Comments on: iPod Classic (160GB) Review

By: Glass Full of Ice » Unchain my pod

Glass Full of Ice » Unchain my pod — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 08:55:35 +0000

[...] been a while since I wrote my iPod review / rant. At the time I was wishing for Rockbox to be my salvation, and it’s finally possible! [...]

By: iPod Repairs UK

iPod Repairs UK — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:12:57 +0000

Big thumbs up – thanks!

By: Amir

Amir — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 07:01:45 +0000

This is great news! I will be looking forward to it, or perhaps I would even be able to contribute, if and when time allows it.

By: kevin kennedy

kevin kennedy — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:15:07 +0000

There is an unstable port of Rockbox to the 80GB 1st gen Classic, but this does not work at all on the 160GB Classic because there is no driver yet for the disk controller in the 160.. I was surprised to find out the two have significantly different hardware. I’ve had both, and the 80GB has a slightly more responsive interface so… I’m keeping my fingers crossed and hoping there will be a port soon for the 160..

By: Amir

Amir — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:06:23 +0000

Dev: There are two problems with this:
1. As you say, you need time to create all of your folders. I have _already_ created all of my folders, in my filesystem. It’s taken me years to accumulate and organize everything. However there is no easy way to transfer this directly into the iPod.
2. My iPod (the 1st Classic generation, 160GB) does not support folders, or else iTunes will not transfer them to it. I’ve tried everything except the automatic sync, which I will not use on principle, since I don’t want iTunes to hold my music, nor do I want it to do its own organization of it on my iPod.
It would seem that Apple have no real intent to support older devices. For example: the software of the newer iPod Classics has several features that my version does not. Yet they have issued no software updates or anything for years. It’s a shame that they are so anal about protecting their devices from being flashed with alternative firmware. Rockbox would have been so much better than this crap.

By: Dev

Dev — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:50:20 +0000

There is option to create ‘playlist folders’ and I use those folders to keep about 100 GB of my music organised on the iPod and iTunes.

Any folder can have any number of subfolders. So it is same as normal filesystem – only each file is a playlist and each folder in a playlist folder.

Works perfect but needs one time setup – u need to create those playlists to start with.

I find iTunes quite good as a music org. software – better than any other I have come across atleast if the library size is >100 GB.

Only issue is the sound quality of iPod classic- very bad. My Philips GoGear sounds a lot better.
The eq in iPod does not let you set it manually – only presets, and most songs with high bass have to be played with eq turned off or flat to prevent distortion because the gain (preamp) in ipod and itunes is too high.

Also there is no linux version of iTunes. Hope sometime they release one for linux…

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 15:32:31 +0000

I concur. I have been hoping Rockbox might find their way into the 160GB, not just to improve the folders issue, but to get me out of using iTunes.

Aside from it being clumsy and annoying to use (Rockbox lets you drag and drop directly onto the iPod and thereafter browse your folders, a far cry from loading into iTunes, checking metadata is correct and then transferring to the device) the latest announcements from Apple indicate that with the latest version of their software for the iPhone they are going to be recording real-time location data.

I no longer wish to be involved with a company that indulges in such Orwellian behavior, but who else makes a decent 160gb player out there?

I have had my classic for about two years now and am almost willing to trade it for a 5.5 just to break the software lock….

By: Amir

Amir — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:32:17 +0000

I agree with you, although differently from you I wouldn’t be satisfied with this only this issue being resolved. After carefully trying everything else I can think of there is still no good workaround: I seriously need folders.
Steve Jobs and Apple are a big success. So are Microsoft. In both cases this success is not really related to product quality, but to the sad truth that good marketing and good exterior design are all you need to close the deal. Both Apple and Microsoft are excellent in both these fields. Both sell mediocre (at best) products under the hood of a beautiful exterior. Again, this is very sad, but such is life.
More sad news: Apple have been incorporating encryption in some way into their devices for the last few years, which has made replacing their software with indie code very very difficult. People have managed to worm their way into the iPod 2nd generation Nano, which is supposedly similar to the iPod Classic, but not much progress has been made with the Classic so far. If we had Rockbox on the Classic I would be the happiest iPod owner ever, but that’s just a wish of mine for now.

By: Kenji

Kenji — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 06:05:51 +0000

I know I’m responding to an almost year-old post, but here goes anyway…

I also have the 160 gb classic, have owned it for over a year. What has transpired over the year is apple is again selling the 160, now as the only flavor of classic.

I concur with all your observations. Plus, what you didn’t mention, but drives me nuts…

Anyone with 160 gb of content on a device probably isn’t intimately familiar with every item on that ipod. Most of us are probably explorers, with lots of new unfamiliar content waiting for us. But the gui of the classic ipod does not scroll album titles or artist, nor is there an info screen to show us the metadata. So if we don’t have the artist and album title memorized, too bad! The ipod only shows a word or two of those fields. Year? Label? Etc?? Too bad, not viewable.

And this from a company that prided itself on gui, from the birth of the Mac, over 20 years ago. And after a decade to refine this “classic” ipod interface.

I would fairly happily put up with the file organization limitations you mention, if only the gui were not so limiting,

I still use the 160, and still have the 5.5 60 gb it replaced. The improvement in battery life is truly impressive between 5.5 and 6. I get 40 hours of music playback, vs 8 before. and having almost 3 times the disk space.

I have used Apple products since my first computer, a Mac SE bought in 1987. I still have two macs and two ipods, but I look forward to the Oracle retiring and turning over the reigns to someone who just might be open to feedback from customers, not just his or her own pronouncements of what is best, what will be. All the recent awards naming Steve Jobs as CEO of the century, or whatever they are, only compound the problem of not listening to us. I’m glad he brought Apple back from the brink, but look forward to what will be next.

By the way, anyone come up with third party stuff to deal with ipod classic limitations since this thread first appeared?

By: Amir

Amir — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:15:37 +0000

Goat: Had a thought about that and then I decided against it. Hearing this from you I think I might reconsider!

Still – this only gives us one layer of folders…