iPod audiobook "stutter" - is it normal?

[jsw]

Hi all,

I recently got my first iPod, a 4G 40GB. I notice that when I play audiobooks, the narration will start, last a second or two, stop for a second, then resume playing - and then it's fine after that. This doesn't happen 100% of the time, but seems to happen more often than not. I tend to notice it when I've undocked the 'pod, brought it to my car, and turned it on. I see this sometimes with songs as well. However I use the iPod mostly for audiobooks, primarily while commuting ( blasphemy, I know ;)).

Standard/typical behavior?

[Chaszmyr]

It's not normal for music at all, I've never played an audiobook on my iPod though. Have you tried with music on your iPod? Same problem or no? It's possible it stutters because the file is more than big enough to fill the HD buffer or something

[Sayer]

The iPod's Audible support has been somewhat spotty for as long as it's been in the iPod devices.

Fast forwarding repeatedly in an audio book used to crash my iPod. The support for various options (chapters or markers) is/was weak.

As far as "stuttering" it sounds like the iPod is trying to fill its memory with as much of the audio book as possible when it starts playing. This would require the hard drive to spin up, which will "block" the device for a second or so until everything is ready.

I'm sure at some point Apple will release a 3.0.x update for the 4G iPod that "improves Audible content support" which in reality fixes the filling-the-buffer-from-a-spun-down-hd "stutter" problem.