I'm fit to be tied after 15 years of using Windows. My new "ultimate" Dell Windows XP Pro system is a nightmare of gremlin problems, OS reinstalls, and reboots. Now I'm seriously contemplating switching to the sexy new 17-inch iMac. What will the consequences be insofar as my ability to synchronize with the Empeg?

I have heard of jEmplode, but haven't actually used it. A lot of "alternate version" apps have limitations that their Windows counterparts don't have; in other words, the feature set is seldom a 1:1 comparison. What gotchas do I need to know about as far as jEmplode is concerned versus the Windows Emplode? Trade-offs and other issues are of special interest to me. Would I be able to use Virtual PC to run the Windows Emplode software? Not sure if Virtual PC would enable software-to-USB communication.

What about ripping? Are there any EAC-quality rippers for the Mac? Capability to use LAME with iTunes?

Although a bit off-topic, I wouldn't mind hearing (perhaps offline by email) from anyone else who's made the transition. I think a computer should be an appliance that you just plug it and forget, like a fridge. There's no rebooting a fridge or toaster every week. Time to make the switch to something that just works. Wish me luck. :-)

My new "ultimate" Dell Windows XP Pro system is a nightmare of gremlin problems, OS reinstalls, and reboots.

That's what happens when you buy Dell. Try building your own system.

I have had significant problems with jEmplode of late, but that's under Linux. Maybe it'll work better under MacOS. And I'm pretty sure that emplode will run fine under VirtualPC, but I'm not sure on the USB front. I'll check all of those in the next few for you (I need to know myself anyway, and this is jus tthe impetus I need.)

There's no EAC-quality ripper with MacOS, but, unless you've got badly scratched CDs, it probably doesn't make a lot of difference. You can use LAME with iTunes, supposedly, but folks have claimed that iTunes built-in encoder is just as good. LAME is much slower, too. Probably due to the lack of assembler-optimized code.

I currently have Windows 2000, MacOS X, Linux, OpenBSD, and Solaris machines. The MacOS X install is slightly more usable than Windows, and that takes into account it's running slowly on a machine that it isn't supposed to be running on and that my max resolution is 800x600 (I desperately want a TiBook, but I need food more ). So, if you've got a good machine, I'd say definitely go for a Mac. They're wonderful. Anyone who tells you differently is afraid of change.

My new "ultimate" Dell Windows XP Pro system is a nightmare of gremlin problems, OS reinstalls, and reboots.

That's what happens when you buy Dell. Try building your own system.

Building your own system is no assurance that you'll be problem free

My Dell was fairly problem-free to be honest. I just out-grew it

What gotchas do I need to know about as far as jEmplode is concerned versus the Windows Emplode?

Dunno, exactly. Probably nothing as long as you're using ethernet to synch. They should behave the same.

It would probably be a safe test to just use Jemplode for a while on the PC. If it meets your needs, great.

However there are certain things you still need the PC for. Upgrading the software via serial, applying fresh kernels, serial-port shell access (if you need to do that), that sort of thing. For that, although VirtualPC would run the necessary software, I dunno how you're going to get a serial connection hooked up to one of the new macs, and get that serial connection properly recognized by the VirtualPC software. I suppose it can be done, I just don't know how it's done.

Better solution: When you move to the mac, just keep an old cheap PC gathering dust in the garage. Only fire it up when you need to upgrade the player software or apply a fresh kernel. Or better yet, just do that stuff on a friend's PC.

Mine was the same way when I first got it. And it came with Windows ME. That didn't last long. After I wiped the drive and insatlled only what I wanted on top of Windows 2000, I rarely had problems. To date, the only incident that counts is a problem I had with my cordless mouse when I installed Service Pack 2, and that wasn't hard to fix. I stand by Dells as stable machines. Windows OSs are another matter, though. XP, both versions, are total crap.

Oh I agree. My parents have a Dell system with ME. Mine came with 98 and the SE upgrade, so it was pretty stable from the start.

After installing Win2K it was no problem

My new "ultimate" Dell Windows XP Pro system is a nightmare of gremlin problems, OS reinstalls, and reboots.



"Dude, you're gettin' a headache."

Okay, I still have problems with jEmplode under Mac OS X.

I also can't get USB to the empeg to work under Virtual PC. However, it does give it a college try, and it's possible that my slow Mac is keeping it from working properly. The Windows installation running under Virtual PC sees the Rio Car USB device properly, but it doesn't seem to be able to communicate quite right. A new/faster Mac might make it work better. Then again, it might not.

However, any new Mac you get is going to have an ethernet port on it, so even if you're not using it for a real network, you can spend $5 or so and get a crossover cable to get the empeg connected via ethernet. And emplode via ethernet under Virtual PC works just fine.

Virtual PC is also supposed to support a number of serial adapters, so you should be able to do serial upgrades, as well. That's all very standard, so I doubt you'd have any problem with that. However, I don't have any way to test it, so don't take my word for it.

Also, you could keep an old PC lying around but install Linux on it. The empeg guys have a supported tool to upgrade via Linux as well, and you might get more use out of a server than out of a random Windows PC stuck under a desk somewhere.

