ipod question

turbodog · Dec 2, 2004

I'm considering an ipod to replace my aging archos hdd mp3 player. My main question that I can't find an answer to is: when listening to a song and I skip to the next one (mid-way through the first) does the hdd spin up or does the ipod cache several songs in ram? If if does NOT cache several songs then what is the point of having 32 megs of ram?

Mednanu · Dec 2, 2004

The iPod caches several songs ( depending on how large they are ). It actually caches all that it can in RAM and only spins up the HD when it runs out of cache. If your songs are encoded at 128bit, this usually equates to about 20 minutes of play time before the RAM cache has been emptied and the drive has to spin up again.

James S · Dec 2, 2004

It does, as Mednanu says, it won't spin up until you go through 20 minutes or so of music by skipping. You can tell too, cause usually the skip is instant except when it runs out of cached songs and then there is a slight pause and you can feel the drive spin up ever so slightly and then it continues.

turbodog · Dec 3, 2004

thanks for the replies

i have also spoken with apple on this

iddibhai · Dec 3, 2004

how does it work in random shuffle then? does it cache a song it pre-picks to be the next "random" song?

Saaby · Dec 3, 2004

Yeah. The random is pseudo-random of course, that's how computers work. As soon as you activate 'random' it randomizes the entire playlist, so it knows what songs will be next and cache's them.

It's important to note that on the iPod you are *always* playing a playlist. Even if you browse to your favorite artist and just play all music from that artist, it's a 'playlist' even though it's not stored as one. If you switch 'playlists' by actually changing playlists, or genre's, or artists, etc. than the HD will have to spin up again because the songs that were in the cache are no longer the songs you wanted to hear.

Why does this matter? Well if you jump around a LOT like I do, than it will slightly reduce battery life (Not total battery life, IE $99 replacement, I'm just talking about you'll get 6 hours on that charge instead of 8). This has never been a problem for me, however, but I thought I might as well disclose it. A way to get around this is to make a "on the go" playlist, which is generally what I end up doing.

Why do you ask? Do you have reservations about the 'Pod?