Hi, OK, to answer Chris' question first, he's correct that you can't speed up the playback of an audio track in iTunes, although you can do this with QuickTime player. So what I do to listen to podcasts speeded up in iTunes is to run a couple of AppleScripts that hand over the playback from iTunes to QuickTime, and keep track of the current playback position so that when control is handed back to iTunes the last played location is still tracked. This discussion can be found in the old list forum posts:
http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg49448.html (Re: speed up slow down I tunes) That post contains links to an earlier post explaining how to set up the AppleScripts from Mac OS X Hints, and a link to another AppleScript called Tunefast. QuickTime can only be used to play non- DRM tracks, so these AppleScripts will not work for changing the playback speed of either Audible books or any DRM tracks from the iTunes Store (i.e., you can speed up or slow down non-DRM music purchases, but any iTunes tracks with DRM -- whether audiobooks or music -- cannot be played with these AppleScripts that use QuickTime). In answer to Dane's question about taking an MP3 file on a web page that is not a podcast, and transferring it to a iPod, there are two parts to the answer, and also a few additional related topics: 1. You can download a linked MP3 file using Option-Enter, or if the track is already playing in your web browser you can press Command-L followed by Option-Enter to force it to download. Then you can add the track to you iTunes music library by using the Command-O "Add to Library" shortcut in iTunes, and pointing the dialog window to the file in the Downloads folder of your account. However, these files will show up in your music library. 2. In order to make podcasts show up in the podcast folder, iTunes needs to receive these tracks from a server through its subscription process. The difference between a podcast added to iTunes as an mp3 file and one that enters as a podcast subscription is that when iTunes downloads a podcast you have subscribed to from a server feed it adds tags (formally, called "atoms") that flag the file as a podcast ("PCST"), along with other tags that identify the server URL, release date, and other such information. If you send someone a podcast you subscribed to that is in your iTunes library or transfer the file via CD or memory key, the subscribed podcast will show up under podcasts in the new iTunes library, because the tag information is in the header. Similarly, if you use an mp3 editor that changes the podcat to version 1.0 tagging (minimal information), you effectively wipe out these tags (along with the file name and artist). (Up through iTunes 8, there used to be an option in iTunes to change the mp3 version, and setting to version 1.0 would make the track show up under music -- with no tags.) 3. It's possible to add podcasts you grabbed as mp3 files (not through iTunes Subscription) to the podcasts folder if you get an AppleScript called "Re-add as podcast" from Doug Adams' AppleScripts for iTunes site: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=readdaspodcast This takes advantage of the fact that every Mac has built-in server capability, and the script basically fakes a an iTunes subscription to the selected mp3 files by using your computer's server as the feed source for the podcast files. While mp3 files added to iTunes with this AppleScript show up as podcasts, they won't show up in the same folder as the podcasts you subscribed to, even if the new folder has the same name as a podcast series you subscribed to. Again, the reason is that iTunes uses the server URL, which it tracks and adds to the header, to separate out podcast subscriptions into different folders. This means that mp3 files that you download, add to iTunes, and run this AppleScript on won't show up in the same folder as the podcast subscription files. For example, if you download Blind Cool Tech podcasts as mp3 files and then use the AppleScript to put them into the podcasts library, they won't be in the same folder as BCT podcasts you subscribe to through iTunes. Similarly, if your podcast source ever changes their RSS feed location, the podcasts for the new feed will show up in a different folder. 4. On iPods like the Nano 4G, audiobooks can be played at faster, slower, or normal speed. With the release of iTunes 8 last fall, Apple made it possible to make regular music files appear in the Audiobooks library in both iTunes and on the iPod by allowing you to edit the Options pane of an iTunes track with "Get Info" (Command-I) and then setting "Media Kind" to "Audiobook" instead of "Music". Such tracks can be played faster or slower on the iPod. For podcasts, the "Media Kind" pop up button of iTunes tracks is dimmed, and can't be changed. However, there is a way to allow AAC podcast tracks to play faster or slower ion the iPod if you apply the "Make Bookmarkable" AppleScript from Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes site to your selected podcast tracks in iTunes: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=makebookmarkable This script is the old way to make .m4a tracks show up as audiobooks -- also checking, the options for "Remember playback position" to bookmark the last played location and "Keep out of shuffle play" to keep books from showing up in music shuffle lists as well as setting "Media Kind" to audiobooks. Podcasts with .m4a extensions (like the VoiceOver Getting Started podcasts) may play faster or slower on iPods when the "Make Bookmarkable" AppleScript is applied. HTH Cheers, Esther Dane Trethowan wrote: > Actually this brings me to an interesting question and perhaps > someone has worked out an answer, okay so suppose you're looking > round a web page and you find a presentation in MP3 format but not a > podcast, is there any way you can download this and have it > considered as content worth transferring to your Ipod? > > Chris Blouch wrote: > >> That's one thing I wish they would change in iTunes. If you play an >> audio file with Quicktime player and hit Apple-K you will get a >> whole panel of options including a jog/shuttle, playback speed and >> pitch shift. I've hunted around and couldn't find any of these >> controls. >> >> CB >> --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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