iPod Thinking about an iPod classic. Need Some Help.

My suggestion, since your parents have already said they are getting you an iPod for your birthday, ask them if you can have some time to decide which is the best one for you. Then go to your nearest store that has them and try them out. That way you will know for sure what works for you.


1. See above -- best way to see. Doesn't matter about the old ones.

2. HDD iPods make some noise. That is normal since it is a HDD.

3. Movies take about 1.2GB. TV shows take less depending on if it is a 30 minute or hour show. So it all depends on how many you want to have on your iPod Classic. If you are going to use it for video, I would suggest the larger size so you can carry more video content with you. However, there will be a thickness penalty. That is why you should see them in person.

4. I use MP3, 256Kbps, 44,100, true stereo, and no VBR compression. That way I can use the content on any player that I want.

5. It all depends on how you are going to use your iPod.

6. With the new selections, I like the silver and graphite.

Try here:

http://www.apple-history.com/

The new 80GB is noticably thinner than the last 80GB. The 160GB isn't quite as thin as the new 80GB, but still thinner than the Gen. 5 80GB.

I got the black one...I just like the look.

As far as converting your music, I wouldn't convert it from the AAC you've already ripped into something else. Every time you recompress something, you're going to lose more and more quality. If you want to re-rip into another format, do it from the original discs. I've been using NMP3, which rips using LAME encoding at a variable bit rate. Might want to look into that.

Specs history from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/specs/ipod/

MattG said:

Try here:

http://www.apple-history.com/

The new 80GB is noticably thinner than the last 80GB. The 160GB isn't quite as thin as the new 80GB, but still thinner than the Gen. 5 80GB.

I got the black one...I just like the look.

As far as converting your music, I wouldn't convert it from the AAC you've already ripped into something else. Every time you recompress something, you're going to lose more and more quality. If you want to re-rip into another format, do it from the original discs. I've been using NMP3, which rips using LAME encoding at a variable bit rate. Might want to look into that.

Click to expand...

Not only is the new 80 noticeably thinner then the old 80 it's actually slightly thiner then the 30GB iPod.

4. If you're anal about sound quality and getting a perfect rip, I use Max from sbooth.org with cdparanoia for ripping and LAME MP3 256kbps constant bitrate with normal stereo and not joint stereo.

the LAME encoder is generally regarded as the best and both the ripper and encoder if vastly superior to iTunes built in encoder. I encoded my music with iTunes 4.7 a couple years ago at 256kbps and Max now and LAME sounds noticably better at the same bitrate.

Just my two cents though. If your serious about sound, use Max.

Edit: one other note...you can't encode low bitrate stuff into higher bitrate and would gain no extra sound quality from this and might actually lose some in the process. If you're going to rerip into a higher bitrate, you need to do this by directly ripping off the original cd's.