Help with iPod and accessories

Oleron

Muse
Oleron
Joined
Feb 17, 2004
Messages
940
I've been considering buying an iPod for some time but I've never used one and I'm not sure it will do what I want.

I want to convert my CD collection into MP3 format (or some other format, I don't know a great deal about audio formats) and download it to a storage device that will play the music through my home stereo.

I'm not really that interested in carrying the device with me or listening to music 'on the move'. I'm just not that stylish.

I have heard that an iPod can be connected through some sort of docking station to a stereo line-in. I have also heard of an iTrip FM radio transmitter that will broadcast to a home stereo. The iTrip sounds good because I could then use the iPod as a virtual 'remote control' for song selection, all without getting off my lazy arse.

Or so I believe. Has anyone used their iPod's in this way? Does it work as advertised? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
 
Yap, I've used iPods in both of those ways. At home, we have a docking station hooked up to a stereo, so when I come home from the gym I can just plug it right in and turn on the radio and continue listening. You actually don't need the station to do this, I think you can plug the iPod directly into the stereo.

A friend of mine got iTrip and it was a lot of fun. We used it in the car on a long drive -- the only problem was occassionally needing to change the station to find one that wasn't in use. I'm not sure how far from the radio you can be, though, or how good your reception is going to be, so you might still need to get up off your lazy arse. :)

My 15 gig iPod is just about full, and I think there's about eight days of music on there. Good for raves.
:D


Anybody have a mini? I'm thinking of getting one. A pink one! Yes. I'm a girl.
 
The iPod minis rule. The new touch-pad interface (that the newest non-minis now also have) is great.

They are unbelieveably light, and you can get a velcro arm band to hold them. You would barely know it was there.
 
Thank you Rebecca and SpaceFluffer(?!, no I'm not going to ask...)

I think I'll go for the iTrip option with a "man's" iPod - the 40GB one ;)

I'll probably need about 40GB to store my entire collection of heavy metal classics.:D

Am I right in saying that each song takes up about 4MB on average?
 
Oleron said:
Thank you Rebecca and SpaceFluffer(?!, no I'm not going to ask...)

I think I'll go for the iTrip option with a "man's" iPod - the 40GB one ;)

I'll probably need about 40GB to store my entire collection of heavy metal classics.:D

Am I right in saying that each song takes up about 4MB on average?
Click to expand...

Eh, about that, I guess. Depends on the song.


And REALLY, a MAN'S iPod, eh? Don't make me come over there and beat the crap out of you with my girly pink mini! Or at least cute you to death. It could happen. Seriously.
 
Aren't those the devices that you have to throw away when the batteries are dead since a replacement cost too much? You could just burn all mp3's onto CD or DVD and use your DVD-player in your home also.
 
That's a point. Is the iPod rechargeable? Can it be run on a mains adapter?
 
The iPod is rechargeable, and if you get the extended plan, Apple will replace the battery when it croaks. Or, I read in Popular Science recently how to replace it yourself. At your own risk of course.

I bought the extended plan, since I'm too chicken to try replacing the battery myself.
 
I have the 3rd Generation 15 GB iPod with docking station and also an iTrip and I it's kind of my favorite gadget.
To link to your home stereo, get a docking station (the new 40 GB has one anyway I think) because it has a real line out which is set to the correct constant output level. The iTrip gets into the earphone jack and the output level depends on the volume setting of the iPod. The main point for the line out jack of the iPod is that iTrip transmits in the FM frequency and is therefore restricted to 22050 Hz sampling rate which is about half the rate suitable for high fidelity like e.g. the 44000 Hz used by Audio CD which is about what you need to reproduce the highest frequencies audible to humans ( about 20000 Hz). To put it shortly: iTrip looses a lot of quality (might not matter to you because you seem to listen to heavy metal :D ). It's great for using the iPod in the car though, especially when you compare it to those audia cassette adapters which really suck.

