My trusty older 20G model finally went down for the count last week, a hard-drive failure (had it for almost 4 years and it was a re-furb model).

So since it was out of warranty and its pointless to fix an old IPOD, I went to the Apple Store Online and ordered a new re-furb 30G/Video model in white.

Since it also has a 1 year warranty as a new model would have, I saved $50 bucks.

Got it today and it looks brand new. It comes with earphones and cables. Synched it up to my computer and ITUNES and I'm loading it right now.

Life without an IPOD is unbearable these days. I missed my music in the car and at the gym.

Only a 30g? I had the 20, the 30. the 60 and now the 80. I could never go back to anything smaller.

I'm holding out for a 1tb model. Geez John, you're such a caveman!

I still haven't decided if an Ipod or similar device is something I really need, but if and when the time comes, how much does every 10g mean in storage capacity (i.e., how many hours of music?)

Glenn...it depends on how much you compress the music. In rough terms, if you use the 128 kbps standard that iTunes has used in the past, here are some round numbers.

128 kbps = approximately 10X compression.

So...if an 80 minute CD is approximately 700MB, you could roughly expect 700MB to equate to about 800 minutes of music on a standard CD at 128 kbps.

Doing a little math then, I get that on a 10GB iPod, you'd get about 11,429 minutes of music, or approximately 190.5 hours of music.

I've been struggling over the past year to fill my video ipod, but I've still only managed to get it a quarter full.

My goal is to have every episode of JL and JLU on there, then I'll load the Planet of the Apes movies.

I see no reason to have anything else on it.

I have over 13,000 songs in mine, no video, and I still have over 20g of empty space. (80g)

Thanks for the info... (and sorry if I hijacked the thread. You may now return to your previously scheduled discussion.)

I had managed to fill up my 20G IPOD so I moved all those songs onto this new 30G model. So I have some more room (around 8G's) to play around with at this point.

No way could I have the time to fill a 80G model. Those are great if you like to have lots of video on the run. I use a portable DVD player for those time when I want to watch a movie.

The 30G gives me a very nice selection of bands and albums to choose from. I have most of the major bands on there like The Beatles/ Stones/ Who/ Floyd/ Zep/ Sabbath etc.

Do you still have songs on your Ipod that you haven't heard yet? I have 9,500 songs and still haven't heard some of them that have been there for 3 years.

I thought you couldn't transfer music from one iPod to another. My 30g is almost full, and I've been dumping as I add. I have almost 6,000 songs on it, and I can't bear the thought of having to re-load them all.

I recently purchased a Cowon D2 portable player (about $190) and really like it. It is a flash player and has 4GB built in. It also has a slot for SDHC cards (8GB class 6 cards can be found for around $75). This allows you to have up to 12GB in the player at any one time and as many cards as your pocket (and pocket book) will handle.
The D2 plays MP3, WAV, and FLAC files as well as various video formats. It has a touch sensitive screen and, aside from three multi-function buttons on one side, no other permanent controls.
It acts like an external disk drive when you attach it to your computer and requires no additional software.
It is small, rugged, and has very good sound.
I highly recommend it as an alternative to an iPod. Newegg has good prices on both the player and media.

My songs were stored in my Itunes account. So I just hooked up my new IPOD to my computer and it downloaded all the music I had on there to the new IPOD.

I'm glad it was that easy. I'd hate to have to reload (import) all those albums once again.

Now that I have more room I added:

The Who/ Quadrophenia
The Beatles/ Abbey Road
Porcupine Tree/ Signify
Linkin Park/ Minutes To Midnight
The Carpenters Ultimate Collection
Pink Floyd/ The Wall from my MFSL cds.

Hey John: You're not watching DVDs in the squad car when you're supposed to be protecting and serving the fine citizenry of Nassau County, I hope!

I'm glad to hear that. My music is always stored in my iTunes account anyway. If it's that easy, it might be time to make the move to an 80g.

It does come in handy on those rainy wintery days when there's nothing going on and its not safe to drive.

Mine died awhile back, I'm saving up for the 30 GB U2 iPod.

[quote="JohnG"]
No way could I have the time to fill a 80G model. Those are great if you like to have lots of video on the run. I use a portable DVD player for those time when I want to watch a movie.
quote]

sure ya could! rip 5 or 10 cd's a nite while yer watching the ballgame

I got the 80gb around thanksgiving,

12003 songs using around 68gb or so
a handful of video content, podcasts and photos 5gb or so


1.5 gb free space left

yep, I have plenty of CDs that I could import into a 80G model no doubt, but I find 30G's of music satisfies me.

Now I have some room for some Moody Blues, which for some reason I haven't imported yet.

Congrats on your new iPod. Enjoy. I know I sure enjoy my 30gb, four button model. It's still spinning away.

I wonder how many people have aux jacks in their cars for their iPods? I rented a car a while back with that jack and it made my vacation extra special. The fm thingy to play through your stereo just isn't the same.

I recently got an 80GB iPod, and I'm eager to start ripping my cd collection to load it up. I'm curious to know what compression rate people use...the 128 kbp standard? higher? lower? Can you hear a real difference between 128 vs. 192 vs. 256 vs. 320 on an mp3 player with the standard earbuds that come with it? Thanks.

I'm not a true audiophile, but for me, 192 is the sweet spot. I can definitely hear a difference between that and 128 (what I believe is the bitrate you get from itunes). Higher, and I can't notice at all, to be honest. Perhaps if I listened to more orchestral music, but I'm mostly rock and heavier stuff.