iPod iPod Classic Questions

[menthol moose]

I'm thinking about getting an iPod classic for my birthday this year, and I had a couple of questions about it:

- Is there any difference in the feel of the black and the silver versions? Do either of them scratch or scuff more easily than the other?
- Is there any limit on the size of individual songs? I'm ripping my music right now in Apple Lossless format, and I want to play it on my iPod, but a couple of my songs are around 25 minutes long and would take up at least 100MB.
- What is the display really like? Is it easy to watch videos and movies for any long amount of time?

 

[zbarsky]

I bought a black 80gb Ipod Classic over the christmas period. I was racked with doubts after reading various forums, but took the plunge and bought it after watching some video reviews and positive forum posts.

It's fantastic! The User Interface is great and the ipod has huge storage ability. I've ripped movies with videora (windows) and loaded it with 2000+ mp3s. It's fine for watching movies, picture quality is fantastic, super sharp. The Coverflow feature is fine too, takes a second usually to load the album art but it's not a huge deal as some have made it out to be, since the update to the firmware. Ripping a 25min audio track will also pose no problems. Protect it from scuffs with a silicon case!

 

[SXR]

I bought a black 80gb Ipod Classic over the christmas period. I was racked with doubts after reading various forums, but took the plunge and bought it after watching some video reviews and positive forum posts.

It's fantastic! The User Interface is great and the ipod has huge storage ability. I've ripped movies with videora (windows) and loaded it with 2000+ mp3s. It's fine for watching movies, picture quality is fantastic, super sharp. The Coverflow feature is fine too, takes a second usually to load the album art but it's not a huge deal as some have made it out to be, since the update to the firmware. Ripping a 25min audio track will also pose no problems. Protect it from scuffs with a silicon case!

Or protect it with an iPod Sock!

 

[fabian9]

no no nooo... protect it with an invisibleShield so you can still enjoy the beautiful design. unlike if u put it into a sock or a silicone case... just don't drop it, the invisible shield will protect it against scratches very nicely.

 

[kuebby]

Lossless is a great idea, but totally unnecessary on your iPod. 100MB songs will eat up your HD space very quickly. My recommendation is to keep two copies of songs, one for your computer/home theater in lossless and an AAC or MP3 copy for your iPod.

Playing files that big will also eat your battery life. Reading the HD is the main use of battery life and with such large files it willing be reading almost constantly.

 

[menthol moose]

Lossless is a great idea, but totally unnecessary on your iPod. 100MB songs will eat up your HD space very quickly. My recommendation is to keep two copies of songs, one for your computer/home theater in lossless and an AAC or MP3 copy for your iPod.

Isn't that wasting even more space, keeping two copies of the files? I really don't have that much music, maybe around ten to twenty gigs if I rip all of it in Lossless format, and battery life won't be too much of an issue for me, so I think the increase in sound quality, while minimal, won't be much of a problem.

I actually have another question for you people. What is the maximum resolution the iPod classic will support? I know the screen is only something like 440x320, but I've heard that it support videos with higher resolutions but won't play them. Has anyone heard anything about this?

 

[TheNightPhoenix]

640 x 480 is the official maximum.

There is of course a but
People have had a lot of luck with video that is wider but no so tall.
Basically the ipod can't play files with more then 307200 pixels.
640x480=307200 therefore its maximum is 640 x 480.

But a much wider 720 x 425 movie should also play as it has around the same number of pixels. I've had mixed luck myself with wider content but it can be done.

 

[faustus67]

I have the black 160gb Classic and use Apple Lossless (it just sounds better!). As I listen to a fair amount of classical music, I have some pieces that are over 45 minutes and have not had a problem listening to them on my iPod. I checked both the silver and black at the apple store and could not feel any difference between the two. And as someone else suggested, there are ways to protect your kit.

Happy listening!

dave

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

they're awesome, the black is way nicer looking than the silver. And get some sort of case for it, it doesn't matter which one. It's going to end up with scratches on the screen and back unless you put some sort of plastic coating on it. But applesauce will take the scratches right out as long as you don't let them get too bad. It even takes scratches out of the chrome backing.

Get and iPod and enjoy it. If you are using a Macintosh, download handbrake, it will convert your videos to iPod compatible format and resolution automatically; it will even rip DVD movies.

SLC

 

[motulist]

I've got the silver iPod and it rocks! No scratches on the shimmery type silver on the front, but the mirror silver face back is as scratch prone as they've always been since the first iPod came out on day one about 6 (?) years ago, but who cares about the back?

And I watch movies and tv shows on it all the time and really enjoy it! The screen is just big enough to not feel cramped at all, which can't be said of the screen on the nano.

All in all I highly recommend the 80 gig Classic.

they're awesome, the black is way nicer looking than the silver.

You're crazy! Before I saw the silver I was almost definitely gonna buy a 30 gig fram the previous generation because I thing the matte black classic looks so dull and boring! We have a difference in opinion - let's fight!

download handbrake, it will convert your videos to iPod compatible format and resolution automatically; it will even rip DVD movies.

When you're ripping movies from dvd straight to iPod, then yes, handbrake is a great solution. But when you're converting existing video files on your disk into iPod format, isquint is the best.

 

[theknightshift]

The week after Christmas I bought a black 80 gig iPod classic and I'm absolutely in love with it!! I do some video production stuff and I've got most of my work on it to show people. Like a little over a year ago I ran for school board and made this crazy commercial and now instead of just being able to tell people about it and to go find it on YouTube, I can show it to them

In addition to my own stuff, it also has all 3 seasons of Lost on it (ripped/encoded from my DVD sets with HandBrake), all the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Matrix movies, most of Weird Al Yankovic's music videos, all six episodes of Police Squad and a bunch of Sesame Street sketches, not to mention tons of music and podcasts, bunch more stuff... and it's STILL got over 30 gigs of room left!! Which is plenty of spare for me.

The audio quality is the best of any MP3 player I've used before, and the image quality on video playback is incredible.

Like people are saying you want to protect it from scratches. My iPod has a clear hard plastic cover on it that still lets you admire it while keeping it nice and clean and scratch-free. I found it at a Staples store for about fifteen bucks.

So yeah, take the plunge dude: you'll be glad that you did