Itunes SUCKS!!!

[The1andOnlyKC]

I have been jacking with this shit all day long, and it still refuses to add my complete library to it.

I have all of my media on a network share, and Itunes is less than competent when it comes to creating a complete library.

Plus it wont monitor the folder for updates so if a person on the network adds a new album or something to the share no one else will get it automatically.

Ugghhhh........ the list goes on.

I must say this is where Windows Media Player really shines.

I am now giving Songbird a try. If not I guess its $20 for Dopisp

That is all...

[argonstrom]

Itunes SUCKS!!!

Agreed.

[Hoosier]

Hmm. I've been generally happy with iTunes. It imported a ~300gb media library for me without problems. My media is on a network share. It took a bloody long time to do it, but given that it's opening every mp3 and spooling to the end to find the id3 tags it's pretty much unavoidable.

The lack of automated additions would be annoying if I had more than one person using it, I suppose. I did not care for Windows Media Player... I did install and play around with 3 different unix based media management systems. They mostly used MySQL as the datastore, which was appealing to me, but in the end the web based interfaces were clunky and required a streaming media player on the client configured to auto-launch from the browser, and it just isn't slick enough.

For iTunes there's an app called Pollux, which will correct labels on your mp3's and add cover art. It's like Shazam, it decodes the audio and samples it, and sends that sample up to the internet to be identified and tagged. This works great, identifying even mp3's that have no id3 data. The downside is that it'll occasionally tag all the tags on an album correctly, but then tag any of the songs from that album that were a single seperately. All in all, I'm glad I used it.

H.

[clublights]

I've not had any issues with adding media to the library ..


tho yeah the auto monitoring it does not do... tho I think thats a pretty cool idea for a feature.

Is that pollux a win based program ?

[Zundfolge]

Songbird isn't too bad ... although its a little bloated (and now that they've dumped Linux I'm running Rhythmbox ... but you're on Windows so that doesn't do you much good).

A lot of folk like Foobar2000 http://www.foobar2000.org/ Plus I understand its extremely customizable.

Other folk also swear by Amarok http://amarok.kde.org/

I just can't get myself to pay for a music player since there are so many good open source ones out there.


On a side note here's a cool site for finding alternatives to various pieces of software http://alternativeto.net/

[Monky]

Oh how I miss limewire.. it would add my backup CDs directly to my iTunes library.. le sigh..

[theGinsue]

I read the title and had a Charlie Sheen moment when the first thought to cross my mind was DUH!

iTunes software is nothing but malicious code. I don't even have an iPod and I'm constantly getting iTunes software finding it's way onto my computers. I'm getting sick of the danged pop-ups that I see every 3 months or so.

My daughter had an iPod and constantly had issues with gettin her entire library to load, having some or part of her library disappear, etc.

While I have a Zune, I think the best devices are generic MP3 players. I set one up for my dad and had less problems with it than either the iPod or Zune - and it was considerably more user friendly to set up/load as well.

[clublights]

I guess I'm either just super lucky .... Or it's cuz I use Mac's ...........


I've had 3 different ipods ( still own 2 of them) 4 different iPhones(Every model made so far.. yeah I'm a nerd like that) , and an AppleTV

Only one I've ever had issues with is the appleTV and that is cuz I have it "hacked" and even then the problems are not huge.

I've got over 16,000 songs and over 400 movies, and a couple hundred TV show episodes....

[KevDen2005]

I have a zune and have been happy with it for much cheaper than an IPOD. However, I bought my girlfriend an IPOD and she has had tons of problems with it and does not care for it. She also called their customer support and they said they could help troubleshoot problems for $29.95

[rondog]

I wish I understood all that stuff better. I have an iPod and a dock in my Jeep for it, and is the coolest thing ever! Add in the SiriusXM sat. radio, and I haven't used FM in months. But iTunes V.10 gave me some awful grief, and I swear it hosed up my computer, I'm still trying to get it back to normal.

A friend told me to try Media Monkey, which I can't figure out, and now you guys are talking about several other things. Blows my mind, I can't understand most of what you're talking about. I just want to get my PC setup again to play music when I'm there, and be able to fine-tune my iPod with what I want on it.

16,000 songs? Jesus Christ......I think I have 675 or so......

It's hell getting old.