Misty

Certain songs on my iPod cut out early. When it happens, the iPod freezes for a few seconds before moving on to the next song. After looking at a bunch of songs where this happens, they're all high bitrate VBR files - probably all produced by LAME, many bought from Bandcamp. Any suggestions on how to fix it? I've tried using Foobar2000 to add a VBR tag, and also tried using the vbrfix program.

Edit: I'm using a 5.5 generation iPod; was originally 80GB before I replaced the drive.

#iPod #ipod classic #ipods

Misty @dog1/29/2024, 5:06 AM

Until I figure out if I can fix the MP3s, I went in and checked iTunes's "reencode songs above 256kbps as AAC" setting, and they're working perfectly now. I'm not the kind of person who can tell the difference between higher bitrate VBR MP3 and 256kbps AAC anyway.

#iPod

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in reply to @dog's post:

noah @noahtheduke1/29/2024, 2:16 AM

Can you convert to fixed bitrate aac or similar?

Misty @dog1/29/2024, 2:18 AM

Yeah, I'm trying the builtin "convert songs below 256kbps to 256kbps AAC" right now - maybe not the ideal solution, but it should work.

Matthew Cole @karobit1/29/2024, 2:33 AM

in the other direction, can you use ALAC files for those instead? for the bandcamp files at least, they shoukd have an ALAC download so you don’t have to do the conversion yourself.

meriamory @pastille1/29/2024, 3:03 AM

This happened to me when I Legally Downloaded some songs a while back. It wasn't too many of them, so I just re-exported them in Audacity and they work fine now. If it's the majority of your songs that'll probably take a while though.

shork @shork1/29/2024, 1:24 PM

I've had lossless files that were just too much for my iPods to handle, I use the reencoding feature for those, it's not like it takes long on a modern CPU

in reply to @dog's post:

chreke @chreke1/29/2024, 5:22 AM

Never had this happen to me on an iPod, but I've seen plenty of VBR-encoded files that would reliably crash the decoder and the MP3 player just like you described. TBH re-encoding to AAC sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution, because it might be the iPod’s decoder that’s buggy (unless you can flash the iPod and upgrade the firmware)

@rotopenguin1/29/2024, 5:51 AM

The MP3 spec says that every player must be capable of handling up to 320k bitrate. You can stuff more into an MP3 file, but a teeny embedded hardware decoder only has enough processing power and scratch memory to handle a 320 frame and that's it. The moment the song hits a bit where "lame --vbr --gonzo-quality" allocated a larger frame, the ipod's decoder chokes.

Technically, the mp3s could be "fixed" by re-encoding all of the biggie frames into 320 or less. I don't think there is a tool for that. Seeing as you're starting from "the quality is too damn high" files anyway, just wholesale re-encoding them is a perfectly fine solution.

lily @lilith1/29/2024, 5:57 AM

I’ve had this exact issue in the past and I’m pretty sure this behaviour persists in the current version of the iOS music app

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