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Ipod 5g- Battery Life

post #1 of 7
7/30/06 at 9:48pm
Thread Starter 
I've had an Ipod 4th generation for quite some time and have been very happy with it. I recently purchased a PA2V2 amp and a DIK line out adapter. Right before leaving a on a trip to Europe last week I purchased a 5the generation pod and went on my way. I was dismayed to see that my fully charged unit barely lasted 5 hours. My g4, using the normal headphone jack and no amp lasted nearly 12 hours.

Is the poor batter life normal? Is it normal when using the line out and an amp? Or should I take it back and get a new one to bet the expected battery life?

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
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post #2 of 7
7/30/06 at 10:47pm
I believe you have a defective unit if it only goes 5 hours.

My iPod goes like 6, 7, and it has Rockbox firmware which is not as good at conserving battery life. So stock 5G might be say 10+ hours.

It's also possible you constantly had backlight on or something like that, but I assume you'd notice if it happened.
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post #3 of 7
9/9/06 at 9:53pm
i'm getting around 5 hours from using the line-out also. Mine is a refurbed 5g 30gb video.
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post #4 of 7
9/9/06 at 10:01pm
There are a couple things to watch here.

The 60Gb has either a better battery than the 30Gb, or the bigger buffer (64 Mb cf. 32 Mb) causes better battery life.

The claimed 20 hours battery life on the 60Gb is under a specific set of circumstances. Back light off, repeating an AAC 128kbps file.

Backlight will reduce battery life.

Selecting a new song/album will affect battery life as the HD will have to spin up to fill the buffer with more information.

It is likely that some codecs will use more battery life as they either need more processing power or the codec is not as optimised (sort of the same thing).

I have no information on the effect of the line out.

h
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post #5 of 7
9/9/06 at 10:40pm
My 30GB iPod 5G contains AAC files generally averaging in the 120-150kbps range and I tend to play whole albums straight through, either with an unamped headphone at work or with a car cassette adapter through the dock connector in the car. The backlight runs for 5 seconds at a time and I don't use any EQ or soundcheck.

I definitely get more than 5 hours but after about 7-8 hours the battery is getting low enough I usually recharge it. Almost certainly by 8 hours the battery icon will have switched to red. Based on my experience with my previous iPod (a Mini) you can actually play music for quite a while after the battery icon shows it as all the way low. I haven't run down my 5G yet but wouldn't be surprised if I got 10 hours or so before it actually shuts down.
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post #6 of 7
9/10/06 at 4:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brent Hutto
My 30GB iPod 5G contains AAC files generally averaging in the 120-150kbps range and I tend to play whole albums straight through, either with an unamped headphone at work or with a car cassette adapter through the dock connector in the car. The backlight runs for 5 seconds at a time and I don't use any EQ or soundcheck.

I definitely get more than 5 hours but after about 7-8 hours the battery is getting low enough I usually recharge it. Almost certainly by 8 hours the battery icon will have switched to red. Based on my experience with my previous iPod (a Mini) you can actually play music for quite a while after the battery icon shows it as all the way low. I haven't run down my 5G yet but wouldn't be surprised if I got 10 hours or so before it actually shuts down.
less than 10hrs battery life, thats shocking, i thought apple claim 14hrs

i get just over 20hrs at 192 mp3 on my sony hd5,
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post #7 of 7
9/10/06 at 7:32pm
Well, it is what it is. My old iPod Mini was good for about 10-12 hours when it was new but it's down to less than half that after being left in the hot car over two years. My estimate of 8 hours was just a ballpark guess, I haven't bothered to run it down and time it.

Let's see, it plays for about 15-20 minutes each way during my commute. Then I usually play it a total of around 1-2 hours most days at work. Maybe another 45 minutes or so in the evening once in a while. By the end of a 5-day workweek it is definitely getting into the red icon. Five times two hours works out to more like 10 hours rather than 8 like I said. Maybe 9-10 hours to get into the red and then I know my Mini would run another hour at that point. Something like that.

I usually just stick it on the charger every third night or so and it never gets particularly low. The iPod sure lasts longer on a charge than my buffed-up Portaphile with Class A and Wide Bandwidth turned on. Now that's a battery hog.
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