iTunes not recognising CD Burners

[fbc]

I hate iTunes.

It's become a mission - the only reason I'm using iTunes is because my recently departed (no, she's not dead, just gone forever) wife bought an iPod (when we were together). The bloody program refuses point blank to recognise either of my optical drives as CD Burners - which they most certainly are. Tried all the fixes I can find, still no go - it claims they're unsupported, which sounds bollocks since it's not like they're rare models, and for the life of me I can't find a list of supported burners.

I hate it.

(So why am I still running iTunes? I'm considering getting an iPod - yes, yes I know there's alternatives, but I like the range of products available that interface well with the iPods, and 80Gb of iPod Classic for AUD350 is hard to beat).

[Shadowness]

I take it your running vista (possibly 64 bit?)
This is a known and common problem, I have it at the mo and it's a pain in the ass.
I would like to hear any alternatives to itunes, but I always liked itunes coz of its simplicity.

Do you get an 'error' message before itunes actually loads?

[fbc]

^ XP Home SP2 (I should've said), no error messages appear. If it helps, this is the output from iTunes' diagnostics:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
NVIDIA AWRDACPI
iTunes 7.4.2.4
CD Driver 2.0.6.1
CD Driver DLL 2.0.6.2
LowerFilters: PxHelp20 (2.0.0.0),
UpperFilters: GEARAspiWDM (2.0.6.1),

Current user is an administrator.

Video Display Information:

RADEON 9600 SERIES
RADEON 9600 SERIES - Secondary

Connected Device Information:

Disk drive, ST380013 AS SCSI Disk Device, Bus Type SCSI, Bus Address [0,0]
CD-ROM Drive, LITE-ON COMBO SOHC-5232K, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [0,0]
CD-ROM Drive, PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-108, Bus Type ATA, Bus Address [1,0]

Some computers need an update to the ATA or IDE bus driver, or Intel chipset. If iTunes has problems recognizing CDs or hanging or crashing while importing or burning CDs, check the support site for the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard.

Failed while scanning for CD / DVD drives, error 2510.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

D: Unsupported CD or DVD drive.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

Failed while scanning for CD / DVD drives, error 2510.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

E: Unsupported CD or DVD drive.
Virtual drives can sometimes interfere with reading and writing CDs in iTunes. If this is a virtual drive and you are having problems with other drives, try uninstalling the virtual CD application.

I'm not running any virtual drive tools - there's nothing like that even installed. The only other program I have installed with burning features (aside from XP's own feature) is Nero. I've installed the latest drivers for the motherboard ('latest' being a relative term - they're from 2003).

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by fbc

I hate iTunes.

Then don't use it. Since v5.2, Winamp has had built in support for iPods (it was a plugin before that) and tons of other players.

As for burning CDs, why not use Nero or something? I'm confused.

The only reason to use that piece of shit software (iTunes) is the download store thingy.

[fbc]

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Then don't use it. Since v5.2, Winamp has had built in support for iPods (it was a plugin before that) and tons of other players.

Ah, nice - I'll be looking into that. Cheers.

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

As for burning CDs, why not use Nero or something? I'm confused.

I was only using iTunes to burn the CD (well, to try and burn the CD) because it was all setup - and I needed to burn the mp3s as regular CD Audio tracks (my car CD player doesn't speak mp3). If Nero or Winamp can do the job, I'm a happy camper (I'm a complete noob when it comes to anything mp3).

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

The only reason to use that piece of shit software (iTunes) is the download store thingy.

Funnily enough, that's the one feature I didn't really have any intention of using (DRM? No thanks). The only reason I used it was because I was none the wiser - thought iTunes was the only option for iPod - trust me, I'm more than happy (*very* happy in fact) to ditch it - I find it clunky.

[watto]

It's a pity that iTunes obviously hasn't been developed very well for PC's cos I find an absolute breeze on Macs. Sure, it's primarily designed for Macs but if they want to keep selling iPods to PC users and these other plug-ins for Winamp aren't widely known, then quite simply, that's fucked.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by fbc

I needed to burn the mp3s as regular CD Audio tracks (my car CD player doesn't speak mp3). If Nero or Winamp can do the job, I'm a happy camper (I'm a complete noob when it comes to anything mp3).

99.9% of CD burning software can convert MP3s to CD format on the fly, including Nero and Winamp Pro (a non-free version as Winamp has to pay licensing for the burning DLLs).

I personally use a "free" edition of Nero.

[fbc]

Nero did the job nicely - so that's one reason I was using iTunes struck off the list. Found a plug-in that supports Album Art for iPods in Winamp (out of the box Winamp doesn't seem to support that particular feature). So looks like I won't be needing iTunes at all (except perhaps to change certain settings on the iPod).

I need to get my head around Winamp, but that aside, I'm a happy, happy camper. Cheers for the help.

[Viper007Bond]

No problem.

[Shadowness]

I think I may move to winamp. Is it simple to use?
The main reason I like itunes was because of the simplicity, its got no stupid bollox stuff like skins etc. It just plays music, which as ALL I want to do.

Its a great coincidence this thread came up as a piece of software I installed last night completely mashed my computer (including itunes and all of my playlists). So I might move accross tonight

[vRS]

I have the same kind of problem on my laptop. I ignore it and use something decent like Winamp or Nero.

The iTunes music store is OK but not perfect, it can sometimes be a pain to buy music for me as I sometime use the "Complete my album" crap where you can get songs left to buy in a album cheaper. Its a lie they charged me for the full thing

[Lilleput]

The newer iPods only work with itunes right? I heard they where bound to it or something.. I recently went over to itunes as im waiting for my itouch to get delivered, i dont really have any problems with it.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Shadowness

Is it simple to use?

I think so, but I've been using it for like 7 years.

[Dsemaj]

Originally Posted by fbc

I was only using iTunes to burn the CD (well, to try and burn the CD) because it was all setup - and I needed to burn the mp3s as regular CD Audio tracks (my car CD player doesn't speak mp3). If Nero or Winamp can do the job, I'm a happy camper (I'm a complete noob when it comes to anything mp3).

Heard of Windows Media Player?

[Red_Bull]

Originally Posted by Shadowness

I think I may move to winamp. Is it simple to use?

Winamp is terrific. You can do pretty well anything with it. The only thing I've found since running Vista is that unfortunately some plug-ins don't seem to work particularly well which can cause some issues. Should be rectified soon, if they havent been already.

[Austere]

Originally Posted by Shadowness

I think I may move to winamp. Is it simple to use?
The main reason I like itunes was because of the simplicity, its got no stupid bollox stuff like skins etc. It just plays music, which as ALL I want to do.

Same here! I downloaded (what was, at the time) the newest version of winamp about two years ago, used it for about 45 minutes, un-installed it and went back to the old version - version 2.80 - It's older than dirt but it does exactly what I want it to and it isn't full of useless crap.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Austere

Same here! I downloaded (what was, at the time) the newest version of winamp about two years ago, used it for about 45 minutes, un-installed it and went back to the old version - version 2.80 - It's older than dirt but it does exactly what I want it to and it isn't full of useless crap.

Sounds like Winamp 3.

Give it another try. Winamp 5 (2+3) is awesome. It's v2, but with support for the cool skins from v3 (it's essentially a plugin now) but without all the shitty bloat and slowness. It runs just as fast a v2 but with lots of bugfixes, new features, etc.