As I was trying to load the ITunes software with music, but it refused to accept some albums/songs that I copied from friends.

Does anyone know of any good freeware that can convert these tracks for me?

Also, any good recommendations for Podcasts / video Podcasts?

Any help is appreciated from this guy that still has 400-500 albums (and yes a few 8 tracks)...

This may be old hash, but here are some great websites for the IPod. Also, don't use I-tunes. What a piece for ****. I use several different pieces of software to "get it done and get it right". I absolutely love mine (once I started to use it correctly and with the correct software). A lot of this software can be used on any MP3’s (the only format to encode your music – I personally prefer 128 kbps or above but never below). Let me know if you have any questions.

General Ipod Site

http://www.ipodlounge.com/ 

Ripping & Conversion

http://www.musicmatch.com/  (you either love it or hate it - Music Match)

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/  (CDex)

Normalizing (adjusting the “volumes”)

http://mp3gain.sourceforge.net/  (MP3Gain)

Tag and Filename Management

Music Match

http://www.magnusbrading.com/mp3ts/  (MP3TagStudio)

Free Two-Way IPod File Transferring & Sharing

http://sturm.t35.com/sharepod/  (For free!! It Rocks!!!! - SharePod)

http://www.redchairsoftware.com/anapod/  (Not for free but worth the money – Anapod Explorer)

Car Integration Solutions

http://www.mindspring.com/~pmbenn/iPod/index.htm 

And for the geeks (or is that nerds)

http://pinouts.ru/data/ipod_pinout.shtml  (pinouts for dock connector)

http://users.tpg.com.au/adsl3lk6/default.html  (pinouts for the dock connector & where I got a lot of my info)

http://www.ipodhacks.com/  (not the best)

http://www.ipodlinux.org/Main_Page  - Linux on the Pod

I'll take a look at the sites.