iPod PSP can play gapless, yet ipod can't. Go figure?

[lostless]

I was just messing aroud with my psp and realized that the psp can play back gaplessly using aac only. MP3 still had a small gap on the psp. I found it amazing a psp, meant for games can play gaplesly, yet the ipod can not, which is meant to play music. I just wrote to apple in their feeback page letting them know this. Any one else have an opinion on this matter?

For people that want to test this, just rename your .m4a files to .mp4 files to work on psp ver 2.0 or later.

 

[0098386]

well the PSP has got a 222mhz CPU, the iPod only 80, is it?

Though i doubt thats why the iPod hasn't got gapless. even my pre-2000 MP3 players have gapless. no, i think its in the software. i think its Apple's choice.

 

[rockthecasbah]

i don't see why they just don't make it an option that you can choose if you want gapless on and off, makes sense to me...

 

[kugino]

gapless playback, for me, is the no. 1 thing apple should include in any firmware/software update. classical, musicals, jazz, concerts...just not the same without gapless!

 

[rickvanr]

Id like the cross fade like in iTunes, but I know it'd kill battery life

 

[manosira]

On the opposite note, Ipod Videos can play videos gapless/consecutively, while psps can't. This sucks because i have to select each video i want to play each time, vs having it all play at once.

 

[ITASOR]

I never understood gapless...who cares if there's a 2 second pause between songs? I seriously don't get it.

 

[mcmillan]

I never understood gapless...who cares if there's a 2 second pause between songs? I seriously don't get it.

x2

Most songs have a pause at the end or beginning anyway.

 

[zelmo]

I never understood gapless...who cares if there's a 2 second pause between songs? I seriously don't get it.

For example, import Dark Side of the Moon as individual tracks and play the album back on your iPod. Those little gaps between the tracks really break up the flow of the album. The only option is to import as a single track. But then, what if I just want to hear The Great Gig in the Sky?

 

[lucas]

I never understood gapless...who cares if there's a 2 second pause between songs? I seriously don't get it.

thats all fine and well if youre listening to an album of discrete tracks, as with most crappy pop music these days, but as has already been pointed out not everything is produced to be played as one-hit-wonders on the radio. listening to an album that has been designed to flow (eg. tool - lateralus), or classical music, or live DJ sets, or just about any live performance, there just arent any patches of silence and a 2 second gap is disruptive to the playback

 

[amin]

Why gapless?

Many classic rock (example: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles, classic rap (example: Midnight Marauders - A Tribe Called Quest), and live albums of all genres are constructed almost as one song with many movements. The gaps kill the flow. Lack of gapless is the only thing that bothers me about my 4G Ipod.

 

[kainjow]

Comparing the PSP to the iPod is like coming the Gameboy to the cell phone. They are in completely different markets. iPods are for music first, photos and videos second. The PSP is for games first, and all those other things second. So if the PSP does what you want better, buy it. If not, don't. I'm sure Apple could care less about the PSP....

 

[lucas]

Comparing the PSP to the iPod is like coming the Gameboy to the cell phone. They are in completely different markets. iPods are for music first, photos and videos second. The PSP is for games first, and all those other things second. So if the PSP does what you want better, buy it. If not, don't. I'm sure Apple could care less about the PSP....

think you missed the point. the device for games first, other things second, does music playback better than the dedicated device. iPod is supreme in the music management side of things, but still lacking gapless after all these years is really quite pathetic

 

[NicP]

I never understood gapless...who cares if there's a 2 second pause between songs? I seriously don't get it.

for anything dj mixed its horrible, especially on a decent sound system

its also annoying for live recordings and classical pieces

pleanty of people dont get it, thats fine not everyones taste in music is spoilt by the gaps. but for lots of us its a real issue!

 

[fayans]

i don't see why they just don't make it an option that you can choose if you want gapless on and off, makes sense to me...

Join CD Tracks on iTunes Advance menu whilst ripping your CDs maybe the only option for gapless playlist. And I do also think that there should be a default option to opt for gapless or otherwise.

 

[NicP]

Join CD Tracks on iTunes Advance menu whilst ripping your CDs maybe the only option for gapless playlist. And I do also think that there should be a default option to opt for gapless or otherwise.

what they should implement is a way to join the tracks to make 1 long file, but still have seperate track entries in itunes.

aac supports bookmarks in m4b files, it cant be hard to use this kind of bookmarkable file and add seperate entries for each track.

there dosent need to be an option to turn gapless on/off, because files that arent supposed to be played gapless should have a small silence at the end of the file.

 

[lostless]

OK, for all the people that don't get it, I've made some examples.
Ive made 3 tracks from Pink Floyds The Wall. Quick 20 second tracks that ends on the last 10 seconds of one song and the first 10 seconds of the next song.
This is the first track. http://members.cox.net/sdae/cdexample.mp3
This is the original sound form the cd. You shouldent even notice that it's 2 tracks.
The next file is a file fromm the PSP using AAC. http://members.cox.net/sdae/pspaac.mp3.
As you can tell its truly gapless. You may hear a slight click where the sound waves don't quite match up with which happens with compressed music. But its not loud and most of the time it is drowned out with loud music based on other tests ive done. I just happed to use a soft passage on the cd.
The last is the Ipod. http://members.cox.net/sdae/ipodaac.mp3
Same files that were on the psp, yet ipod cant manage gapless. You will hear dead silence for a quick second in the middle of the song and you can see why it's destracting. Especially when trying to play this whole album on an ipod stright through.
Hope that opens some eyes.