Some ways in which PC iTunes one-ups Mac iTunes

Hi,

I'm a long time ipod/itunes user and recent macbook purchaser. I've come across a few ways that PC iTunes seems to have a one-up on Mac iTunes and was curious as to people's opinions.

1. I've stumbled across a very weird nit that I described in another thread: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49265. On my PC, I would make "back ups" of individual songs and move them to an external HD very easily. I'd just copy the files and then move the copies to the external HD. With the Mac, I can't move the originals or the copies to an external HD because those files are located in the "Music" folder.

2. I have created some very complicated smart playlists (some involving over 20 rules). On the PC, the smart playlist window would scroll up and down so I could view all the rules. On the Mac, the scroll window doesn't come up. Hence, you're the number of rules you can build into a smart playlist is confined to the vertical height of your screen. I don't have a screen shot of this at the moment. I'll try to post one later.

3. When watching video files on the PC, if I X'd the stand alone window, the video would then continue to play in the lower left window of the itunes pane (video and sound). On mac, if you X the stand alone window, the audio keeps playing, but the lower left window just displays the "album art" for the video.

4. This one probably only applies to me, but I used to "trick" my PC iTunes into thinking one music file was another. I would often run into this scenario. I have a song that I've had for years and listened to many times. I then get a higher bit rate (better) quality version of that song. I could manipulate the location of the files in such a way that iTunes would replace the old version of the song with the new one, but retain the "Date Added", playcount, etc. So far I haven't figured out how to do this on the Mac.

What do you think?

1 - Tell iTunes not to put the music in the music folder and then move it wherever you want. My music is spread across 6 external drives with no problems.

3- Not on mine it doesn't. If I close the Window the Video plays in the lower left corner of iTunes.

4- I do this all the time. The file simply has to have the same name and be in the same location.

Baggss,

On #1, perhaps I'll try unchecking the "Keep iTunes organized" momentarily. Maybe at that point I can move the files.

On #3, do you know if there's a setting that I'm missing that allows the video to continue playing in the lower left?

Nice tip on #4. Stupid PC user, I hadn't thought of that.

3. I was unable to locate a setting which would allow you to do this, i would trash your com.apple.iTunes.plist file (you can find it with a spot light search) and then restart itunes and see if that resets the prefferences to allow you do do this..

johnsonl33 said:

On #3, do you know if there's a setting that I'm missing that allows the video to continue playing in the lower left?

Click to expand...

Yes:

iTUNES > PREFS > GENERAL > PLAY VIDEOS: In the Main Window.

I would note that Mac iTunes, at least on my G5, trumps Windows iTunes BIG TIME in the speed department. It loads and runs like greased lightening on my Mac vs. the same thing on my PC. By the way, the two machines (the Mac and the PC) are of comparable CPU speed, so this is a Mac specific advantage, not a reflection of simply running it on a faster machine.

Agreed

Mac57,

I'm totally with you. I'm really enjoying "the switch" so far. Running iTunes on the Mac just feels right. It is much faster. I remember I used to edit track info for a certain track and somtimes it would take 10-15 seconds to process that change (I'm guessing this time was spent opening and editing the .itl or .xml file). The Mac does this in no time.

I found myself frustrated last night and realized I felt there were a few things I was used to on the PC iTunes that I couldn't quite seem to be able to do on the Mac.

Looks like I just wasn't thinking like a Mac user yet.

Now if I can only figure out how to effectively use the automator and figure out this quicksilver program.

The BIG thing that Mac iTunes has over PC iTunes is Applescripts. So many available and fairly easy to make yourself, you can automate nearly anything in iTunes, or on in OSX itself.

Ok, I tried changing my library to not "keep music organized" and the same problem persists.

Please see a visual description of the problem here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukejohnson/347171985/

From what I can see the My Music folder on your ext HD won't let you modify or add anything to it, is that correct johnson133?

Can you add anything from your Mac to that or any folders on the ext HD at all?

I'm thinking that seems wierd, do you have complete ownership of the folder My Music on the ext?

I believe I figured it out.

See this pic: http://flickr.com/photos/lukejohnson/347217117/

I can only read from this external HD.

Any idea on how I can get this bad boy so I can write to it?

-Luke

Just change the ownership permissions. Click on the Details arrow under Ownership & Permissions, and do it there. You will need to have admin privvies.

whats the format of the external drive if its ntfs (that might be slightly wrong but it begins with n) then mac cant write to it, you will have to reformat it as far as i know. either in fat32 or the specific mac format.

Yep, that's it. The picture in the "Solved" link shows the drive as NTFS. OSX can not write to NTFS drives.

Hey all,

Firstly thanks very much for all your help. Turns out the problem was with the external HD the whole time. It was NTFS and as I result I didn't have permission (by default) to write to it.

Secondly I ended up using my iPod in disc mode to move the songs I wanted to move. Freed up about 10 gigs on the MacBook.

Thanks to all.

-Luke