ipod :) [LWN.net]

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 19:54 UTC (Mon) by jeld (guest, #22397)
In reply to: ipod :) by astrophoenix
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's guide to music managers

Can you copy music to/from iPod without special software?
Can iPod play OGG?
Can iPod play MS formats?

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ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 20:20 UTC (Mon) by b7j0c (subscriber, #27559) [Link]

>> Can you copy music to/from iPod without special software?

i can't speak to the access available in windows or osx, but on my linux box, my shuffle is available as a usb drive. if you want to do things the hard way you can poke around in the directory hierarchy of the device itself in a terminal or you can use gnupod to have a simpler interface to this functionality.

itunes may be required to deal with apple's aac formatted files, but for straight mp3s, gnupod should work.

>> Can iPod play OGG?

no, but gnupod will convert to ogg to mp3 on the fly while writing to the device. if you just close your eyes during this part of the process you can just pretend you are listening to oggs.

can't speak for wma, never had a need for it.

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 20:30 UTC (Mon) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

> no, but gnupod will convert to ogg to mp3 on the fly while writing to the device. if you just close your eyes during this part of the process you can just pretend you are listening to oggs.

Until you actually have to listen to it and notice the transcoding quality loss plus MP3's horrible quality, or run out of space on the device.

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 20:58 UTC (Mon) by b7j0c (subscriber, #27559) [Link]

>> Until you actually have to listen to it and notice the transcoding quality loss plus MP3's horrible quality

mp3s can be encoded at a high bitrate (just like any other codec). not lossless, but i am 99.9999% sure you would not be able to tell the difference at a high bitrate anyway. also you can encode your oggs at a very low bitrate if you wish. while ogg quality is very good, its main selling point is that it is free/open.

the fact is that if you are over thirty and have spent considerable time listening to music on headphones, you have probably suffered some low-grade hearing loss already (get tested, you will be surprised)...you might as well scale down the bitrate you encode at.

>> or run out of space on the device.

how does this change if you use ogg?

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 22:59 UTC (Mon) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

You run out of space faster by reencoding Oggs as high bitrate MP3s. You save space by encoding Oggs at lower bitrates for the same quality as high-bitrate MP3s.

Sure, I probably can't tell a 256kbps Ogg reencoded to a 320kbps MP3. But I sure can notice the 25% space increase. And I can also notice the difference between a 128kbps Ogg and a 128kbps MP3, *before* errors compound from transcoding.

ipod :)

Posted Nov 28, 2005 23:59 UTC (Mon) by b7j0c (subscriber, #27559) [Link]

well i see your point about issues with transcoding. i guess my only response is that my ipod shuffle 1GB, which i use for trailrunning, is barely half full and i've run out of good running/workout music to put on it. so for me transcoding is not an issue.

i've never run into space constraints on the ipods i've owned, i don't think i've ever exceeded 60% space used. for other people, i suppose this may be an issue.

so far the shuffle has been the perfect running device for me - very light, resistant to light abuse, very easy to control in mid-stride.

ipod :)

Posted Nov 29, 2005 1:18 UTC (Tue) by job (subscriber, #670) [Link]

Ah, the old patent encumbered format avoidance by closing your eyes technique. :) Seriously, why rip to ogg if you're only going to listen to mp3s anyway?

ipod :)

Posted Nov 29, 2005 5:18 UTC (Tue) by b7j0c (subscriber, #27559) [Link]

>> Seriously, why rip to ogg if you're only going to listen to mp3s anyway?

i'm holding out hope that one day a player i like will support ogg.

and on my desktop/laptop i have a variety of ogg players.

if i only want to rip my cds once, i prefer to put them into a format that gives me the most options for the future. barring flac (i don't have the disk space to encode my all my cds in lossless), ogg seemed the next best "reserve" format.