iPod touch Ideas for downsizing from Classic

[Scott549]

I've got a 160 gb iPod Classic with well over 100 gb of music and I would like to get an iPod Touch. Unfortunately the 128 gb Touch has not happened yet, so I am looking for ideas for dealing with a device that can't hold all my music. A couple of thoughts --

1. I could copy "essential" playlists to the iPod and then fill in the rest randomly. The problem I see with this, though, is that if I have something like 20 gb to fill in, it's going to take a LONG time to sync the iPod every time, because the old random 20 gb will have to be replaced with the new random 20 gb.

2. I could probably get 50% more music on the iPod by using the "convert to 128 AAC" method. Question about that -- do the new AAC files just go to the iPod itself, or does iTunes make copies that are saved to the computer as well? If it's the latter, that's a whole bunch more space on my computer's hard drive that I don't want to use.

Any thoughts? Any other creative ideas for dealing with this issue?

Thanks.

 

[skiltrip]

I've got a 160 gb iPod Classic with well over 100 gb of music and I would like to get an iPod Touch. Unfortunately the 128 gb Touch has not happened yet, so I am looking for ideas for dealing with a device that can't hold all my music. A couple of thoughts --

1. I could copy "essential" playlists to the iPod and then fill in the rest randomly. The problem I see with this, though, is that if I have something like 20 gb to fill in, it's going to take a LONG time to sync the iPod every time, because the old random 20 gb will have to be replaced with the new random 20 gb.

2. I could probably get 50% more music on the iPod by using the "convert to 128 AAC" method. Question about that -- do the new AAC files just go to the iPod itself, or does iTunes make copies that are saved to the computer as well? If it's the latter, that's a whole bunch more space on my computer's hard drive that I don't want to use.

Any thoughts? Any other creative ideas for dealing with this issue?

Thanks.

I have both a 160GB Classic, and a new 32GB Touch. I keep everything on my Classic at 192 quality. On my touch, I select the covert to 128 ACC to save space. I believe all it does is convert it on the way to your iPod. I don't THINK it makes a new copy on your hard drive, but if I'm wrong, hopefully someone who knows different will correct me there.

 

[Ivan P]

I have both a 160GB Classic, and a new 32GB Touch. I keep everything on my Classic at 192 quality. On my touch, I select the covert to 128 ACC to save space. I believe all it does is convert it on the way to your iPod. I don't THINK it makes a new copy on your hard drive, but if I'm wrong, hopefully someone who knows different will correct me there.

You're correct, it converts on-the-fly as the iPod is syncing, so the additional 128kbps files are never stored on your computer.

 

[skiltrip]

You're correct, it converts on-the-fly as the iPod is syncing, so the additional 128kbps files are never stored on your computer.

Thanks for confirming that.

Also to the OP, the process of syncing songs to your iPod at the converted 128ACC is very long and tedious indeed. The processing isn't as quick as you'd like it to be. It's best to just drag what you want onto your iPod, then walk away and do something, cause it can take a while.

 

[Scott549]

Thanks for confirming that.

Also to the OP, the process of syncing songs to your iPod at the converted 128ACC is very long and tedious indeed. The processing isn't as quick as you'd like it to be. It's best to just drag what you want onto your iPod, then walk away and do something, cause it can take a while.

Is the process slow even after the first time?

 

[skiltrip]

Is the process slow even after the first time?

Yeah, I think so, cause it's converting it each time, and not keeping a copy anywhere. Which is the most efficient thing to do as far as space is concerned. But not very efficient when it comes to time.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

Also remember that seasonal music (like Christmas music) you may not need to have on your iPod all the time. Plus you're going to want space for apps, email, etc.

 

[Scott549]

Yeah, I think so, cause it's converting it each time, and not keeping a copy anywhere. Which is the most efficient thing to do as far as space is concerned. But not very efficient when it comes to time.

You would think it could just do some sort of matching. But if it's going to make the sync process take a long time every time, I don't think it's worth doing.

 

[skiltrip]

You would think it could just do some sort of matching. But if it's going to make the sync process take a long time every time, I don't think it's worth doing.

Before you let me sway you, do it and see how much it annoys you. It might not bother you that much.
Cause it sure helps the touch keep a decent amount of free space.

