Week of March 20, 2005<\/p>\n
Q: I use an iPod with iTunes for Windows. Sometimes when I import a purchased music CD into iTunes, information such as Song Name, Artist, Album and Genre is not shown- all I get is “Track 1” “Track 2” etc. Why does it work sometimes and not others? I don’t like entering all that info myself.<\/p>\n
Matthew Gillespie, Mt. Lebanon, PA<\/p>\n
A: For the Song Name, Artist, Album, and other information to be loaded into iTunes when you import a CD, you must be connected to the internet. I suspect that the times the information did not load into iTunes it was because your internet connection was not active for one reason or another.<\/p>\n
It is a common misconception that the song and album information is contained on the CD itself, but surprisingly, this is not the case. The CD does not even have an identification code. <\/p>\n
Without album details or identifying information on the CD, how in the world is the album information available?<\/p>\n
The answer is the Gracenote Compact Disc Database. When you import CDs you have seen “Accessing Gracenote CDDB” and “Querying Database”. The database is accessed by iTunes whenever you load a new music CD.<\/p>\n
iTunes reads the CD and sends the number of tracks, time per track, and track sequence to Gracenote. It seems that like snowflakes, no two CDs are exactly alike. Gracenote’s server looks at the information, matches it to the proper CD, and sends track, artist, and genre information back to iTunes, where it populates the proper fields. It seems like a roundabout, convoluted way to get the information, but anyone who uses iTunes knows it is very accurate and very efficient.<\/p>\n
After the CD is imported, the information is transferred to your iPod when it is updated by iTunes. <\/p>\n
The Gracenote database does not have perfect knowledge of every single CD out there, so it is possible that once in a while you will encounter a CD that is not in the database. This is extremely rare; in the past year it has only happened to me once. In this case you must enter the information yourself.<\/p>\n
So, for the best iTunes experience make sure your computer is connected to the internet, and if you have dial-up, log on before you import CDs.<\/p>\n
Q: I have a Yamaha Dolby Digital receiver and a surround sound speaker ensemble I use for watching movies.<\/p>\n
When I play a DVD through the receiver, the voices have what I call “sound stage echo”. Even when the actors are outside, they sound like they are in a cathedral or on a stage with echo added. When someone comes forward in the scene and speaks, it sounds like they are in the background.
\nThe DVD player and receiver have many sound field modes and I can’t seem to find a combination to get rid of this annoyance. What should I do?<\/p>\n
-Paul Fallert, Bethel Park, PA<\/p>\n
A: The sound field modes add reverberation and delay to change the sound of the system to simulate surroundings such as a concert hall, sports arena, etc. Audio and video purists tend to hate them as they almost always diminish sound quality and fidelity. Non-experts are usually confused by them, much as you are. As these sound fields add to the feature set of a receiver (building perceived value) and do not cost anything to add in these days of microchips, it is likely they will be with us indefinitely.<\/p>\n
To solve your problem, turn off all of the sound field options oon both the receiver and DVD player. Watch movies in Dolby Digital or DTS, and listen to music in stereo. For non-digital TV broadcasts, VHS tapes, and music in surround sound, use Dolby Pro-Logic II or DTS NEO:6.<\/p>\n