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thiagofll · 11:16 PM

Hello,

As suggested by Apple, AAC file formats will give you a better battery life when using the iPod...So I was thinking... Should I reencode my MP3 files in AAC? Would it sound better, worse or the same as it does now? The reason why I ask is, since it provides you with better battery life, I am worried that, the sound will be bad as my songs are already in the MP3 format, and I've heard that each time you change a format, your sound quality degrades, is it true?

Thanks in advance...

PS: What is the difference between an MP3 file and an AAC file in terms of sound quality? More bass, less bass, more treble, how about mids?

Spaceman Spiff · Mar 19, 2006, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by thiagofll

Hello,

As suggested by Apple, AAC file formats will give you a better battery life when using the iPod...So I was thinking... Should I reencode my MP3 files in AAC? Would it sound better, worse or the same as it does now? The reason why I ask is, since it provides you with better battery life, I am worried that, the sound will be bad as my songs are already in the MP3 format, and I've heard that each time you change a format, your sound quality degrades, is it true?

Thanks in advance...

PS: What is the difference between an MP3 file and an AAC file in terms of sound quality? More bass, less bass, more treble, how about mids?

AAC is a more complex compression standard, so most people agree it preserves more of the original quality than a MP3. However it is not flawless (as it is lossy), so re-encoding your MP3 files would do nothing more than give you the worst of both the AAC format and the MP3 format. So, if you want your files to be in AAC, you should probably delete your MP3's and re-rip straight to AAC from the source. I haven't heard of AAC giving you better battery life, btw.

P.S. An AAC encoded song at 128 kbps (kilobytes per second) is roughly compared to a MP3 encoded at 192.

thiagofll · Mar 19, 2006, 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by Spaceman Spiff

AAC is a more complex compression standard, so most people agree it preserves more of the original quality than a MP3. However it is not flawless (as it is lossy), so re-encoding your MP3 files would do nothing more than give you the worst of both the AAC format and the MP3 format. So, if you want your files to be in AAC, you should probably delete your MP3's and re-rip straight to AAC from the source. I haven't heard of AAC giving you better battery life, btw.

P.S. An AAC encoded song at 128 kbps (kilobytes per second) is roughly compared to a MP3 encoded at 192.

Thanks for the reply...I have seen it everywhere including Cnet, that for you to achieve the max battery life results stated by Apple, your files should be encoded in AAC format at 128kbps bitrate...would that be a myth?
Thanks

Tomchu · Mar 19, 2006, 12:28 AM

Re-encoding a lossy format into another lossy format will just result in data being thrown out. Your songs will sound worse, guaranteed.

dreamryche · Mar 19, 2006, 02:46 AM

Regarding your battery life question...I'm not sure which codec requires more horsepower to decode, but the difference is likely so small that you wouldn't notice any difference in battery life. (maybe a matter of minutes) The quality loss by re-encoding will be noticeable, though. If you ripped your MP3s from CD, re-rip them to AAC...otherwise, leave them as-is.

Busemann · Mar 19, 2006, 12:49 PM

You will get a little bit longer battery life with AACs compared to similarly sized mp3s because AAC takes less power to decode, but the real world difference is fairly negligible. If you use a lower bitrate the difference will be more noticeable since the hard drive won't be used as much.

Oh, and never convert mp3 -> AAC. Always encode from the source.

thiagofll · Mar 20, 2006, 02:59 PM

Thank you for all the replies...I am just gonna keep them as MP3 files...The thing that really bothers me is that, Apple states that, the battery should last up to 14 hours and there is no way possible I would get that much out of my iPod...and I have also noticed that a lot of people are also complaining about their battery life...Without watching videos or even touching the ipod the battery drains quick, not sure how long it lasts though but it is definately not 14 hours, maybe 4-5 hrs. So I thought of switching to AAC and follow all Apple's instructions but like everyone said, the sound quality will degrade and I won't notice that much difference in battery life...then what should I do to reach 14 hrs of battery life?

SpaceMonkey · Mar 20, 2006, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by thiagofll

then what should I do to reach 14 hrs of battery life?

Don't watch videos, leave the backlight off as long as possible.

icruise · Mar 20, 2006, 08:08 PM

If you're getting 4-5 hours of battery life without doing a lot of skipping around or using the backlight, there's something wrong with your battery. Try doing a test where you just let the iPod play through a large playlist of songs and see how long it lasts. You might be surprised.

F*ckDell · Mar 20, 2006, 08:30 PM

I've found, using up all the power from the batt. and recharging it to full will improve the batt. I was in the same position so I left it on for however long, made sure it couldn't turn on then pluged it into my docking station and waited for it to finish charging. I now see a longer batt. life then before.

try that out and see if it helps

-what is the best format to have your music saved as, quality wise of course...?

F*ckDell · Mar 21, 2006, 04:50 PM

Another update, I came across the audio format OGG, what the hell is that?

Is OGG better then MP3 and ACC in sound quality standards? Like thiagofll said earlier, would it be better to convert MP3 to OGG?

Busemann · Mar 21, 2006, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by F*ckDell

Another update, I came across the audio format OGG, what the hell is that?

Is OGG better then MP3 and ACC in sound quality standards? Like thiagofll said earlier, would it be better to convert MP3 to OGG?

OGG Vorbis is an open source format that isn't compatible with the iPod. It's regarded to be better than mp3, and tied to AAC at typical bitrates.

dreamryche · Mar 21, 2006, 05:57 PM

Your best course of action is to stop thinking about converting your mp3s to any other format. Any re-encoding will result in either further quality loss or much larger file sizes. As Busemann said, only encode from original sources (eg. CDs).

icruise · Mar 21, 2006, 09:09 PM

Converting MP3 to AAC (or any other format) is like making a color copy of a Xeroxed page. While a color copy is theoretically capable of showing a lot more than a B&W Xerox, it can't make the Xeroxed page look any better than it already does. You have to start with the original (in this case, the CD) for conversion to make any sense at all.

wilsonng · Mar 27, 2006, 08:15 AM

I have another train of thought. If you also have another music player besides the iPod, you might wanna consider using mp3.

I have one of those standalone DVD players that can also play mp3s. So I often would encode at Highest vbr mp3 with a minimum bit rate of 128 kbps or 160 kbps. That way, I can use the music file in either the DVD player or on an mp3 player other than an iPod. Heaven only knows why I would bother using any other mp3 player besides my iPod. I've rarely used my standalone DVD player to play mp3s except if I'm hosting a party. I don't want to leave my iPod in an accessible area where someone can just swipe it while I'm busy entertaining.

I also use the 128 kbps highest vbr mp3 for my sister's setup. She likes the idea of having a universal format that can be easily transported to any other mp3 player.

Otherwise, I tend to stick to vbr AAC at 160 kbps or 192 kbps.

typoon · Mar 29, 2006, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by thiagofll

Thank you for all the replies...I am just gonna keep them as MP3 files...The thing that really bothers me is that, Apple states that, the battery should last up to 14 hours and there is no way possible I would get that much out of my iPod...and I have also noticed that a lot of people are also complaining about their battery life...Without watching videos or even touching the ipod the battery drains quick, not sure how long it lasts though but it is definately not 14 hours, maybe 4-5 hrs. So I thought of switching to AAC and follow all Apple's instructions but like everyone said, the sound quality will degrade and I won't notice that much difference in battery life...then what should I do to reach 14 hrs of battery life?

I must not be typical. I get about 14+ hours when playing music and about 4-5 hours for video. People tned to change tracks all the time, move around the menu and that turns on the backlight which sucks down battery. I just leave it on shuffle and let it play. According to Apple if you leave it to play then you should get about that play time.

What can you do? First I would recondition the battery. Let it run down fully then fully recharge it. Also don't move around menus and change songs all the time. Set the backlight time as short as you can. Encode your songs at 128kps. That should help you keep your iPod running for around the 14 hours.

wilsonng · Mar 29, 2006, 09:03 PM

Well, one thing to do is to go to Settings > Backlight Timer > 2 seconds.

The backlight will drain the battery. If you leave it to "Always On', that will more than halve your runtime.

If you connect your iPod video to your TV, the backlight doesn't stay on and you can play a movie from the iPod video longer than watching it on your iPod. If you play a movie on your iPod, the backlight has to stay on.

aha8 · Mar 30, 2006, 12:06 AM

as a former ipod engineer for HP, and current admin/ mod for an fairly big ipod site... i would first do the following

perform a restore using the current version of the updater

after the ipod is reloaded, fully charge the ipod
make sure the eq is set to off, backlight is off, and you are running the standard issue head phones
select the all songs and let the bad boy play till its done...
record the time
if its no good, call apple if you are in warranty, if not, you can deal with what you got, or go to best buy ( cause they now sell replacement battereies ), or get one off ebay, or go here
www.ipodresq.com