Do iPods really download a CD in 10 seconds?

[gfroyle]

I am not sure where to put this question, but hardware discussion seemed the best of the options.

I just read an ad from my local Apple store claiming that iPods can "store" a CD in 10 seconds.... is this really true, and if so, what is the iPod actually doing with the data?

I ask because I am currently storing my CD collection into iTunes on my new PB15 - and it takes me a lot longer than 10 seconds to rip the CD (into AAC); in fact I get speeds usually around 5x - 6x (as reported on the little iTunes status bar as it imports), thus taking about 10 minutes per CD. This varies widely from album to album though, with some importing at 10-15x and others only at 2-3x. I was trying vaguely to figure out whether more complex music would compress less and therefore take longer, and thus use this rating as a "complexity" measure, but it didn't seem to hold up.

So what gives?

Should I be getting better performance than this - it is a brand new 1.25G PB with a superdrive...

Cheers

Gordon

[tomf87]

They are referring to transferring MP3's or AAC's to your iPod from your machine, not the encoding process.

Your times seem about right for ripping a CD.

[AppleMatt]

Should I be getting better performance than this - it is a brand new 1.25G PB with a superdrive...

Generally, yes.

But, what settings are you using? Error correction and a higher encoding rate slow it down, as does the speed of your CD-drive.

AppleMatt

[jxyama]

I ask because I am currently storing my CD collection into iTunes on my new PB15 - and it takes me a lot longer than 10 seconds to rip the CD (into AAC); in fact I get speeds usually around 5x - 6x (as reported on the little iTunes status bar as it imports), thus taking about 10 minutes per CD. This varies widely from album to album though, with some importing at 10-15x and others only at 2-3x. I was trying vaguely to figure out whether more complex music would compress less and therefore take longer, and thus use this rating as a "complexity" measure, but it didn't seem to hold up.

check your energy saver setting. you must be running at reduced cpu speed. also, were you running some other programs?

i have 867 MHz/PB 12" - and it gets up to about 7 to 8x ripping. (AAC/160 kbps) so i'd expect yours to be able to rip faster than that...

oh, one more thing... how much RAM you got?

[stuckwithme247]

The ripping speed varies per cd as well, some perfectly clean discs will only rip at around 8 while others can go to around 12

[topicolo]

The ripping speed also varies with the brand of optical drive you have. Since apple has a couple of suppliers, the same powerbook may have different suppliers and rip at different speeds.

[rikers_mailbox]

Ripping speed may also be slowed by enabling error correction when reading CDs. Look under 'Importing' in the iTunes preference pane.

-rik

[briankonar]

my 933 rips cds at 10.x + on average. If i'm multitasking (photoshop, director, etc. at same time) i get about 6-8.x rip speed. I'm sure Firewire is a faster interface, plus it's only transferring data. 10 seconds per CD to iPod is pretty normal. Your rip speeds seem a little ow for a 1.25. What are your settings? I'm at 256 Custom AAC.

i'm not using error correction.

[fonch]

The quote about downloading a CD in 10 seconds only applies to music you already have in iTunes which is transferred to the iPod when you plug it in.
As for the speed of your cd burner, I have a dual-usb ibook g3 500mhz and I top out at 2.9x, as long as no other programme is running at the same time. Running other programmes has slowed the transfer speed into iTunes down to as low a 1.5x for me.