Lorikeet and iBook

Quicktime & other video

Eye TV & Home Entertainment

Front Row

Converting to Apple TV

Apple TV is a great format for home entertainment systems. It works well with Front Row. Quality is almost as good as DVD and file sizes can be much smaller. Apple TV videos will play on any Mac with the latest Quicktime, as well as Apple TV hardware (of course).
  • Use Elgato Turbo 264 USB "dongle" to create Apple TV files from unencrypterd VIDEO_TS folders or from any Quicktime-readable file. Queue the files up to do the conversions overnight. Go to Turbo264 Preferences to change the default location for saving files (they are named automatically).

Apparently iTunes keeps its playlist information in one XML file (<home>/Music/iTunes/Itunes Music Library.xml). This  file is updated every time you use iTunes. As I found out, it can get corrupted and you lose your playlists. I have not found an easy way to recover them. What is worse, if you connect your iPod, it will probably automatically "update" with the corrupted list and you will lose all the songs on your iPod. DO NOT CONNECT YOUR iPOD IF THE iTUNES PLAYLIST IS CORRUPTED.

Frustratingly, all of your songs should still be in the Music folder, all neatly arranged by artist and album. iTunes does have the capability of "importing" all of these songs, including artist and album information but it seems you have to trick it into thinking it is the first time you are using iTunes. Here are the steps (might not apply to the latest iTunes!):
  1.  Rename Itunes Music Library.xml (eg Itunes Music Library.xml2)
  2. Rename <home>/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist  (this is iTunes preferences file - not playlist)
  3. Start iTunes and follow the new user prompts.
  4. Choose to search your hard disk and add tunes to your library - this takes several minutes
  5. From the iTunes  menu choose Edit / Show Browser
  6. The browser window shows album and artist information
  7. From the browser window, drag each album to the blank space under the playlists column - this creates a playlist of each album.
You will have to manually recreate custom playlists. It is possible that you will be able to skip steps2 and 3 and your music might still appear in your library and browser for steps 5 to 7.

You can try keeping a backup copy of the XML file but there is a chance it will not work due to changes to the folders. Apple advice on backing up iTunes music.

Another way is to use iPodrip to copy songs from the iPod back to iTunes [no longer seems to work with Leopard!]

You can really confuse an iPod user by turning Music "off".  Just go to Settings, select Main Menu then turn Music "Off". "Music" disappears from the main menu! Check this setting before assuming your iPod has become corrupted (it happended accidentally to me!). You can add or delete other Main Menu items using this  process.

If your internet connection is off and iTunes is taking ages to load go to iTunes Preferences / General and uncheck "Automatically check for iTunes Updates".

Contacts list.
iSync [2005] works "seamlessly" with the iPod BUT it sends all the contacts in your OS X Address Book. If you only want to send contacts from a particular group then follow these steps:
  1. Open Address Book
  2. Select (or create) the group that you want to transfer to the iPod
  3. Ctrl Click to display the item menu
  4. Select Export to vCards
  5. Fill out the save file form (give it a name such as ipod.vcf)
  6. Close Address Book
  7. Open the iPod in Finder (it should appear on the Desktop when you plug it in)
  8. Open the Contacts folder
  9. Drag/copy your newly created file to that folder
  10. If necessary, delete/trash the iSync.vcf file from the iPod folder (Note that the iPod does not work with groups. If there are any other vcf files in the folder then it simply combines them all into one long list. That list is limited to 1000 contacts.)
Hopefully Apple will automate these steps in the next update to iSync! 
While on Address Book - the latest version has a very annoying auto-fill feature when you add a new card. It tries to guess the field data from other cards, which is not much use for a new card. To turn it off your have to start MAIL and change its preferences (Address Book preferences don't list the feature)!
The 2005 iPod has an Audiobooks menu item in the Music list but no advice on how it is used. The following is based on helpful advice at Apple Discussions (thanks David Boroditsky )
Data storage
Data files can be easily stored on your iPod using Finder. Open the iPod icon in Finder. Create new folders in which to save your data. Drag/copy the data folders from your hard disk to the iPod. See Apple's How to use your iPod as a hard disk for storing files for more (I found the iPod and OS X (10.3) were automatically set up to do this). You cannot manage audio files in this way - you must use iTunes.

You might want to secure your data, since the iPod is so "portable". For example, see Podlock.

Using an iPod with multiple Macs.

You can play music and videos via iTunes directly from an iPod, if it is set to "manually manage music and videos". This checkbox is on the Summary tab in iTunes when the iPod is connected. If this item is unchecked then all music and video content on the iPod will be grayed out (ie cannot be played). Unfortunately, the setting is saved on the iPod and when you plug it into the main Mac (that is used to manage music and videos on the iPod) it will also be ste to manual. You will neded to uncheck the item to manage the music and videos (and check it again if you wish to play the items on the second Mac).
iPod USB driver for Windows 98 (includes Shuffle) - XP will see the iPod as a memory stick but Win98 needs drivers.

Portable hi-fi

IFire + iPodThe Griffin iFire gets its power from any Firewire port and sends high-quality audio to Apple Pro Speakers. Audio input is any headphone socket. The iPod AC adapter has a Firewire port for connection to the iPod. This port can be used to power the iFire instead. You can therefore set up a portable hi-fi system using an iPod, iFire and Apple Pro speakers, as shown in the picture.

Add  a Griffin ProSpeaker Breakout Cable (possibly a discontinued line) and you can use any unamplified speakers with your iFire, including car speakers.  After being disappointed with an FM transmitter (see below) for use in the car I decided to do just that, using a Griffin Powerpod to power the iFire instead of the iPod. I now have a pair of mono headphone sockets in the glovebox that disconnect the radio and connect the iFire to each of the speakers in the car door. The sound quality is excellent. Note that you need to keep the left and right speaker cables totally independent so cannot use a stereo socket with common earth.

Other ways to send iPod music to your car's hi-fi using an FM transmitter such as:
New for 2007: LaCie Firewire Speakers. Oct 08: Unfortunately the new Macbook does not have a Firewire port!

iPod links: