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Topic: Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback (Read 5388 times) previous topic - next topic
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Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

I have a question, I don't own a Ipod but was woundering, is there a way to make secoundary starage to a IPod if say you had your music in flac to play meaning a way you can hook a harddrive up to it or something?  Another question does Flac even play on Ipods or is there a way if there isnt a way now to do it?  Just thought id ask these general questions

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #1 –
Quote from: u2watcher on
I have a question, I don't own a Ipod but was woundering, is there a way to make secoundary starage to a IPod if say you had your music in flac to play meaning a way you can hook a harddrive up to it or something?  Another question does Flac even play on Ipods or is there a way if there isnt a way now to do it?  Just thought id ask these general questions


Do you really think you could actually HEAR the difference between FLAC -vs- a well-encoded AAC or MP3 on a portable music player like an iPod?

Anyway, you can always hook it up to a harddrive via your PC.  (also N.B. that the new iPods go to 160G.)
 

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #2 –
how about hooking up a external hd not hooked to a pc but next to Ipod so you dont have to boot up computer but external is on so Pod can get files it needs as in music

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #3 –
Quote from: u2watcher on
how about hooking up a external hd not hooked to a pc but next to Ipod so you dont have to boot up computer but external is on so Pod can get files it needs as in music


The iPod would need drivers to read and search an external HD through its USB interface.    That's what the computer supplies.  I don't know how else you could do it.  Some NAS's are Linux-based -  you could try to let them drive the iPod if they have a USB port, but I don't know how you'd control it.

But like I said in my original response, why not just use MP3 or AAC for the iPod - then you could keep your whole music collection on it.  We've ripped our 1300 CD collection to 192 VBR MP3 and it takes just a fraction of our 80G iPod.

Also, if you want wireless, PC-free portability with FLAC, get a Sonos system.    We have that, too, and it's way cool!  (the iPod is for when we're travelling and we want to take our whole music collection with us).

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #4 –
Quote from: plnelson on
Quote from: u2watcher on

how about hooking up a external hd not hooked to a pc but next to Ipod so you dont have to boot up computer but external is on so Pod can get files it needs as in music


The iPod would need drivers to read and search an external HD through its USB interface.    That's what the computer supplies.  I don't know how else you could do it.  Some NAS's are Linux-based -  you could try to let them drive the iPod if they have a USB port, but I don't know how you'd control it.

But like I said in my original response, why not just use MP3 or AAC for the iPod - then you could keep your whole music collection on it.  We've ripped our 1300 CD collection to 192 VBR MP3 and it takes just a fraction of our 80G iPod.

Also, if you want wireless, PC-free portability with FLAC, get a Sonos system.    We have that, too, and it's way cool!  (the iPod is for when we're travelling and we want to take our whole music collection with us).


Carrying around an external hd to feed your ipod would seem pretty strange given that an Ipod is essentially itself a hard drive with an operating system.  If you really want an ipod and lossless, your choices are (1) rockbox firmware, which I believe allows you to play flacs on your ipod (check out www.rockbox.org) or (2) the Apple Lossless format, which is compatible with iTunes and will play on an ipod using regular firmware.

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #5 –
alright I admit you did knock some sense into me.  I just say you should always have a flac copy at least of the original CD on a PC or external at least, so you can later rip to mp3 for that kind of use.  I hope the Sonos price can go down.

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #6 –
Quote from: plnelson on
Quote from: u2watcher on

how about hooking up a external hd not hooked to a pc but next to Ipod so you dont have to boot up computer but external is on so Pod can get files it needs as in music


The iPod would need drivers to read and search an external HD through its USB interface.    That's what the computer supplies.  I don't know how else you could do it.  Some NAS's are Linux-based -  you could try to let them drive the iPod if they have a USB port, but I don't know how you'd control it.

It can't be done without hardware hacks.  The USB chipset either supports host mode or it doesn't.  Without host mode, it is impossible to mount a disc through USB.  A few players, like iAudio X5, can hook up to external devices.

Even a NAS with USB wouldn't work - the iPod's music library isn't a normal USB device.  That's why you need iTunes (or a third-party plugin) installed on your PC, you can't just drag-and-drop media files with, say, Windows Explorer.

That said, I agree with the others that it is overkill to use lossless on a portable.  Although it is a nice feature to have just in case.

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #7 –
The release of the 160GB iPod classic with a 40 hour audio playback battery time makes carrying around Apple lossless files more viable.  Still, on a portable (even when using an amp), one would be hard pressed to hear the difference between a lossless file and a high bitrate (around 190kbps VBR and above) mp3/AAC file.  To me, it just seems kinda pointless to carry around a lossless library as you will never hear the benefits.

I agree that everyone should have a backup of their CD collection in a lossless format but I don't think it is needed for portable listening.  I think Rockbox can be installed on the 5G iPods and not the 5.5G iPods and the newly released iPod classic.  I am not 100% sure though.  I know that Rockbox doesn't currently support the new iPod classic though as that was just released on Wednesday (9/5/2007).

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #8 –
Quote from: kornchild2002 on
The release of the 160GB iPod classic with a 40 hour audio playback battery time makes carrying around Apple lossless files more viable.  Still, on a portable (even when using an amp), one would be hard pressed to hear the difference between a lossless file and a high bitrate (around 190kbps VBR and above) mp3/AAC file.  To me, it just seems kinda pointless to carry around a lossless library as you will never hear the benefits.

I agree that everyone should have a backup of their CD collection in a lossless format but I don't think it is needed for portable listening.  I think Rockbox can be installed on the 5G iPods and not the 5.5G iPods and the newly released iPod classic.  I am not 100% sure though.  I know that Rockbox doesn't currently support the new iPod classic though as that was just released on Wednesday (9/5/2007).


You will be hard pressed to hear any difference let alone an annoying one outside an abx test using 160 k vbr (V4) even on good gear in quiet settings.

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #9 –
I looked at this iAudio X5, its really a nice player as far as trying to compete with the Ipod with features.  As far as the hook up external devices, do you mean I could hook up via usb to the player and it will pick that external up with out a computer.  I was trying to make some sense if you could from reading offical site.  I do agree with you guys about the whole portable mp3 idea just like to see if there is a way to do that with a portable.  Everything else has pretty much been done just thought the idea up like man that would be awesome.

Secondary Storage For Ipods, and Flac Playback

Reply #10 –
Quote from: u2watcher on
As far as the hook up external devices, do you mean I could hook up via usb to the player and it will pick that external up with out a computer.

Yes.  You can hook up a digital camera, flash drive, etc. and browse the directory tree and copy, move, and delete files.  You can only use this with standard USB storage devices, called MSC (mass-storage compliant.)