Review: iTunes 6

There is a temptation with iTunes 6 to bash the latest version of Apple’s music player for what it isn’t, rather than evaluate for what it is. Take, for example, the reaction to the news that the new version allows you to purchase ad-free TV programs via the iTunes Music Store and play them back within the application itself—commentators seemed more interested in tabulating how many shows were available (just five, as of this writing) and who was supplying them (Disney and its assorted networks) than in assessing the experience of purchasing and watching TV shows through iTunes.

That’s the wrong approach to take for iTunes 6 for a couple reasons. First, despite the addition of more video playback features that build upon the capabilities first introduced in version 4.8, this iTunes version remains primarily a music jukebox application, albeit one with a video component. And second, griping that the iTunes Music Store only features episodes of Lost , Desperate Housewives , and three other shows loses sight of the fact that this is the first of what promises to be many steps in extending iTunes’ features beyond music. The selection of video content at the iTunes Music Store figures to expand over time.

That said, as far as first steps go, iTunes 6 is a tentative one. The application remains without peer for its musical features—in fact, a spate of updates that began this past summer have culminated in a nearly perfect music player. Video playback is not nearly so impressive. Slow start-up, erratic behavior, and other glitches mar what would be an otherwise promising first effort at expanding iTunes’ digital-media reach.

Picture perfect?

Video playback first appeared in iTunes 4.8, released in May. Version 6 expands on that capability by making TV shows, animated shorts from Pixar, and music videos available from the iTunes Music Store at $1.99 a pop. (You can also drag other video files—like a QuickTime movie, say—into iTunes 6. If you do so, you need to manually go to the Options tab for that file and check off Remember Playback Position to make it bookmarkable and Skip When Shuffling. These options are automatically checked for iTunes Music Store content.) Video content lives in your iTunes library alongside songs, audiobooks, and podcasts. Version 6 adds a Video category to the Source menu (similar to the Podcasts category added to Version 4.9); click on the Video icon, and iTunes will display all your video files in one place.

You can play back videos in one of three places—in iTunes’ “main” window (that window beneath the Source list that normally displays album art), in a separate, resizable pop-up window (shown below), or across the full screen. (You set where you want video to play in the Playback preferences pane.) Of these options, full-screen is perhaps the least desirable—the picture is not very sharp and there’s no easy way to control playback, apart from using the space bar to pause the video. The picture is much sharper and the playback options much more accessible using either the main or separate window options.

Not that video playback using either of these windows is that much of an improvement. Starting playback on a video file will result in a delay of anywhere from three to 11 seconds as iTunes fires up the video; you’ll likely receive an unwelcome visit from the dreaded spinning beachball, as iTunes leaps into action. Resuming playback after a pause can also result in a slight-but-noticeable delay. On one occasion during testing, pausing playback knocked the video and audio tracks out of sync so that the Desperate Housewives episode I was watching felt more like a Sergio Leone-directed spaghetti western—this quirk is a rare occurrence, but it’s worth noting that it could happen.

More troublesome is a quirk that you will experience if you opt for the pop-window for video-playback—you can’t resize the playback window without causing the video to stutter and stall. Using the progress bar to fast-forward and rewind videos is not as smooth as similar scrolling through a music file. Downloading the iTunes 6.0.1 update improved matters somewhat, but didn’t completely eliminate the problems. The problems don’t seem limited to any one particular brand of hardware—I did most of my testing on a 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 with 512MB of RAM and running OS X 10.4.2, but similar problems cropped up when watching videos on dual-2GHz and dual-2.3GHz Power Mac G5 desktops.

You can get around most of the playback glitches by Control-clicking on the video file, selecting Show Song File, and dragging the file into QuickTime Player. Video playback is much smoother in that application, although you wind up sacrificing iTunes’ more useful features, such as remembering where you paused a file when you resume playback later. (And really, Apple could improve things considerably simply by adding a preference setting or a right-click option that makes a video file open in QuickTime Player instead of iTunes.)

Are these flaws significant? If you don’t plan on using iTunes for much video playback or if you see the application more as a conduit for moving TV shows and music videos from the iTunes Music Store onto your video iPod, then obviously, no. But if you plan on spending a lot of time watching videos through iTunes, you will notice these flaws—and you’ll likely be as eager to see them addressed in future versions of iTunes as I am.