As to your question about the size of the MP3 files...

Depends largely on the sampling rate you use for compression. Most people use 128Kbit/s which is fine. I use 160 kBit/s (just because I can) and the calculation of the size is straight forward:

Example:
AC/DC "Ride on"
Duration: 5 minutes 50 s = 350s
Sampling rate (160bit/s * 350s) / 8 bit/Byte = 7000000 Byte or 7MB
On my harddisc the song takes precisely 7050347 Bytes due to some overhead in the MP3 format and ID3 tags.

Below are the sizes (in Kilo-Byte) of some of my CDs converted to MP3 with 160KBit/s.

39975 ./Miles_Davis_Tutu
80520 ./Miroslav_Vitous_Universal_Syncopations
53563 ./Muddy_Waters_Hoochie_Coochi_Man
44250 ./Neil_Young_Harvest
50263 ./Niels_Henning_Orsted_Pedersen_Eternal_Traveller
53215 ./Norah_Jones_Come_Away_With_Me
54962 ./OMC_How_Bizarre
44704 ./Oscar_Peterson_The_Trio
71060 ./O_Brother_Where_Art_Thou
48248 ./Passport - Iguaçu
43787 ./Pat_Metheny_Bright_Size_Life

So the average for one CD is somewhere between 40 and 60 MB and a 40 GB iPod should hold something up to 600 to 800 CDs depending on the sampling rate used.

For conversion I recommend EAC (exact audio copy) together with the lame MP3 encoder. It does a great job getting the music off your CD as clearly as possible (doing some smart tricks with the error correction, I guess) and has an interface to freeDB or CDDB to automatically read the correct Album and Title information from the internet and write them as ID3 tags to your new MP3 files.


Hope it helps,

Zee
 
Wow! Thanks for the info ZG. Much appreciated.

Just a pity about your album collection....
:D

...Neil Young's OK though....
 
Oleron said:
Spare me please!

Anything but the pink iPod, kittens even....
Click to expand...

That picture made me go all giggly with excitement. I think I'll go out today and get one. Hee hee! Maybe I'll put a fuzzy sticker on the back.
 
Oleron said:
Sounds painful. :D
Click to expand...

It does.. might be a good point, though. If you buy an iPod you're paying for fashion. If all you want is an MP3 jukebox it might be possible to find something better and cheaper, if less modish. That's just a guess, though, I've not looked into it.
 
A few months ago, I talked to a guy that works at a macstore in MD and he said every person that's ever come in and looked at a mini ended up buying one. Even after they were told the price and the availability (6 week wait).

I curse apple for their outrageous prices but they make some damn good wares.
 
For the true audiophile/geek I suggest the Rio Karma. Lots of info at the Riovolution forums

Better sound quality than iPod, better battery life, better equaliser, better support for formats (OGG Vorbis and FLAC), a MUCH cooler docking station: it GLOWS!, RCA outs, ethernet connection; better ear buds...

Not for the fashion conscious though, it's grey and short and doesn't come with a case nor a remote. The lack of case being the biggest hassle but a guy on the forum above sells a very nice hand-made case (I got the green one). It was basically designed as a no-gimmick DAP, no games, not organiser or phone book etc.

Get one if you're more interested in the music than how you look listening to it. If you're more interested in looking cool then the ipod is your best choice :p
 
OK, that's the hardware questions sorted out - thanks everyone for your excellent advice.

Now for the software!
What do most people use for converting and transferring their music to their iPods?
What I want to do is use a program to convert my CD's into MP3 (or whatever format is flavour of the month) and download them tho the iPod. I want to use something that will quickly convert an entire CD without any fuss. I have about 500 albums to do so I don't want to have to hand-hold the application too much.

Also when the conversion is finished, how do I verify the tracks without listening to each one individually?

My PC has Windows XP and Linux, USB2 and firewire. I don't mind paying a reasonable amount for the software as long as it's good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom