tunequest

Remix albums and DJ albums have always proved a challenge to tag in a useful and logical manner because of how they differ from the traditional song-artist-album tagging model. Like compilations, remix albums typically include songs by a variety of artists and musicians. But they are released under the banner of a single artist and it is that artist that I associate that album with. For ...

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OK... CD and vinyl album covers generally come in the shape of a square. The iPod's screen is a 4:3 rectangle. It makes sense that when displaying album art at full screen, the display would be limited to the short edge of the display, thus the white borders on the left and right sides. So my question is, why, when I have album art that is not square, ...

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This instructional is nearly two months late. Sorry folks. I know you've been dying to find out the quick and dirty way to add acceleration to your podcast listening. Onward, then. A note before we begin, these instructions are for Mac users only, as they require the use of an AppleScript to modify audio files from within iTunes. Windows folks, however, can try a variation on this ...

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Though sold and marketed as a portable device, I've recently been intrigued by Philips' new DCP850 DVD player with integrated iPod dock. It boasts support for standard DVD, DVD+/-R(W), VCDs, DivX files, MPEG-4 files, compact discs, MP3s and photos. It also features an SD/MMC card reader for playing movies and photos via a memory card. The iPod dock, of course, charges the iPod and allows access ...

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When it comes to digital video, I'm no novice. Several years ago, I made my own VCDs and, as the technology developed, moved to the DivX/XviD codec. I also already own a Philips DVP642 DVD player, which can play DivX/XviD-flavored AVI files in addition to standard DVDs. In fact, I have a much-neglected site dedicated to Mac users who own the DVP642. The conundrum is that, out ...

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So the much-anticipated Apple TV has shipped and, of course, the extreme early adopters are having a field day tearing the thing apart to find out what it can do. Some clever folks have already been able to install larger hard drives, more video codecs, and even the full version of Mac OS X, rendering what Cult of Mac calls a "Mac Nano." To be sure, it ...

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Yesterday, I wrote a detailed article about the new formula I'm using to quantify the overall quality of albums in my iTunes library. It's been working for me, but I realized that everyone rates their music differently. Webomatica, for example, explains in the comments that his song ratings are relative to other songs by the same artist. So I'd like to explain the thought process that goes ...

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When it comes to my iTunes library, I'm a regular statistics nut. Sure, my library exists primarily for my own enjoyment, but it contains so much organically-compiled data about my habits and tastes that I can't help but want to take a look at it and find out what the data says about my interests. But for a while now, I've struggled to quantify, tabulate and analyze ...

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I established in the previous article that with all the interesting content out there, it can be quite daunting to listen to all those great podcasts. The ease with which iTunes lets you discover, subscribe to and manage podcasts can quickly lead to an overwhelming number of episodes and timespan to get through. "Podcast Overload" is a very real possibility. I also noted in that article that ...

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