Also in the picture

As to other video-related features of note, you can create playlists that mix and match audio and video files (as well as audiobooks and podcasts, for that matter). These hybrid playlists will work just fine in iTunes; you can’t, however, play them on a video iPod (with the exception of playlists that contain songs and music video files).

Video purchases from the iTunes Music Store face similar restrictions as songs bought at the store—you can play videos on up to five computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Unlike burning music to a CD, you can’t burn videos to a DVD; you are able to burn video files to a CD-R or DVD-R for backup purposes, however. If you weren’t fazed by these kinds of restrictions when buying music from iTunes, you’re unlikely to be troubled by them now. And if you aren’t a fan of FairPlay Digital Rights Management, you can take small comfort in the realization that Apple isn’t treating you to anything unexpected.

Other additions

The bulk of the remaining changes in iTunes 6 involve new features at the iTunes Music Store. The store adds a gift option for buying music and videos for other people. (Previously, gift-giving options were limited to the store’s gift certificate and allowance features.) You can submit short 6,000-character reviews of albums and, in an Amazon.com-like twist, review other customers’ reviews by clicking on whether their opinion was helpful or not. Another new feature, still in beta form, is Just for You—a recommendation service that bases its picks on your past purchases.

Of these additions, the reviews feature is a pleasant-enough diversion and Just For You shows promise, even as Apple tinkers with the final version. It’s the gift feature—a badly needed addition—that’s likely to have the biggest impact on improving your shopping experience. Click on the Gift option (shown below), and iTunes walks you through sending individual tracks, entire albums, and even do-it-yourself playlists to other people; you can also send video content gifts. (One quibble: for music purchases, the Gift option only appears on album pages. It would be nice if iTunes provided more points of entry for sending gifts.)

One note: using these new music store features requires an upgrade to iTunes 6. That’s not only true of people who use the gift feature to send gifts, but users receiving them as well. (iTunes 5 and earlier users who attempt to redeem a gift purchase will be instructed to upgrade to the latest version.) It’s a minor point, to be sure, but one that makes this particular update to iTunes a little less voluntary than it otherwise might be.

As for iTunes’ music jukebox features, those remain superlative. In fact, using the music player has become even easier, thanks to changes introduced not in this version, but in iTunes 5 (which came and went so quickly, we didn’t have time to review it). One of those iTunes 5 additions—the ability to add folders to the Source list—is particularly welcome.

True, folders aren’t a new feature to iTunes 6. But if you never made the leap from Version 4.9, this feature alone should prod you to upgrade.

Version 5 also improved searches within in iTunes. When you enter a query in the search window, a bar appears that specifies what type of media—music, audiobook, podcast, and so on—you’re looking for. You can also search by artist, album, and name. It’s a handy addition, particularly if your the size of your iTunes library has reached gargantuan proportions. Another new feature, Smart Shuffle, lets you use an adjustable slider to set how likely the application will play multiple songs in a row from the same artist or album. How much you appreciate this addition will depend on how convinced you are that the shuffle mode in iTunes is messing with your head.

Running through some of the other changes to iTunes since last we reviewed the application:

• iTunes 4.8 brought video playback features to iTunes and made free music videos and movie trailers available at the iTunes Music Store. The free music videos are gone in iTunes 6, replaced by the $1.99-each offerings, but the movie trailers remain. Version 4.8 also added Contacts and Calendars tabs to the iPod preference pane; those tabs, similar to what Mac users are used to with iSync, remain in iTunes 6.

• iTunes 4.9 added support for podcasting, making podcasts available through the iTunes Music Store. In the subsequent Version 5 update, iTunes automatically added podcasts to your library and indexed them; support for video podcasts also was added.

The lowdown

The decision on whether to upgrade to iTunes 6 is made less difficult by the fact that this is a free application. If you’re interested in using the latest iTunes Music Store features or intrigued by some of the changes introduced during the latest round of rapid-fire updates, iTunes 6 is as good a version as any to download. But the fact is, many people will upgrade to the new version because of its updated video playback features—and they’re likely to find the lack of polish disappointing.

The video quirks in iTunes 6 shouldn’t dissuade you from upgrading—you will be able to watch purchased TV shows, music videos, and other files just fine, if not with the accustomed quality you’re used to with an Apple-built application. These flaws are nothing that Apple can’t fix, and given the pace of iTunes updates as of late, you can probably expect those fixes sooner rather than later.