MediaMonkey v i.Tunes

[Burrel]

Hi all,

Being new to MM and looking forward to using it to it's full capacity and enjoying all the benefits it has over other programme's (such as i.Tunes!). I thought it might be useful for people to list what the advantages are of using MM over something such as i.Tunes.
Or you may want to give details of something you've discovered on MM which other people may not know about, but would find it useful to know.

[KorkyKat]

itunes is not a dedicated media player. It's nothing more than a tool to link ipods to the istore and make Jobs more money. Like his browser it's junk other than the album display.

It's in one boring colour

It can't scan off line cd's and store the information

It is fatter than a mega-mac with cheese and fries

Who needs quick time?

It hogs memory

It isn't as friendly as monkey to the different types of files

Jobs was supporting (maybe still is) drm. Now that's bad karma.

You can use Monkey to time the cooking of your eggs.



Thread Needs To Be Moved To Off Topic

[Lowlander]

iTunes is a front end for the iTunes store and the application to manage the iPod.

MediaMonkey is a music manager for those who seriously care about their music.


This translates to that iTunes might be easier to use for many, but MediaMonkey is more complete when it comes to music management.

[Benn]

New Features of itunes 8:

"genuis playlists" = MusicMagic DJ (http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=12496)

"genuis Sidebar" = MonkeyRok (http://www.mediamonkey.com/forum/viewto ... =2&t=14494)

"Grid View" = Album Art View

Basically, Apple has a LOT of work to do if it's to catch up with MM

[Lowlander]

Well different audience, different application needs.

It's like comparing a Ferrari and a Land Rover. Both actually are excellent vehicles that many would like to own. But they serve a different market. You don't take your Ferrari on Safari, so despite that it's an excellent vehicle it only serves a limited purpose. The same goes for media applications. iTunes serves a different market than MediaMonkey. And as much as iTunes can look at MediaMonkey, MediaMonkey can look at the others. Things like the whole server thing that both iTunes and Windows Media Player have would be a welcome addition to MediaMonkey for some. On the other hand most other applications can learn a thing or two from MediaMonkey when it comes to letting users control their music and not the application.

[DazB]

Hi,

It's nice to see an unbiased view Lowlander

Daz

[Scooter]

I have both. iTunes will not scan drives or folders, or at least there is no native way to do that. Each album has to be added one at a time, by artist, then album. Glacially slow. Sigh..........

[RHVC]

I find that I only use Itunes to download podcasts, the free songs, and Iphone aps, as well as sync my apple TV. I am Oh so happy that I can use MM again on my macbook pro. I installed VMware fusion 2 and now I can use the monkey side by side with other OSX software to work with my music collection. Until I installed VMware I was stuck booting into the small 32 gig XP partition to use the monkey, now I just fire up the virtual machine and can keep on editing my photos in the Mac version of Photoshop but listen to music in MM.

[Neil Parks]

Until recently I did not know there was anything other than iTunes for the three things I used it for: to add music to my iPod, to rip CDs, and to download podcasts. Then I started hearing of other programs that could do one or another of these things. I tried several for each function, and found most of them wanting. I was delighted to discover that Media Monkey is a very good choice for at all three.

I hate iTunes with a purple passion because it is an eccentric disk hog. It insists on installing Quicktime and Mobile Me though I have no use for either one. (And no, iTunes does not actually require Quicktime to run. It works just as well with QT Lite.) iTunes insists on installing hundreds of megabytes--maybe even a gigabyte or two--of multi-language files that I don't need. If I try to delete them, iTunes insists on restoring them before it will let me do anything else.

(There is a workaround for that: Edit the properties of the desktop shortcut so that it launches the file "itunes.exe" instead of the "Application" that it runs by default.)

I like MM so much that I have now uninstalled iTunes.

And BTW, that leads me to another question. My wife has a 2 GB Nano that she has not yet started to use. Do I need to install iTunes on her computer in order to initially set it up? Or is MM capable of filling that function also (I hope)?

[nohitter151]

You'll need to have iTunes installed (not running) in order to sync to an ipod through MM.

[Nebbin]

iTunes is now converting the entire catalogue to non-DRM files (ie. iTunes Plus format)... at least in Australia, so I suppose elsewhere too.


EDIT: All Media Converter is fine, but it needs to be used with care. From what I can tell, it removes DRM by effectively playing the file and re-recording the audio stream into your desired new format (legal method) rather then directly removing DRM (which is likely illegal). Unfortunately, converting between lossy codecs can result in lower quality files (even if it's into the same format as the source file).

[nohitter151]

iTunes is now converting the entire catalogue to non-DRM files (ie. iTunes Plus format)... at least in Australia, so I suppose elsewhere too.

Yeah, in the US too. But you still will have to pay to have your currently protected files have their DRM stripped.

[Lowlander]

At least you can now decide which tracks you want to convert, previously you had to convert your whole library.

[Nebbin]

At least you can now decide which tracks you want to convert, previously you had to convert your whole library.

Really? I upgraded 142 of my tracks only last week, and had no option of choosing which to convert... Sounds like I must have only just missed the launch. Oh well, I'm sure removing all DRM protected tracks from my library is a good idea.

[Lowlander]

I think it was announced only a few days ago.