iPod supported media player

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Greetings Windows Lounge Users!

I’ve recently encountered a dilemma, which I know you all will be able to help me solve. You see, I am tired of iTunes, for many reasons which for the sake of time I won’t post here. In any event, I read the excellent and helpful thread posted by vt10002, so I know that I have several media player alternatives. However, there is just one problem: I would like one that offers iPod support with sound file formatting. What I mean by this is, it is an issue of file formats. I want my main library to be in a lossless format, such as FLAC, for example. The trouble is, iPods will only support ALAC as their lossless format, which makes sense as it was developed by Apple. Since ALAC is a proprietary format, it means that no other media players can import songs and convert them into ALAC. Therefore, I have decided that, much to my regret, I will have to sync my iPod with songs in a different, lossy format like mp3 for example. Unfortunately, none of the available media players that I have found out there have an option which allows the user to keep his/her library in a lossless format, and then provide a method for converting the songs to an iPod friendly format during the sync process. Granted, MediaMonkey may allow this, but it is part of the paid version, and I am not going to pay for something which I can get through iTunes for free.

So in conclusion, I’m asking all of you if there is an addon or media player which would support such a strategy as the one I am proposing. This would finally allow me to break away from iTunes, without having to surrender a lossless format standard for my collection (I’m using ALAC right now) while still enabling me to sync to an iPod. I know it might sound like a lot of extra work – maintaining the library format and then converting it to the iPod in another format – but I don’t have much choice. It seems that I either stick with iTunes and its lossless format, or change my whole library to a lossy format and switch to another popular media player. Please don’t let this happen! There must be another alternative, I just know it!

Thanks for taking the time to read my somewhat verbose post, and hooray for the Lounge!

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This may not help (as I don’t know much about lossless formats) but I prefer Windows Media Player to iTunes and I use a utility called MGTEK dopisp which allows WMP to sync with an iPod.

Ian

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Winamp works great with iPods, I’ve been using it for years.
You plug the iPod into a USB port and Winamp recognizes that it’s an iPod. All you need to do is drag & drop files from the Winamp library into the iPod.
I have a mix of FLAC and mp3 files. FLAC files are converted to mp3s when you import them.
I have a Winamp library of 535 GB and it handles all of it without a problem.

Don

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Granted, MediaMonkey may allow this, but it is part of the paid version, and I am not going to pay for something which I can get through iTunes for free.

That’s because Apple makes their money from the iTunes store. Giving away the software is an incentive to buy from music from them. Ventis Media doesn’t sell music, and makes their money from the Gold version. IMHO, Its a bargain for $20, and it keeps them developing so that a free version is available for those who don’t have a need for the advanced functionality.

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Thank you all for the helpful replies! I do have a question for you though, Donald. When you say that FLAC files are converted to mp3s when you import them, do you mean importing into the Winamp library, or converted when syncing them to the iPod?
That’s a good point Chuck: Apple does have the iTunes store, but there are other ways they could get funding, such as sponsors, to include that one extra feature. I do agree with you though; there is a reason for the paid version, and that is to fund the free version and provide users with extra features. Unfortunately, it is more than $20 if you want lifetime support and updates. I think the full upgrade is like $40, but still something to consider, no question.

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What I meant was that I store them as FLAC in Winamp but when I drag & drop them through the Winamp interface to my iPod, Winamp converts them to mp3 for storage on the iPod.

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