can't get ripped CDs to show up properly on iTunes & iPod

So I got an iPod recently 'cause there's this super cute case for it I like, but eh so far I haven't seen any evidence of its supposed user friendliness & can def see why so many people hate these things...

Anyway I got a buncha CDs I wanna rip and get them in there. Ripped a few with foobar2k, it got the ID3 tags for them, looks good in foobar, looks good in Windows... add the folder to iTunes library, most field names are followed by squares (attached). Don't know why they are there, but I also don't particularly care since iTunes is not so hot looking as is. Well, on the iPod, there are no stupid squares but... I ripped 3 Smashing Pumpkins CDs, and I have 3 entries for Smashing Pumpkins under artists, and 2 entries for Rock under genres (even though all 3 CDs are ID3'd as Rock). Each entry for Rock takes me to the list of 3 Smashing Pumpkins, and clicking on any one of the 3 takes me to the list of the 3 albums.

I updated this thing's firmware to 1.2.1 and it's a 30GB one... I don't want to use iTunes to rip just in case, to make sure they don't hide some sorta identifier in there somewhere or whatever, but I also don't want this ridiculousness... so any ideas on how to fix it?

Malia

 

Yeah you need to use a program called Exact Audio Copier(this is one of the best CD copiers) and then use the LAME plugin to convert it to MP3. I have done this with all my ripped CD's and it has worked perfectly. Follow the guide from this website.

First download EAC from here. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
Then download LAME from here(download the very first one). http://www.rarewares.org/mp3.html

That guide will then walk you step by step how to set up EAC and LAME. If you need any help I will try to make it easier to understand. I just got my iPod 2 weeks ago so I know how hard it is to figure this stuff out.
Tim

 

Thanks so much, this thing is so awesome! The mp3s come out 75% the size of when I did it with foobar2k & LAME if not smaller, and it could be a placebo effect, but I think they sound better too! Same version of LAME, I just moved its folder. It takes much longer, does it almost real time cause I set everything to best quality, but time I have a plenty of

Btw, these cases are sooo cool, it's actually the reason I got an iPod in the first place - got Milky Time

Malia

 

I am glad you liked it Malia. I read somewhere that EAC has the best audio copying. Plus the files are very small. I have also heard that EAC is great for copying scratched CDs because you can have it read the same section multiple times and it will go slower to get the best results.

BTW I am not sure if you like having album art but that is pretty easy to setup too. Just go into the options in iTunes and find the button that says automatically download album art. Then when you have your iPod plugged in just click the button in the iPod menu that says display album art.

Those cases look very cool. I got an iSkin case...at least I think that is what they called it. lol
Tim

 

Yeah they're iSkin.. they make different ones, but these ones I linked are designed by Simone Legno (Tokidoki), so they're super cool.

The cover art thing - you have to have an iTMS account to do it automatically, and I don't want to give them my info, and I can't make up fake credit card info that'll work. But you can put it in manually anyway, so it's only a little more work, but as a plus when you do a quick search, you see many different scans, and you can pick your favorite one.

The thing that sucks is, the art is stored inside the actual mp3 files, along with all the metainfo, so 1 picture x 14 songs = too much space. But oh well, the files with EAC + all the picture space = still less space than usual

Malia

P.S. I'm ripping a Metallica CD now... It'll look interesting in that fuzzy cute case!

 

LOL yeah I forgot about registering. That does suck. I think they just did that so hopefully you would get sucked in a buy songs through iTunes. You could always use a deactivated card I think...but I haven't tried it myself. I just adjusted the settings so it isn't so simple to purchase music. That way I won't accidentally buy a song (or my siblings).

Have you put movies on your iPod? I was messing around with it this weekend and I found this program called Videora. It did a nice job converting.
Tim

 

Yeah I'm sure that's the reason. And it's a pretty clever reason except.... APPLE INSISTS THAT THE PURPOSE OF ITMS IS TO ADD VALUE TO THE IPOD, NOT TO MAKE MONEY! BS!! Anyway allofmp3 kicks iTMS's butt. If I was really lazy, I could get a friend's iTMS account to put in, but not getting an account is my way of shaking a fist at Apple.

I haven't tried the movie thing yet, but I'll probably just get the Slysoft program. I got AnyDVD, CloneDVD2, CloneCD, and Virtual CloneDrive (free) and I like them, AND they are really cute, so it makes sense. I SO love it how CloneDVD (actually made by Elby not by Slysoft), when you're copying the DVD, there's a sheep eating popcorn as the movie stills go by! They also have a $5 sale now. You also get a discount if you buy more than 1 program at a time, but I already have everything else so.. it'll have to be $34 for me (but only $18 if you buy more than one license!!) There's a 14-day trial, so we'll see.

Malia

P.S. CloneCD actually CAN clone DVDs, as well as some other types of disks. The difference between CloneCD and CloneDVD2 is that CloneDVD2 is a transcoder and CloneCD is not. This means that with CloneDVD2, you can choose what you want to include in the final DVD and what to exclude, but with CloneCD, you can't. Also, it means that if you're copying a DL DVD, then with CloneDVD2, the layer break will always be in a different place, but with CloneCD, it will be the same as the original. So, it's good to have both