# iTunes and non Apple mp3 players.



## shazbat (Feb 7, 2005)

Can you use non Apple mp3 players with iTunes 4.7.1. (G4)


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

Not really... they won't show up like an iPod under your playlists, but you can drag 'n' drop songs from your iTunes window over to your player manually.. and all the iPod-based options under iTunes are obviously disabled since you don't have an iPod. No auto-syncing, etc.


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## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

It's funy, when iTunes 1.0 was announced one of the features was that it worked with Rio and Creative players. Funny how the success of the iPod made that feature go away?


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## RicktheChemist (Jul 18, 2001)

.


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## capitalK (Oct 21, 2003)

Hey, whaddaya know? Good link, rtc. I didn't realize that some MP3 players were still supported.


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

I haven't checked since my latest update, but up until now my old Rio 500 has worked just fine. As mentioned above no synch capabilities but drag and drop works just fine for 64MB internal and 128MB on memory card.


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## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

I havent used my RIO in a couple of years (since I got my ipod), but it used to work ok. I'll have to dig it out of my drawer and give it a try.


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## shazbat (Feb 7, 2005)

*Thanks.*

Thanks for the quick and helpful info.

One further question, Does iTunes convert the songs from aac to mp3, or do I have to convert my whole music collection to mp3.(loss of quality and all that)


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

If the songs are in AAC they won't work. iTunes doesn't convert on the fly. I would leave them in AAC and only convert them when you want to load into the mp3 player. Convert, load, delete. It should be quite fast. Converting the files creates a copy in the new format so you get to keep the AAC files as well.

To convert, go to preferences and set import options to mp3. Close preferences and go back to the library. Select the songs you want and from the "Advanced" menu, select "Convert selection to mp3".


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## elmer (Dec 19, 2002)

My Rio Chiba works fine. It comes with a plug-in which you must install to have it work with iTunes. When you attach the Rio to the USB port, it shows up as a playlist in iTunes with it's own icon. The only problem I found is that while you are transferring songs you cannot do anything else in iTunes.


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## gordguide (Jan 13, 2001)

AAC should work fine if the player supports that format. It is NOT an Apple format; it's MPEG4.

The songs from the iTunes Music Store are encoded with FairPlay which IS an Apple format. But AAC without FairPlay is supported by any number of non-Apple devices.


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## Macified (Sep 18, 2003)

I took the simple route and said AAC won't work because most players don't specifically support this format. If you are fortunate enough to have on that does, it will work for you.


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## shazbat (Feb 7, 2005)

*once again...*

Thank you again for the prompt and helpful info.


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## Jason H (Feb 1, 2004)

*generic flash memory mp3 players*

How is iTunes when it comes to memory stick mp3 players? By this I mean players similar to the iPod Shuffle.

Anyone have any feedback?


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