[PLUG] ipods

[John Jordan]

On 11 Aug 2005, at 9:17, Rogan Creswick wrote:

> The defaults settings for grip on my ubuntu install were almost
> perfect, and amarok appears to offer an interface to iPods, although I
> haven't tried doing that yet (I don't have firewire on that machine).

I am trying to rip symphonies, and I find the sound really sucks 
unless I rip at considerably more than 128 kbps. Moreover, the 
default settings on Grip were to ogg, not mp3, and it took a lot of 
figuring out in order to get it to rip to mp3s. Eventually I got it to rip, 
but it still insisted on ripping each track as a separate "song." I 
needed to get it to rip each track as part of one larger file for the 
whole symphony. In addition, I needed to add a couple seconds 
quiet space in between each track. I never figured out how to do 
that or how to get it to make several tracks into one file. I also 
never figured out how to name the file and the tracks so they would 
show up correctly on the iPod. After hours and hours of reading 
about it, perusing the help, scouring the internet, and asking users 
on web pages and blogs, I just gave up on it.

> > The main utility you need is gtkpod. This will allow you to transfer
> > your mp3s to the iPod. Unfortunately, I found it hopelessly
> > unintuitive and there are no help files. Also, be sure to unmount
> > the
> 
> I did try gtkpod once, and I echo your sentiment about it being a pain
> in the a**.  I have heard rumors that iTunes runs in linux under
> crossover office, or wine, but I haven't tried to verrify that.

Not sure I really want iTunes on my Linux computer. As for 
Amarok, I just installed it, but there is no way to use it to transfer 
files to an iPod. It seems to be strictly for burning CDs of mp3s 
that have already been ripped.

I just got home after my last final exam (yay!!!) and tried k3b again. 
I am now able to say that whatever it is using for the encoding rate 
(128 kpps?) it is stuck at that and there is no user option to 
change it. Since that quality is too poor, I guess I'll have to 
abandon it. 

(See other note about abcde.)