iPod classic

[Hiram]

Not really computer related.

Does anyone have an iPod Classic.  I've been thinking of getting one for the storage and easy access to my music. I have about 160Gb of music, so I could easily fill it up.  I wonder what it would be like to navigate this amount of music on the iPod?

TIA

[Shara]

IMHO you should get one of the sony or samsung alternatives, same drives, no forced itunes installs and stuff

[Hiram]

IMHO you should get one of the sony or samsung alternatives, same drives, no forced itunes installs and stuff

I had thought about it.  I will have a search see what I can come up with.

PS The problem is I need/want a large capacity MP3 player, nothing seems to come close to the iPod Classic.

[Shara]

Zune or Archos?

[Hiram]

Zune or Archos?

I quite fancy a Zune, not sure I can get one here.  I shall just wait until I'm in the US next month and get one then.

[rtpoe]

By my rough calculations, one song runs about 5 Meg. A one-hour mix can take up about 100 Meg.

You're looking at putting a full month of non-stop music onto that thing. Do you really have that much music? Do the batteries hold that much charge?

Look for something with video capability. A feature-length movie in MP4 format can be close to 300 Meg...

[CarlTL]

Well that 5 meg amount is if you are using the normal mp3 mp4 format, there is the lossless codec which runs the files size SIGNIFICANTLY larger.

[Shara]

well you could also get like a 60 gb drive, and replace the contents once a month assuming 24/7 listening :p

[Hiram]

You're looking at putting a full month of non-stop music onto that thing. Do you really have that much music? Do the batteries hold that much charge?

Yes I do have that much.  And, the reason I want to have it, or most of it in one place, is, because I will be traveling for a couple of months without access to my PC.

[Shara]

rtpoe is so yesterday. A lot of people nowadays have 100+ gb of music

[Hiram]

well you could also get like a 60 gb drive, and replace the contents once a month assuming 24/7 listening :p

I'll be away from home for about 8 weeks and it would be nice to have the majority of my music with me.  When I'm at home I listen to everything on my laptop.  But its too big to lug around some of the places I may be going.

[SwitcherX]

I quite fancy a Zune, not sure I can get one here.  I shall just wait until I'm in the US next month and get one then.

Does anyone use a Zune?

I've heard that the new ones coming out soon are suppose to be nice though.

[Hiram]

Does anyone use a Zune?

Bill Gate's children do.

[dennisnewark]

I'll be away from home for about 8 weeks

Then you'll want something that's reliable and isn't prone to crashing on you.

I'm actually not sure at all where the iPod stands in terms of reliability these days.  Mine's been going strong for years and years now, which is impressive considering the amount of use it gets, but it's not always been the smoothest of relationships.  However, for every problem there's always been a fairly random solution - such as the 5 stage reset combo that allows you to charge your way out of the incredibly frustrating 'Very Low Battery Life' error  .

In terms of amounts of music, I think it's essential to have a player that can hold all of your music.  I don't particularly want all that music on my mp3 player, but given the work required to hand pick music from a big collection it's just so much easier to drag it all across and be done with it.  My headaches began the moment my music collection went over my iPod limit of 60Gb.

Oh, and one more thing - navigating that much music will be a horrible nightmare, I find it hard enough with 60Gb which is why I almost always use playlists.  I actually - shock horror - like iTunes for its smart playlists, I just quickly set up a few tags when I add new music and boom, everything's done for me and my 50+ playlists are updated for me.  I think I remember you saying you were off to Oz, well if you get yourself an iTrip type thingy then you won't want to be wading through all that music every time an album finishes while driving along...

[Hiram]

Dennis,

Some very good points there.

You have it spot on - my mood changes, and so does the music I listen too.  Having most of my mp3 collection available is desirable for finding that track for the moment.  

One thing I'd been wondering about was navigating iPod.  My music collection isn't cataloged into folders, it is in folders, but they are just marked with a number from when I used to back-up my music to CD's.  I have 270 folders with approximately 700Mb of music in each - all of which is completely mixed.   I was planning to dump 120Mb of music onto the iPod, maybe that's not such a plan.

The iTrip seems useful, I drive for a living, so I could use it at work instead of being forced to listen to the drivel in the wireless.

One thing about the iPod that does bug me is the battery - wouldn't it be better if I could use some alkaline cells.  I know there isn't the room in the current design, but I'd trade size for convenience.

[dennisnewark]

A lot of people wire their players straight into their car's sound system, which is for sure a good idea, personally i use a Griffin iTrip that charges my iPod through my 12 volt socket, as well as giving me a complete frequency range to choose from (some limit you to 4 or 5 preset choices).

My music collection isn't cataloged...they are just marked with a number...I was planning to dump 120Mb of music onto the iPod

Ouch!  No audio tags at all?  So you can't even see what you're choosing?

[Hiram]

No audio tags at all? 

Thankfully most of it has tags and is properly named, just it's not organised in any logical way.  One day, I will sort it all out. 

[tdotter]

The Zune!
Kind of funny to hear that device name again.
When that was released it was like someone saying goodbye to their friend boarding the Titanic.
"hey,have a nice safe trip."