[KLUG Members] iPod & Linux.

[Bruce Smith]

> > The first thing I did was plug my Nano into a USB2 port on my SuSE 10.0
> > desktop.  Immediately it started a program named "banshee".  It knew it
> > was an iPod and ask me to name my Nano.
> > I then imported some mp3 files into my local banshee music area.  Next I
> > pressed the button to sync with the iPod, which it did, and the iPod now
> > plays the mp3 files perfectly!  Very slick!  Thought I'd share ...  :-)
> 
> Nice.

Yes, I was very impressed!  Someday I should fire up the real iTunes
program to see what it looks like!  :-)

> I don't know anything about iPods.  Do they only play MP3s?  

>From the online FAQ:

  Question: What audio formats does iPod work with?
  Answer:

      * Mac: AAC (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3
        Variable Bit Rate (VBR), WAV, AIFF, Audible.
      * Windows: AAC (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3 (up to 320 kbit/s), MP3
        Variable Bit Rate (VBR), WAV, Audible.

One reason I went with an iPod is because of the last format above.  
I do a lot of audio books, and may want to try audible.com someday.
(not supported by my old player, which is starting to die)

I went with the Nano because I didn't want an internal hard drive.
And considering the amount of memory in the Nano, it seems to be
competitively priced, compared to other memory based players.  

Plus, I seem to read a lot about "iPod killers" in the news, and AFAIK,
nobody has killed the iPod yet!  :-)

> I've encoded most
> of my stuff in ogg so I don't have to putter around trying to get MP3s 
> to play (I don't buy MP3s I just rip what I buy on media).  And I've 
> been too lazy to get around to buying a player yet.

Same here, I only RIP my CD's to mp3.

I've found with the iPod (and some other players), you have to make sure
the ID3 header in the MP3 is correct, since it groups everything by
album, artist, genres, composer, etc.  There is no concept of filename
and/or directory from the iPod's point of view.

I'd been lax on the headers before, since my old player just went by
filename and directory.  Luckily there is a nice CLI "id3v2" command
(comes with SuSE) that can manipulate the headers.  I put it in a simple
script and updated an entire directory at a time.

 - BS