Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPod Classic VS iPod Touch, for entertainment in car and home, please Help to decide.

1

10-Dee-Q

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 10, 2006
511
32
Bandung, West Java, Indonesia & Singapore
hi, straight to the point.
i own a blackberry phone as my mobile phone
and
i own a macbookpro for working
and
i also own an iPad for playing games and watching some movies on the go.

Now i have a question, I'm planning to buy either the
iPod touch 64GB
or
iPod classic 160GB
and i intend to use it as a music centre in my home
i also planned to buy either bose sound dock or the geneva labs speaker that allows the iPod to be charged and play at the same time through the docking.
and also
I'm planning to use either of them in my car
i have bought the pioneer touch screen head unit that allows me to play music and videos from the iPod.

now i can't seems to decide to buy which one.
my music collection currently is about 300GB
so the classic with its 160GB will provide me with more content on the go.
but also i've installed a 5.1 car theater system on my car, for my children to watch when we are in the car.
i know that the touch can played a HD video (720p) with no problem
but can the classic play 720p videos too ?

and what other things i should considered for my usage?

once again i'm gonna use them strictly for home entertainment (connected via speaker dock) and car entertainment (connected via pioneer dock cable too)
so i don't really need any other thing like bigger screen, games , apps or etc.
cause i have my iPad for that.
so basically I'm gonna leave the iPod on my car or on my sound dock all the time.

please advice me and if possible let me know that pros and cons of both of them,
thank you very much.
 
With a music library that exceeds the size of both your choices, it's a tough call.

For whether the iPod Classic can output 720p, I don't think so. This is what the Apple site says about video (looks like 480p max?):
H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 3.0 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Click to expand...

The only reasons I could think of getting the iPod Touch would be if you wanted to use it to control your iTunes library on your MacBook Pro and if you liked using apps like Pandora. Reasons against those are that you can use your iPad for the former and you'd need a Wi-Fi connection at all times for the latter (which may not be possible in your car, for example)

I would wager that assuming the iPod Classic can output video correctly in your car, 480p would serve just fine for you and your family.

While I personally would prefer an iPod Touch over an iPod Classic, I'd have to recommend the Classic in your case. The 160GB gives you about a 100GB advantage in holding your library and if you down convert the quality of your songs to 128kbps or something, you might be able to fit your whole library (assuming you have some higher quality files, that is). Tough choice though!
 
Get the touch & iTunes Match. You don't have to actually store your whole library on device, especially for your at home use. For the car, Get a Seagate GoFlex Satellite, which stores 500GB and serves it up wirelessly to the iPad or the Touch, but not the classic.Link to GoFlex on Amazon
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I guess that's the dilemma - size vs. better screen, more functionality. I've still got a 4.5 year old 80GB classic running strong that is pretty much at capacity. It works for my occasional use (definitely not daily, few days a week maybe), but when I travel from Chicago back home to Michigan via bus/train, I wish I had a touch or a tablet for entertainment/media consumption.

I can't justify the purchase at the moment with a fully functional iPod still, but when it dies I'll be looking into the same sort of thing.
 
Intell said:
The iPod Touch 3G and newer can playback 1080p content. iTunes will even sync it over if the iPod is running iOS 5 or newer.
Click to expand...
It down converts it though doesn't it? The iPod Touch doesn't have a 1920x1080 display, so you're obviously not getting the full effect of 1080p.

It also doesn't output 1080p, only the iPhone can do that. iPod Touch specs-
  • H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
  • MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
  • Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
  • Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Apple VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cables sold separately)
Click to expand...

iPhone 4s specs-
  • AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV support at 720p
  • Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately)
  • Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cables sold separately)
  • Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Click to expand...

Digital AV specs-
Mirroring supported only by iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.
Video out supports up to 1080p for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S and up to 720p for iPad, iPhone 4 and iPod touch (4th generation). Movies play at up to 720p.
Click to expand...
 
BreakGuy said:
Here's the Technical Specifications for the iPod Touch 3rd Generation. Help me find it say it supports 1080p playback.
Click to expand...

Let me point you to the date of last edit "Last Modified: April 08, 2010". This is before iOS 5 was released. With the release of iOS 5 the iPod Touch 3G and newer can have 1080p content synced to it and will play it. My on 3Gs was even able to playback 1080p content on iOS 3.1.3 that was not transferred over via iTunes without a problem.

While the iPod Touch's screen cannot reproduce all of the pixels, it will playback the media without a problem. On a jailbroken iPod Touch 4G with a correctly modified system, the HDMI adapter can playback the full 1080p video without a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back