bareyb
Active Member
As dsm363 said, not anymore. They are DRM free. You can copy and play as often as you like.
A bunch of media/music questions as I (impatiently) wait for delivery....
- Thread starter Argelius
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- Model S User Interface
This is correct. It will even automatically convert your songs to Apple Lossless if you have iTunes Match. However, the Model S won't play Apple Lossless so you have to convert them to FLAC. That's how I did it.
I think I have one song that I actually purchased from iTunes, the rest are loaded into iTunes from CDs. This probably says more about iTunes not selling anything that I have on CD than it does about me not purchasing from iTunes. Converting them is no big deal. You just point the conversion program to the iTunes directory and let it run. It's not like you have to be there to do anything other than start the conversion program. And there's no monthly fee like there is on the over-the-air services.
bareyb
Active Member
What conversion program? Can you do that from iTunes or do you have to download a 3rd party App?
You need an App. The one I use is called Max. I'm sure there are others, it just happened to be the first one I found.
Merrill
Merrill
So if I rip my CDs into iTunes on Wav or mp3 or anything else that is available from iTunes, then convert to FLAC via max, do I improve the sound, or is the best I will get is the original rip from iTunes.
You would have to rip in apple lossless then convert to FLAC with another program.
Right, you select Apple Lossless when importing CDs into iTunes, and then use another program to convert to FLAC.
Very informative thread. I'm sort of dismayed, though (but, obviously, remain beyond excited about myupcoming purchase.
i researched everything about the Model S...but never imagined I wouldn't be able to use my iPod via USB. Now I'm learning that even transferring my iTunes library to a flash drive won't work because the car won't play all the Apple tunes I've purchased (and those I originally ripped from CDs and subsequently used iTunes Match to upgrade to their lossless format).
So I guess BlueTooth is the only way to use my existing iTunes music (without going through some FLAC conversion of over 5000 songs?
i researched everything about the Model S...but never imagined I wouldn't be able to use my iPod via USB. Now I'm learning that even transferring my iTunes library to a flash drive won't work because the car won't play all the Apple tunes I've purchased (and those I originally ripped from CDs and subsequently used iTunes Match to upgrade to their lossless format).
So I guess BlueTooth is the only way to use my existing iTunes music (without going through some FLAC conversion of over 5000 songs?
I just thought I'd add that I've generally had no issues with slacker playing songs, no skipping or delay. Once or twice I've been in low signal strength areas and had skipping (one bar shown on dash).
spleen
Active Member
Plus one on this. Slacker has been nearly 100% reliable in operation for me though admittedly the track lists are somewhat repetitive (then again, what pop radio station isn't?).
OP - if you have a smartphone, just stream through Bluetooth whatever audio source that you want to use. If you have an iPhone, you can stream your entire music library from there including your old tracks with DRM. But you said that you have iTunes Match, so you shouldn't have any more DRM tracks, right? Because all of those tracks should have matched to iTunes Plus format and they should all be DRM free so once again, you should be able to play them from any device ...
I concur that FLAC lossless gives the best quality sound on Model S. It is definitely possible for anyone with a moderately good ear to tell the difference between a lossless source and a lossy source like Slacker in an A - B test.
Great discussion, all. I'm sure I'll be fine with Bluetooth streaming from my iPod Touch, where I currently store my "mobile" music (rather than my iPhone). I'm still just so shocked that smartphone via USB is totally unsupported. Just seems like such an incredibly odd omission given the capabilities of that big, enormous touchscreen...
It costs only $25 to get 64GB on USB thumb drive storage and $900 for the iPhone. You can also easily update the thumb drive at any point without getting a new phone. It might be a little less convenient but once you have it set up it works well.
I'm totally game. Can someone post a picture of what the touchscreen looks like when you've got a USB drive attached?
I'm not at my car but you select 'devices' I think just like your bluetooth connected phone and it will say something like 'USB1'. You then can pick by Artist, Album, song....etc.
bareyb
Active Member
Am I correct that direct USB Thumb Drive drive (plugged into the USB port on the car) doesn't support Playlists?
Work around: I only have two playlists that I use in iTunes. Dubstep and Everything else. I'll probably just put my Dubstep playlist on one thumb drive and my "everything else" on another thumb drive. Not perfect, but at least I can PLAY stuff from USB. My current vehicle doesn't have ANYTHING except FM Radio, so this is still a big jump up for me. If the USB only included PLAYLISTS that would be good enough for me. For now...
Work around: I only have two playlists that I use in iTunes. Dubstep and Everything else. I'll probably just put my Dubstep playlist on one thumb drive and my "everything else" on another thumb drive. Not perfect, but at least I can PLAY stuff from USB. My current vehicle doesn't have ANYTHING except FM Radio, so this is still a big jump up for me. If the USB only included PLAYLISTS that would be good enough for me. For now...
It doesn't support playlists yet but may some day. You can put them in folders I think though. If you don't have a ton of songs in your play list you can manually do it with 'favorites' but it puts them in alphabetical order and not the order you want. Still very basic controls so needs to improve.
