don`t need to re-name loads of files i just drag them to mmc as folder/cd- 1/2/3 etc :)

Whilst iPods appear as drives on the PC, they are organised in their own little folders and there is a mini database stored on the iPod itself

I`ve found the best way to manage all the songs is to use playlist files (*.m3u) which I personally simply generate using Winamp.
I then use a program called EphPod to import the playlists (which then imports all the mp3s)
However, as mentioned the same can be acheived with iTunes (although I`m still not overly keen on it)

If you search around there are loads of applications around for ripping/converting and also transferring to the iPod - you`ve just got to find which one`s right for you