A new iPod owner and I have a few Qs...

[ozziegn]

okay, I finally jumped on the iPod wagon but I have a few questions for the Apple pros on this forum. I bought the 80gb one and so far so good.

1) I installed iTunes and I noticed that there's a restore option which I'm to assume one would use if/when something did go wrong with my iPod. I could use that feature to restore it back to day one. my question is, does anyone know which specific folder (in the iTunes folder) that is the backup? I ask this because I tend to reformat my PC often and I would like to have that back folder "backed up" if/when I do need to reformat my iPod.

2) how do I transfer music and videos "as is" without iTunes wanting to convert stuff that I don't want or need converted? surely there's gotta be a way.

3) what kind of battery life are you iPod owners getting from a single charge?

-Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[CEpeep]

1) I installed iTunes and I noticed that there's a restore option which I'm to assume one would use if/when something did go wrong with my iPod. I could use that feature to restore it back to day one. my question is, does anyone know which specific folder (in the iTunes folder) that is the backup? I ask this because I tend to reformat my PC often and I would like to have that back folder "backed up" if/when I do need to reformat my iPod.

2) how do I transfer music and videos "as is" without iTunes wanting to convert stuff that I don't want or need converted? surely there's gotta be a way.

The iPod restore is built directly into iTunes, I believe. Even if you completely format your iPod, you can still restore it to factory through iTunes.

What do you mean? iTunes shouldn't convert anything that's already in AAC format for the iPod. It just copies it over.

I don't have an iPod video so I can't help you with the third question.

 

[t5brick]

The restore function just resets the iPod back to factory defaults. It's built into iTunes.

So long as your music is MP3 or AAC, I don't think iTunes will try to convert it. Videos on the other hand, need to be a certain format to play on the iPod.

Battery life varies, but I think most people get between 10 and 20 hours on a 80GB iPod Video. It really depends on your usage because watching a video uses a lot more battery than listening to music.

 

[ozziegn]

okay, so the iPod can play MP3s "as is" without wanting to convert them to AAC format?

 

[GJSNeptune]

Yes. You don't even have to use iTunes. There are several third-party apps that'll transfer files to your iPod. Plus, you can tell iTunes that you want to do everything manually, thus making your iPod more like a removable hard drive.

Anapod
XPlay
vPod (free)

And others.

 

[KaosDG]

okay, I finally jumped on the iPod wagon but I have a few questions for the Apple pros on this forum. I bought the 80gb one and so far so good.

1) I installed iTunes and I noticed that there's a restore option which I'm to assume one would use if/when something did go wrong with my iPod. I could use that feature to restore it back to day one. my question is, does anyone know which specific folder (in the iTunes folder) that is the backup? I ask this because I tend to reformat my PC often and I would like to have that back folder "backed up" if/when I do need to reformat my iPod.

2) how do I transfer music and videos "as is" without iTunes wanting to convert stuff that I don't want or need converted? surely there's gotta be a way.

3) what kind of battery life are you iPod owners getting from a single charge?

-Thanks for any help or suggestions.

1) the itunes "restore" option only re-installs the iPod's OS... it's not a full backup type of thing, so you'd need to save your itunes music / config in the event of a PC failure or reinstall (usually in your 'My Music\iTunes' folder under windows, but you can change it)

2) music can be AAC or MP3, without needing to be converted (i think apple lossless also, but i've never tried.)
Videos have to be mp4 or h264, and within certain resolution / bitrate constraints. (there's a few sites that explain this, and in the sticky are a bunch of apps you can use to help)

3) not scientific, but i usually get about 8 hours on a charge. (i use it about 3 hours a day, and can usually get away with 2 days no charging)

 

[Thrash]

Battery life really depends on the bitrate of the music you play and how often it has to reload its cache. If you use a medium bitrate (~192kbps MP3) then the iPod only needs to fill its cache once every 25-30 minutes, whereas if you use a lossless format such as Apple Lossless, then those files are as much as four times the size of a medium bitrate MP3, hence the iPod needs to access the drive and fill the cache four times as often... Accessing the hard drive uses much more power than accessing the player's built-in cache. Skipping around a lot between albums, artists, etc. or putting it on shuffle can drop battery life significantly as well since there's no way for the player to predict and cache what to play next so the drive is spinning all the time.