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TICKET ARCHIVE -> iTunes - how to advance?

RobinS - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:29 pm

So I'm listening to a broadcast that is coming off a webpage - I guess its streaming, not sure) and I pause it by hitting the space bar. I thought I paused it - guess not. Anyway, when I return, hit the spacebar it plays from the beginning. This broadcast is an hour long. I really need to pause it. Is there any way of pausing or advancing in iTunes? If not, does anybody know why?

I then tried it in VLC. Of course I could pause, advance, etc no problem. Why would Apple choose to take away basic functions of a player?

earthsaver - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:36 pm

Some types of streamed recordings don't report their length the same way as others and just play as if they're continuous. There ends up being only play and stop. Other recordings work as intuitively as you suggest they should. If this is frustrating (obviously), you should send Apple your feedback directly.
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunes.html

Perhaps this is the one reason you will always use VLC. I use VLC for a select number of tasks, too. I like its skip back/forward 10 seconds shortcut that iTunes and QuickTime are currently missing.

- Ben

RobinS - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:40 pm

What I don't understand is why would anyone use Quicktime or iTunes? What do they do that VLC and others can't?
Almost nothing plays on Quicktime for me at all.

earthsaver - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:46 pm

iTunes and QuickTime are great because they are intuitively built for most tasks and they have simple user interfaces. iTunes is best for music collections, as it was originally designed, and QuickTime player is just a front-end for the video processing layer of the operating system. I don't use the latter much, but I use iTunes constantly.

QuickTime Player handles mov, mp3, mp4, and others, and I use it mostly to quickly preview a song that I don't necessarily want to import into iTunes, since taking it out is an extra step.

RobinS - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:51 pm

You missed my query......What do iTunes and Quicktime do that VLC doesn't? (I use the Finder and folders in it to organize my music and videos.) I just want a player to play as many varieties of files as possible.

As for "taking it out" can't you just right click a file and pick which app you want to open it?

earthsaver - Jan 2, 2006 - 10:54 pm

I think iTunes does a better job at letting me organize songs in multiple playlists and using meta data to further refine organization to browse by artist, album, and genre. The Finder doesn't come close, and I don't think VLC does this very well. I certainly use VLC for video much more often than QuickTime Player.

Regarding "take it out," I was saying I use QuickTime Player to preview some songs I'm not likely to add to my iTunes library, because removing them from the library is an extra step.

RobinS - Jan 2, 2006 - 11:08 pm

I think iTunes is more popular with people that use portable music players. I don't so I haven't seen its superiority in this area. Yes of course you use VLC for video more than QuickTime. Thats because VLC actually plays the video....lol. That's always such a wonderful perk to a player.

For previewing songs, why not just click on them and VLC plays them? What could be simpler? I guess Quicktime is Ok with mp3's but why have a player for audio and a different player for video? Its hard enough remembering keyboard shortcuts (and they are pretty nice when you've mastered a few) for one player let alone 2. I just realized Quicktime doesn't have hardly any kb shortcuts. VLC has pages of them.

Chuck Wehner - Jan 5, 2006 - 9:41 pm

Ticked closed. Reason: Duplicate