Looking at buying a Sanza Fuse. I used to have an Ipod, but it broke. I have all of my songs on Itunes. How do I download all my songs to a Sanza Fuse if I buy one?? Is the Sanza Fuse compatible to Itunes or is that just for Apple products??
thanks
If you download songs from IPOD for free it will play and make sure it is an MP3 file, if not no worryy theres a way to convert your songs to MP3, and base on experince because I have both Fuze is much user friendly device as I can say.
Hope this helps. :wink:
iTunes downloads are .m4a files, the format for the iPod, or m4p files, copy-protected m4a files.
The Fuze will need mp3 files. It’s easy. In iTunes, open your music library, highlight the album or files you want–or all of your files, though I suggest doing an album or a few albums at a time–and click Create mp3 Version.
That will double the amount of music stored wherever you have it stored with iTunes. So you will need some hard-drive space.
The Fuze has better sound quality than iPod, expandable memory–you can put microSD cards in the slot–and things like FM radio and voice recording. I think it’s a better gadget all around.
However, it does not have software as perfectly mated to it as iTunes is with iPod. It’s supposed to work seamlessly with Windows Media Player, and for some people it does, but other people get strange results with WMP.
You can use iTunes with the Fuze up to a point–but you can’t sync with iTunes, since Apple doesn’t want its software to work fully with other mp3 players. To use iTunes with the Fuze, you need to change iTunes default settings and options to rip CDs (if you have any) to mp3 rather than Apple’s AAC or m4a format. And you can’t sync to the Fuze via iTunes.
You’ll have to learn to use a different piece of software to sync your music, and you may have to learn a few tricks. Other than that, as far as I am concerned the Fuze is a definite step up, and for less $$.
Why don’t you try some of the other software before you buy a Fuze. Try Windows Media Player, Media Monkey or Winamp, and see how you like them. Once you break the iTunes habit, it’s not bad.
And if you don’t care about synching, the great thing about the Fuze is that it works in MSC mode–that is, you can use it just like any other disk drive. That means you can just drag-and-drop a folder full of mp3s onto the unit, and play them. No other software necessary. You can connect the Fuze to anybody’s computer and just drag the music onto it. No authorization, sync, or any other baloney. MSC is the standard, generic USB connection for all operating systems: PC, Mac, Linux.
Using the Fuze is a different mindset than the iTunes/iPod combination. But it’s very straightforward: just a two or three-step process. Rip a CD (if it’s a CD) into mp3 files, or get an album of mp3s. Make sure the ID3 tags (where the unit gets information like Album, Artist, etc.) are Fuze-compatible with the great free program mp3tag.(iTunes automatically makes tags the iPod likes.) Drag the album onto the unit. Done.
Message Edited by Black-Rectangle on 08-11-2009 05:49 PM
AAC format, like wma or mp3, is a lossy compression format. Normally that’s not a problem. At a high enough bit rate most people can’t tell the difference. However, my experience with converting from one lossy compression format to another is that the results aren’t pretty. In essence, you are compressing an already compressed file. So you are losing information twice, with a multiplier factor.
That is true. Lossy to lossy equals worse sound quality. But Apple builds a walled garden with .aac and .mp4. To escape requires some sacrifices.
Agreed - it’s better to accept some quality loss than to throw everthing away. I just remember I had a similar thing with Sonys’ minidisk. I two mobile recorder/players and still have a Sony shelf stereo with a minidisk. I really loved them all and still do. But Sony like Apple had it’s own comression (Atrac or something like that). When I wanted to move to the mp3 world I was faced with the same choice. Fortunately all my minidisk stuff came off my own CD’s and I had the option of simply ripping the CD’s to mp3. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d bought ATRAC songs and had to convert.
I’ve also got a lot of songs from Napster - bought outright, not downloaded subsription music. Napster uses wma, at least here in Canada. I have a CD player in my car that plays mp3 but not wma. I converted them to mp3 and that’s where my comment about the results not being pretty comes from. Fortunately the Fuze plays both formats and conversion isn’t necessary any more.
@black_rectangle wrote:
iTunes downloads are .m4a files, the format for the iPod, or m4p files, copy-protected m4a files.
The Fuze will need mp3 files. It’s easy. In iTunes, open your music library, highlight the album or files you want–or all of your files, though I suggest doing an album or a few albums at a time–and click Create mp3 Version.
…and if its an .m4p file, you will get something like this:
You will have to burn them to a CD, then re-rip it with iTunes to MP3. Its an extremly time-consuming process. If you bought much music on iTunes prior to April, its most likely in .m4p format.
So you have a few choices: give up on the music, go through this process, or keep buying iPods forever (which is what the “protection” was there for in the first place).
I wrote a pretty long response to someone wanting to do this awhile back. If you’re interested in making the switch, take a look: link.
If its something you ripped from CDs or something you’ve bought recently, it should be easy to convert.
