iPod iPod with multiple computers

[iBookG4user]

I am going to get an iPod Video either tomorrow or Friday and want to use it with both my computers. I have an intel iMac which has the fastest connection to the net and I download all my podcasts and vidcasts on it. I also have my iBook G4 which has all my movies and such encoded for iPod, along with some songs that I download. The iBook only has a 60GB hard drive so I'd like to delete some of the stuff after I put it on the iPod and have it get the stuff from the iMac. Also, the iBook is my main computer as wierd as it sounds so I don't want to move any of the movies from the iBook onto the iMac. Is there any way of making this work?

 

[mad jew]

You can set the iPod to manually sync with your libraries but will then be missing out on one of the greatest features of the iPod - it's ease-of-use. Could you put everything from the iBook onto the iMac and just have the single library to sync with the iPod?

 

[iBookG4user]

No I can't put everything on the iMac because that is my parents computer and they are complaining enough about what I have on there already. Everything other than the podcasts and vidcasts I have on my iBook. Would an iPod manager work for me?

 

[mad jew]

Fair enough. I don't have any experience with iPod managers but it's still relatively easy to manually manage all your music. It just makes the iPod act like one big playlist.

 

[iBookG4user]

I've also heard that you can set the iPod to be used as a hard drive. Would this let me drag the videos/music into the iPod without having to use iTunes on either computer? I guess I just want it to work like my PSP, where you plug it into the computer and it gives you a music folder and a videos folder.

 

[mad jew]

You'll still need to use iTunes if you want to watch the videos or hear the music but you can nevertheless use the iPod as an external drive for backups etc.

 

[wmmk]

I've also heard that you can set the iPod to be used as a hard drive. Would this let me drag the videos/music into the iPod without having to use iTunes on either computer? I guess I just want it to work like my PSP, where you plug it into the computer and it gives you a music folder and a videos folder.

you could just drag the songs to the iPod, but then, they'd be unplayable.

 

[iBookG4user]

I meant could I set the iPod as a hard drive so I could drag and drop the videos/music into the iPod. Because currently iTunes doesn't know about the videos so that it wouldn't copy them into it's library and take up even more space.

 

[mad jew]

Sorry, but you'll have to get the videos into iTunes before you'll be able to transfer them to the iPod and subsequently watch them on the iPod.

 

[wmmk]

Sorry, but you'll have to get the videos into iTunes before you'll be able to transfer them to the iPod and subsequently watch them on the iPod.

Unless you set finder to show hidden folders through terminal hackery and find the folder where your files reside.

 

[gekko513]

Unless you set finder to show hidden folders through terminal hackery and find the folder where your files reside.

That won't help with getting playable files onto the iPod, it only helps with getting files off the iPod. Playable music/movies need to be in the index file that iTunes generates, unless I've gotten this all wrong.

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, so you'd have to hack the index file which I'm pretty sure is written in binary... It could be fun.