d0tn3t Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 I have purchased a G1 5g ipod of trade-me (think eBay, NZ style), and I have a couple of questions: 1. I use cdex (cdexos.sf.net) and lame (-extreme) to create my mp3s. Does the iPod read the tags properly?, because I know Nero doesnt always read these mp3 tags right. 2. Also, do VBR mp3s use more battery? what is the most efficient format? I dont really wanna use aac, so the difference would need to be noticable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxondale. Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 1. i think the ipod does read the tags properly 2. not sure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the evn show Posted April 17, 2004 Share Posted April 17, 2004 1. The iPod doesn't read tags directly from the MP3, it reads the form it's library of songs which is created by iTunes (or whatever 3rd party software you might prefer). If itunes can read your tags then the iPod does too. As long as you stick to using standard ID3 tags you shouldn't have an issue. Keep in mind the ipod only cares about a few tags: Artist, album, genre, composer, volume adjustment, and title. IIRC rating is stored in the library, not the MP3 - though ipod still understands it. The ipod supports up to 320kb vbr mp3s. Assuming you don't have any weird (damaged) files they should play just fine. I haven't had any issues with VBR on mine - but I don't have very many vbr files. If you're using smart-playlists then it uses a lot more to generate the play list (take a look at the options itunes provides) but only displays the ones above. 2. The most efficient format is the smallest so 32kb FBR MP3 would be the best to preserve battery life. Why? The iPod has 32mb of ram. As you can imagine, spinning the hard disk constantly would go through the battery in no-time, so instead it looks at your play list, reads in as many of the tracks into ram as it can, and then shuts off the hard disk (this also protects the drive from damage when you're running about). if you're using uncompressed AIFF files the ipod can only cache a song or two in the best case. For long songs it's likely to be spinning up the drive once or twice per song! Spinning up a stopped drive is the only thing that drains battery more than just keeping the drive spinning (think of how hard it is to start a car moving when you push it vs how hard it is to keep it going once it's rolling). Smaller files = more files in cache = less hitting the hard disk = longer battery life. Apple gets the 8 hour spec for using 128kb AAC with all fancy options disabled on the ipod (volume correction, back light, equalizer), a middle volume, and not jumping around the file system. If you're using larger files - you'll pay a hit in battery life, but it's probably not going to be as bad as you might think unless you're going the uncompressed-audio route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d0tn3t Posted April 17, 2004 Author Share Posted April 17, 2004 Wow! thanks for the informative reply :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yudi_lks Posted April 18, 2004 Share Posted April 18, 2004 Wow.. thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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