 

[Warbitrary]

Yeah, I think so, cause it's converting it each time, and not keeping a copy anywhere. Which is the most efficient thing to do as far as space is concerned. But not very efficient when it comes to time.

It doesn't convert each time if the song is already on the iPod. Only the first sync should be slow, unless you have a random playlist refreshing everytime you plug your iPod.

 

[sracer]

My music collection is an order of magnitude larger than even an iPod Classic's capacity. But rather than downsampling the music on sync, I prefer to make liberal use of playlists, smartplaylists, and genius mixes.

For example:
I have 15 Beatles album CDs. I don't need/want to have the entire contents of all 15 albums on my player. I rated the songs that I love and like, and then created a smartplaylist called "Beatlemania" that selectively and automatically creates a playlist of a certain minimum rating. I then sync that smartplaylist.
That's just one example, iTunes has some pretty advanced features for generating playlists.

For those albums where I DO want the entire thing synced, I select it. Since I have multiple devices, I have a "base" playlist (for each device) that contains the albums and individual tracks that I want to sync. This "base" playlist is never used for playback but only for syncing.

I also selectively sync some of the Genius mixes. I find them fun ways to mix the music up a bit.

With my approach, I am able to nearly always have the music that I'm looking for whether it is on an 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB device.

 

[skiltrip]

It doesn't convert each time if the song is already on the iPod. Only the first sync should be slow, unless you have a random playlist refreshing everytime you plug your iPod.

Thanks. I was talking more in the lines of. Tranferring a song, deleting it at some point, then transferring it on again at another point. I was misunderstanding the OP I think.

 

[aznguyen316]

how is the audio quality of the 128 AAC? Going from a lossy to lossy right? Is it a noticeable difference if most of my music is ~192kbps VBR

 

[dave1812dave]

I've got a 160 gb iPod Classic with well over 100 gb of music and I would like to get an iPod Touch. Unfortunately the 128 gb Touch has not happened yet, so I am looking for ideas for dealing with a device that can't hold all my music. A couple of thoughts --

1. I could copy "essential" playlists to the iPod and then fill in the rest randomly. The problem I see with this, though, is that if I have something like 20 gb to fill in, it's going to take a LONG time to sync the iPod every time, because the old random 20 gb will have to be replaced with the new random 20 gb.

2. I could probably get 50% more music on the iPod by using the "convert to 128 AAC" method. Question about that -- do the new AAC files just go to the iPod itself, or does iTunes make copies that are saved to the computer as well? If it's the latter, that's a whole bunch more space on my computer's hard drive that I don't want to use.

Any thoughts? Any other creative ideas for dealing with this issue?

Thanks.

Are u aware you can select ALL songs (or however many you would like) and convert songs to any of the available options, and just let it "do it's thing" for many hours? Then go back to itunes and put the files in BIT RATE order and then move those files to another folder. Delete them from the current library. open a new library. that's what I did years ago in order to convert over 1,000 songs from stereo to mono (I'm deaf in one ear), and also to convert to lower bit rate to cram more songs on my shuffles.

 

[Alaerian]

how is the audio quality of the 128 AAC? Going from a lossy to lossy right? Is it a noticeable difference if most of my music is ~192kbps VBR

It's not very noticeable in my opinion. I tend to keep my music in higher bitrates or lossless formats, but I needed to swap to 128AAC for the pure storage constraints on a 16GB iPhone 2G and a 16GB Nano. As I use the music on the two of those when I'm running or whatnot, it's perfect.

 

[Carouser]

(1) Keep the Classic and just wait for a larger iPod Touch (I'm being serious).

If you still want an iPod Touch now for its other features, then

(2) get the iPod Touch and just put what you want on it ('essential playlists') plus some smart playlists and as you use it see if you find yourself missing the music which isn't on it and whether it's that big a deal to you.

Smart playlists, as sracer pointed out, are very helpful:

Are you used to using smart playlists? If you just dump all your files on your Classic, maybe not. Using options such as 'not played in the last X months' gives you music you may not have listened to in a while and forgotten about. The option 'Skip count is less than X' gets rid of things you never listen to much. You can exclude files played in the last week, or those over a particular play count, so you don't have all the same stuff. And any of these in combination and more. iTunes will update the contents of your smart playlists automatically. It is very easy and useful.

