To add my 3 cents (inflation and all)...
When ripping CDs, if you have the hard drive space, rip as lossless. That way, when the new great codec comes along, you can always re-encode. But leave the lossless on the computer. Backup to DVD, stick on an external hard drive, whatever. Unfortunately for me, I had just finished ripping my 300+ CD collection as 256 AAC about a week before Apple announced lossless. I haven't gotten around to re-ripping my collection.
If you really are an audiophile snob, with $500 headphones, encode at 256 or 320 AAC. I consider myself an audiophile snob when it comes to classical music, and even on classical music, I can't tell the difference between 320 AAC and the original CD. I *CAN* tell the difference between 320 AAC and a DVD-Audio disc, though. (Even without surround.) This is on a $500 Sony 'shelf' stereo (which has better speakers than my home theater,) and on Sony 'DJ' headphones. So for classical music, I like it at maximum quality. For all other music, 128 AAC is just fine. (I will buy my 'everyday' music from the iTunes Store, but not classical.)
Don't put all 70 movies on the iPod. That's just stupid. Really. It's an iPod. Unless you take a 2 hour train ride every day, and will actually watch your movie collection that often, it's pointless to leave them always on the iPod. If you're going to leave on a trip, fine, load up the five to ten movies you might watch on the trip. Otherwise, only put video on that there is the remotest chance of watching. In anticipation of the iTV, I'm currently in the process of ripping my movie collection to an external hard drive, as H.264, 1500 kbps video, 128 kbps audio, 640x??? (height depends on aspect ratio of the source.) On my high-end-circa-1998 Sony non-high-definition TV, connected to my notebook via S-Video, I can't tell the difference between that and a DVD. When I get a video iPod, will I put all 100+ movies on it? No way. I'll probably put the Pixar collection on, since my daughter absolutely
demands to watch them on a regular basis, but other than that, I'll put on my 'new' movies, and any that I specifically plan on watching on it soon. Other than that, it's useless.
Now, with music, even 320 kbps files, they will be small enough to reasonably keep them on an iPod at all times. But with movies that can easily top 1 GB a piece, it's silly to try to carry all of them all the time. Especially if they're duplicated on your main computer. (If you were moving your stuff to the iPod, then deleting it from the computer, it might make sense.)
MovieCutter said:
Yeah, judging from his previous posts, sounds like a kid just looking for attention by bragging about how much stuff he has. Nobody's all that impressed...really.
And, yes, this guy is obviously a kid bragging. Just look at his "my dad has an Xserve" comment. I'm betting he doesn't even really have what he says he does. Or, if the does, then he's a spoiled little rich kid who needs to learn some humility and be disciplined once in a while. ("I have a PSP just for internet"....? Why not a Nokia 770? It's a
much better 'portable web' device... Although I'm waiting with baited breath for the DS Browser kit to hit the U.S.)
