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pple Component AV Cable, the Apple Composite AV Cable, or the Apple AV Connection Kit. Other similar RCA-type cables might not work,"

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Why the incompatibility issues? $$$$$$

Why can't they just come out and say "Our high prices aren't good enough. We want more. We want to find more ways to take your money and squeeze out the competition." Because now, they are just insulting our intelligence.

just another way to make more money.

then don't buy it!

I am one of those furious customers that found out I can't use my Zeon or the cables I bought (from Apple) for my Photo and Video iPods). I have purchased each generation iPod from the beginning but no more. These greedy SOBs have soaked their last dollar from me and I hope all you others out there will take heed.

The new "classic" is slower and performs poorer. It might have more storage but its performance is downgraded. Video leans to the green side, sound has a mustier quality, and overall performance is lacking. Plus, you can't use third party video add-ons. I'm going to get my money back!

Shrink, check out the new MP4 players from China. They have probably been making Apple stuff for years. Now they have cut out the middle man. Google 8 GB nano or maybe 8 GB mp4. There are several models with the same features. I figure one company is making the chip set and other companies are making the players. They may very well be better than the ipods. They are way cheap enough. They are just starting to surface. I think Apple saw them coming and dropped their prices. I doubt if they are playing the 'how much money can we suck from these fools' game. I wouldn't use itunes either. That application is not on the up and up. For instance, if your ipod breaks and you buy an new one you also have to buy new tunes as well. See they get you coming and going! I could go on and on. Third party software is just sooooooo much better. Google Media Monkey. They even have a free version.

Originally posted by Mez:

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For instance, if your ipod breaks and you buy an new one you also have to buy new tunes as well.

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More dog dung!

sheri1983, in my opinion itunes is for dummies.

I do not have first hand experience with the lost ipod. That was a complaint from a friend of mine. I do believe the lost tunes were DRMed. Maybe my friend did not know what she was doing.

I am not an expert on itunes because I scrapped my itunes a few months after I installed it. I could not tolerate how slow it was. I am sure I could have gotten used to it and muddle through but I started shopping instead. I figure going a different way is a sign of intelligence not a weakness. All the third party players were so nice in comparison with itunes I decided to dump the junk for something nice. All the third party software I looked at ran circles around itunes in every way assuming you had preferences. If you wanted the software to make all your decisions for you maybe itunes is right for you. Maybe if you use a Apple computer to run itunes it runs much faster than on a PC.

I can't say for sure what happens if you lose your ipod. I can say itunes is as slow as 'molasses in January'. I find the interface stupid, clumsy and unintuitive. I do know why it takes so long to sync a large batch of tunes. itunes converts the tunes to its own format before loading them on the ipod. Because the Apple encoder is less sophisticated (Apple uses a constant bit rate which is the least efficient of all compressions) than the one I use (variable bit rate the most efficient of all the compressions) so the files lose quality and increase in size. Apple is too arrogant to leave the files as they were. That really ticks me off. The ipod plays the mp3s fine so why does it convert the files to a different format. I figure only Apple zombies who love anything they do would prefer their tunes to spend time converting their tunes so they can lose quality and gain file size for no reason at all.

Apparently, all my friends are also morons because they have also dropped itunes after trying other software. They were amazed at the difference the speed and intelligence of the interface.

I just get so tired of having the software giants like Microsoft and Apple pushing consumers around as if we are cattle with no rights and no minds. I want to be treated as a valued customer not a cow. I doubt if I am the only one that feels this way.

I look forward to hear how stupid I am!

mez, I think you are right on. Sherry 1983 was out of line on her attack. I've been a MusicMatch fan for years but with the iPod, I learned to use iTunes to my satisfaction. Several features (like equalizing volume) slows it down but overall, for a free program, not really that bad.

However, the new iPod classic is sooooooo slow. Sometimes you might think it froze (as iPods tend to do) but is is actually accessing. Too bad a good product us been updated to terrible.

can anyone make a custom firmware update to possibly disable the chip/update?

After seeing so other comes with the player audio management I think I was a bit harsh with itunes. The Zune software makes everything look good. What make the Zune soooo bad is none of the 3rd party software works with it.

I have been using Media Monkey and it is so good I have not been tempted to look at MusicMatch which I suspect is another great piece of software. It uses good encoders so I assume it must be great and I believe it is an older product than Media Monkey (MM). The new MM which is still in beta uses a SQL engine for the backend instead of Access. MM is way faster than itunes but the new one is way faster still. Apparently the slowness was the backrnd. Some of the slowness with itunes is it is doing things you might not approve of.

My fiend was able to recover her tunes eventually so it is not impossible just not obvious.