 

[Scott549]

(1) Keep the Classic and just wait for a larger iPod Touch (I'm being serious).

If you still want an iPod Touch now for its other features, then

(2) get the iPod Touch and just put what you want on it ('essential playlists') plus some smart playlists and as you use it see if you find yourself missing the music which isn't on it and whether it's that big a deal to you.

Smart playlists, as sracer pointed out, are very helpful:

Are you used to using smart playlists? If you just dump all your files on your Classic, maybe not. Using options such as 'not played in the last X months' gives you music you may not have listened to in a while and forgotten about. The option 'Skip count is less than X' gets rid of things you never listen to much. You can exclude files played in the last week, or those over a particular play count, so you don't have all the same stuff. And any of these in combination and more. iTunes will update the contents of your smart playlists automatically. It is very easy and useful.

This is basically what I will probably end up doing. I don't think the 128 conversion thing is going to be worth the trouble for me. My next dilemma will be do I go for the 32 gb or the 64 gb? Neither can come close to holding all my music, so maybe the 32 gb is the way to go; I can select playlists to put on it. Then in a year I can upgrade to the 128 gb.

 

[apple-ette]

+1 for smart playlists and some per-device base playlists, as others have suggested

 

[SlamJam12]

Minimize

I do not know if you are willing to do this. You could look through everything you have and clean it up. Check if there are any repetitions of songs you may have. Music you may never want anymore could be thrown out. I understand you want everything you have. I am just a minimalist that likes to keep things organized and recognized.

 

[Scott549]

OK, I've got an idea. Make 128 kbps AAC copies of my entire library. Just once. Copy those to new iPod. Then use manual sync, adding only new stuff. Problem -- is there an easy way to do this without messing up my whole iTunes library? Could I do it with an external hard drive? Is there a way to select my whole library, do the convert to 128 operation, and put all the converted files on an external hard drive, without duplicates being put on my computer's hard drive?

 

[Warbitrary]

OK, I've got an idea. Make 128 kbps AAC copies of my entire library. Just once. Copy those to new iPod. Then use manual sync, adding only new stuff. Problem -- is there an easy way to do this without messing up my whole iTunes library? Could I do it with an external hard drive? Is there a way to select my whole library, do the convert to 128 operation, and put all the converted files on an external hard drive, without duplicates being put on my computer's hard drive?

Create another library by holding the option key when iTunes starts up.
In the new library, go in the Advanced menu, hold down the option key, click Convert to AAC…
Select your main music library.

Doing this would be practically the same as enabling "Convert to 128kbps" in the iPod settings, so don't waste your time, just use that option. Is there something wrong with it?

 

[Scott549]

He-aac?

I was playing around with iTunes over the weekend, using the "convert to AAC" option. I noticed that there is a format called high-efficiency AAC encoding that goes up to 80 kbps. I did the conversion to this format with several files previously encoded at 320 kbps or 200+ vbr mp3. The sound is amazingly good -- I am not even sure I can tell the difference between the 80 kbps file and the original on Grado SR-60 headphones or Klipsch X5 in-ear monitors. Has anyone else tried this? It seems like a realistic option.

 

[aznguyen316]

I was playing around with iTunes over the weekend, using the "convert to AAC" option. I noticed that there is a format called high-efficiency AAC encoding that goes up to 80 kbps. I did the conversion to this format with several files previously encoded at 320 kbps or 200+ vbr mp3. The sound is amazingly good -- I am not even sure I can tell the difference between the 80 kbps file and the original on Grado SR-60 headphones or Klipsch X5 in-ear monitors. Has anyone else tried this? It seems like a realistic option.

Interesting.. how fast was the conversion speed compared to the normal 128kbps?

 

[Scott549]

Interesting.. how fast was the conversion speed compared to the normal 128kbps?

I really don't know because I only converted a few, one at a time. It seemed pretty fast, though. Maybe about ten seconds per track.

 

[protectyaknees8]

I am planning on using a 64G touch as my player and use my old 80GB as a place to store what I dont have room for on the new touch.
That way I can easily move music back and forth when traveling without bringing along a computer.

Might as well get use out of a stylish disk, even though it cant play music anymore!


I have always had space issues, I was really hoping for that rumored 128GB....