I REALLY want to get one, BUT...

Originally posted by ironchef9000
I'm a windows user, with the g.3 30gig being my first time using an ipod.

Using ephpod, musicmatch as a ripper, I have only encountered one problem:
-My ipod wouldn't play a file of Flock of seagulls - I ran, so I had to find a better copy of it.

Its easy as pie to use, apparently a breeze on mac, but its no problem for windows users.

Would you mind if I asked what your setup is? FireWire? If so, onboard or expansion (which card?)

Are you using ephpod as a preference or because MusicMatch gave you trouble?

- r

You will find people are more likely to complain than post something like "Yes this works great!!", keep this in mind..

Don't bother with the Amazon reviews--I read them before I bought mine too, and after purchasing one, it became fairly obvious relatively quickly that the majority of the people complaining simply didn't take the time to figure out how the device worked, or had a bad firewire, or were simply having a bad day...

If you use these forums as a resource, you will not have any major difficulties--the ipod does admittedly work a little smoother with the macs, but it's not THAT big of a difference, especially with the gen3's...With each firmware release, and each new gen ipod, the differences become less and less--case in point, they don't even have different versions of the ipod (winpod vs macpod) anymore, and the software problems (ie mmjb) can easily be gotten around with third party applications, some of which work better than itunes, IMHO. And don't forget, itunes for windows will be out in the foreseeable future.

Originally posted by Hephador
rslifka,
I know how you feel. I also read the reviews on Amazon, but I take all negative user reviews anywhere with a grain of salt because of the tendency for people to complain more often (and louder) than to praise something. I did a lot of reading around on lots of sites for critic reviews, user reviews, technical issues, etc and concluded that the Windows issues with the new generation of iPods are probably minor. So I took the plunge and picked up a sealed 30GB off eBay. It should arrive Wednesday or Thursday and I am confident that my bigger risk is the unit being defective out of the box as opposed to any problems with Windows. I'll drop a note here next week to let you know how things go if you like. This will be my first iPod by the way.

Thanks a lot! I would really appreciate that. My email is rslifka@sbcglobal.net BTW.

I read these posts and I think, "hey, maybe it's not so bad" but then a featured article on ipodlounge.com is: http://www.ipodlounge.com/articles_more.php?id=401_0_8_0_M and the guy basically doesn't know how/why his iPod started working in Windows. However, in the comments, there are a few people who have no problems...

<sigh> <again> :)

- rob

Originally posted by rslifka
Would you mind if I asked what your setup is? FireWire? If so, onboard or expansion (which card?)

Are you using ephpod as a preference or because MusicMatch gave you trouble?

- r

I have a homebuilt PC (Athlon XP 1800+), 512 MB DDRRAM, WinXP Home, etc...

...I bought a Maxtor 2-port 6-pin firewire card from CDW for $30, installed it in an open PCI slot, installed immediately, runs/charges fine through it... My speeds are alittle slow (when I first loaded my 30 gig, it transferred at about 4.6 mb/s, got all my music on in 90 minutes, was not aproblem).

I avoided musicmatch immediately because of the user complaints... Everybopdy loved ephpod, hated musicmatch, so I decided to just follow the ephpod use guideline on the ephpod board.

However, I still wanted a good ripping prog, and the freeware I had been using wasn't doing the job, so I installed musicmatch w/o installing the ipod plugin, so I have the best of both worlds, I love it.

Originally posted by ironchef9000

However, I still wanted a good ripping prog, and the freeware I had been using wasn't doing the job, so I installed musicmatch w/o installing the ipod plugin, so I have the best of both worlds, I love it.

You like rippinng and encoding with MusicMatch better than EAC/LAME? Did you try EAC/LAME? It's not only the best freeware ripping and enoding combo it's may also be THE best ripping and encoding combo period.

[edit] Granted EAC/LAME is a lot slower than MM but the quality is top notch.

Just my 2cents.

Thanks for the replies everyone! Now that I think back, no MP3 player I've owned has worked seamlessly with Windows, so I shouldn't expect anything more/less with the iPod I suppose.

Also, the fact that iTunes will be out later this year for Windows users should solve a lot of problems!

Take care,

Rob

My 15GB, purchased about 3 weeks ago was my first Apple product of any kind. After I dumped MMJB and loaded Ephpod, I never looked back.

I already owned EZ CD Creator 6, which I use for ripping.

Totally trouble free for me. My PC is a VPR Matrix (Best Buy house brand), with built-in firewire capability. Never had a problem with that, either.

Cheers

You're not taking a risk... the ipod is the best mp3 player available for both mac and windows. no other player even comes close.
I know you'll be very happy with it - don't wait anylonger.

You don't have to buy mc9, try Ephpod first (it's free), and if you don't like it then you can buy mc9... I'm satisfied with Ephpod (at my win2000 computer i had some - minor - problems with it, but i now use my winxp computer and it runs PERFECT)