[Chopha]

Hi folks,

I’m going to trade my 1st gen Nano to a used 5th gen iPod Video 60GB tomorrow + about $30 in between, but before this I have three questions that I hope you have time to help me with.

1. Why I will get it so cheap (my Nano + about $30) is because the headphone jacket on his iPod is broken – only the left ear get music he say’s. That I really don’t care about since I will be using the dock instead, but I wonder if the headphone jacket is somehow connected to or linked by the dock and if it could be broken as well? To make a long story short I had to play a bit stupid to get this deal to the point it is now, and therefore I cannot show up tomorrow with my amp and dock interconnect and check it. What do you think – do I have to worry at all?

2. Now I have all my music in 320kb/s mp3 files but since I will get a whole lot more space if the deal goes down, I'm thinking of re-importing my CD-collection in Lossless format instead, and the question is if it’s worth the ~5 hours that it will take – from a music quality perspective? Is there a change in quality between 320kb/s mp3 music and Lossless music?

3. Can anyone recommend a program that is good on converting video files into iPod friendly formats?

Thanks in advance…
/Chopha

 

[mrarroyo]

You can always get the iMod and Vinnie will replace that defective earplug jack!

 

[zip22]

1 no, a broken headphone jack will not effect the line out.

2 maybe, you can try converting an album or 2 and see if you can tell the difference. i'm guessing it won't be worth it, though.

3 i haven't done this in a while, but one that came to mind was videora

 

[scottiebabie]

im gonna give a shot here coz me and a fren have done some work to the ipod and the headout jack specifically.

1. zip is totally correct in that the headout circuit is distinct from the lineout so in theory, 1 has no effect on the other. you can replace the headout unit (comes in a whole set) so google for links that sell the headout units. or it could be just a case of a loose or broken connection. how do i know? my headout jack gave me similiar issues and we traced it to a loose internal connection on the headout jack module. give it a shot if u have the required skills as its a free fix.

2. to my ears, its not only possible but the diff btwn 320aac and ALAC is clearly delineated (most of the times atleast) provided u have a good source and ancillary components and esp. an accurate and revealing cans/speakers. i can totally hear it from my modded ipod to the point now that i cant stand listening to lossy anymore. YMMV of'coz.

3. dbpoweramp does a very decent task of format recoding for the best price of nothing! try it out and goodluck.

 

[Chopha]

Thank you guys for the answers.
Seems like I will be having a iPod Video this evening

I think I will re-import my music aswell - I have the space so why not go hard core? We like hard core here, don't we?

/Chopha

PS.
A friend of mine who uses FLAC formats send me a CD last night and I wonder how I can convert it to Lossless without losing any quality?

DS.

 

[barqy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chopha /img/forum/go_quote.gif I think I will re-import my music aswell - I have the space so why not go hard core? We like hard core here, don't we?

Extreme tweaking is the term you're looking for

btw: great deal on the 5th gen.

 

[adamse]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chopha /img/forum/go_quote.gif Thank you guys for the answers. Seems like I will be having a iPod Video this evening I think I will re-import my music aswell - I have the space so why not go hard core? We like hard core here, don't we? /Chopha PS. A friend of mine who uses FLAC formats send me a CD last night and I wonder how I can convert it to Lossless without losing any quality? DS.

FLAC is a lossless codec. It stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec.

 

[firefox360]

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamse /img/forum/go_quote.gif FLAC is a lossless codec. It stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec.

If you want to import into ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) for your iPod, then you'll have to convert the FLAC to WAV, import that into iTunes, and then use iTunes to convert to ALAC. There are external programs that will convert to ALAC directly from FLAC, but they're pretty unreliable (since they are reversed engineered codecs), and your iPod won't read some of them properly.

Although another option would be to Rockbox your new iPod and just use the FLAC files directly. You also won't have to deal with iTunes if you don't like it.

 

[Chopha]

Well I'm not to keen on Rockboxing my iPod, even though It might be the best alternative. Which program would you recommend me to use to convert the FLAC to WAV?

/Chopha

 

[zip22]

it would probably be easier to convert flac to alac using dbpoweramp. as firefox360 suggests, sometimes these alac files won't play correctly. to solve that, you re-convert alac to alac using itunes. i believe this is the best way as your tags will be maintained.

 

[Chopha]

I'm now holding a 5th gen iPod Video 60GB in my hand, filled with about 33GB of Lossless music and about 5 GB video (more to come). I tried to convert the FLAC music with dBpoweramp into Lossless and it worked perfect and no errors uncured - thank you people for the help!

I must also say that the difference between 320kbit/s mp3 and Lossless was definitely worth the almost 10 hours it took me to re-import my music - definitely.

Some before and after pics to sum it all up
/Chopha

Before


After (Beware - mobile phone camera)