"Dude, you're gettin' a headache."

Okay, that one gets a trophy. I totally lost it when I saw that.

Well, I switched from PC to PowerMac, and jemplode has pretty much worked as advertised. There has been a little bit of wonkiness; some new tracks came out with 65535 plays, and some old tracks which I deleted stuck around with a ref-count of zero. Both sets were easily found and fixed with jemplode. One caveat: jemplode requires that you run 2.0b11 (or better, assuming it ever arrives). So, if you prefer 1.03, your only option will be to complie the command-line tool.

I'm syncing over Ethernet. I can't speak for the USB support.

In terms of iTunes vs. lame, you can see my other thread about this. My current conclusion is that iTunes's Fraunhofer encoder is just fine, just set it to "highest" VBR quality. And, as a bonus, on my dual-CPU PowerMac, iTunes can compress the MP3s faster than the drive can read them. I've seen compression / extraction running at over 20x realtime. It's cool.

Of course, there are plenty of other reasons you may or may not want to switch, but that's a topic for another thread...

> you can spend $5 or so and get a crossover cable

AFAIK, all new macs have auto-sensing ports and negotiate patch or crossover connections themselves. More useful that it sounds.

You can run JEmplode on Windows, so give it a try. It's got most of the stuff you'll need.

Even if you do find that JEmplode is adequate for your needs, be sure to get a copy of VPC anyway - it'll be invaluable if you're switching from Windows and don't want to keep a second computer around just to run odd programs.

USB support under VPC is fairly stable, but sometimes can be a little flaky. It is usually resolved by unplugging the peripheral, putting the VPC to sleep, waking it up and reconnecting. Since I sometimes have similar problems with Win2000, I'm not entirely convinced that VPC is to blame for this. YMMV and you're better off with Ethernet anyway.

For serial connections to upgrade the player and so on, get a Keyspan USB-serial adapter. So far this is the only manufacturer (that I know of) that has released OS X drivers. It should work fine with VPC.

all new macs have auto-sensing ports and negotiate patch or crossover connections themselves

I did not know that. Very cool.

Connectix publishes a list of serial adapters that are known to work under VPC.

I'll take "wonkiness" as a compliment

No USB support on OS X ... I've started work on it, but there are only so many times you can kernel panic and crash before it gets tiring.

I'd LOVE to support serial ... A couple people have done some looking into it -- I think we're pretty close.

As far as the play counts ... I haven't checked to see if those are resolved in the newer versions. The refcount zero problems should be resolved at this point.

There are people who prefer 1.03? I can't imagine .......

Mike

"Okay, I still have problems with jEmplode under Mac OS X. "

More info here?

Mike

How about if you switch to an iMac, you have my personal guarantee that I'll fix whatever problems you may have with jEmplode (not including USB and serial -- which is not to say that I won't try on those). My wife uses her PowerBook w/ OS X and I have one of the new iMacs, and jEmplode works pretty well for me -- though I'm pretty biased

Mike

Actually I was shocked that when I got to this thread that joke hadn't already been used!

I actually recently did exactly what you are talking about. I bought a new iMac to replace my Pentium 2. JEmplode works okay, but it seems that when uploading tracks from itunes, I have to put them in order myself, because jemplode seems to have trouble reading the track number tags from itunes ripped tracks. And I use my work PC to load software. Other than that, I'm a happy imac/empeg user.

Beers.. that is good...

I haven't done extensive testing (as my only Mac OS, X or otherwise, machine is on an 802.11b network, and both the empeg and the source of the mp3 are on the other side, so jEmplode has to get the files over NFS over the 802.11b and then push them back that way -- not fun), but the problems I see are very similar to the problems I related in my post over in programming about ``jEmplode doesn't work''.

Sounds like a plan. I am sooo over all the Microsoft quirks that making the jump to Mac seems like it'll be worth the effort.

Most people don't know about this, and the irritating part is that the implementation is part of the suggested ethernet standard, and has been for a while. Just noone outside a few niche people are implementing it. Most Compaq branded home hubs support this as well.

Just noone outside a few niche people are implementing it.

A lot of gigabit kit (not just the new Macs' gigabit kit) seems to support it.

Peter

There's no EAC-quality ripper with MacOS

Is MacOS X unixy enough to run cdparanoia?

Peter

cdparanoia has always been a Linux-only app, unfortunately.

If you use JEmplode to load iTunes encoded mp3 onto an empeg you have to convert the tag to v2.3 (or lower probably - I have checked all versions) ID3 tags. JEmplode doesn't seem to recognise the track number tags that iTunes creates. In iTunes 3.0 you select the tune(s) you want to convert the tags on and right click - the convert tags option appears in the context menu

I've had problems using jEmplode on my G4 Cube because I couldn't make a USB
link to my Mark 1 Empeg. Still stuck using a PC for sync and updates. -Gary

Yeah ... If you're a Mk1 on Mac, you're SOL. Anybody who knows how to write OS X USB code, I'll be happy to work with you to get it working.

Mike