Ipod Decode.......help

[ToraToraTora]

Ok here's what I want to do. I have an ipod and I want to move the music to a normal PC file structure into the playlist I have on it. I can plug it in and see the music files but they are in the Ipod format of ABCD.MP3 etc. Now there are many programs out there that will read this but they mostly want you to have I tunes. I do not want I tunes. I installed de-itunify and that sort of did what I want but I could could not get it to store my files as they are in playlists onto my PC it just stored them in one folder in an odd location. Can anyone recommend a useful program? thanks

[Tuvok]

MP3 is a standard music format.

Playlists are just a list - you could make a playlist that has tune 1 from artist or cd 1, then you could also add tune 99 from artist/cd 7 etc.

If your tunes have their mp3 tags set then all of cd x would appear as cd x, all of cd y would appear as cd y etc.

Are you wanting to put the music onto the pc or the ipod?

If its the ipod, then you need itunes - and there is an option within itunes to organise the itunes library. You can also edit mp3 tags in itunes.

[Kidas]

Thre are a number of issues with moving music/audio files out of iTunes into other formats.

The first is simply technical. iTunes natively stores music in .aac format, as opposed to .mp3.

It's easy enough to convert each file separately, or download new codecs, but you may lose the album structure and other metadata, for example. Again, easy enough to fix, but you need to be aware.

The second issue is more serious. Apple is very keen on Digital Rights Management (DRM), as is Microsoft.

You may well find that in moving the files across, you lose your DRM authorisations, so the music simply will not play on the new device. The highest risk there is if you have bought music through the iTunes store.

There are ways around this, but you may need a walk-through.