iPod How much more quickly do larger files drain battery?

[Gary King]

How much more quickly do larger files/songs (about 80 MB or so) on the iPod drain its batteries, compared to small/regular files (like 5 MB)?

 

[therevolution]

All other things being equal, there should be no difference. There's a fixed-size buffer that data gets put into from the hard drive, and it plays that data until it runs out and needs to refill the buffer.

What might actually make a difference is the quality/bitrate of the audio file. A high-quality song would take up more data than a low-quality song, so if it plays a lot of high-quality songs, it'll have to refill the buffer more often. That would increase hard disk usage, which would in turn drain the battery faster.

 

[Gary King]

So is what I am talking about only affecting older iPod models?

 

[barneygumble]

All other things being equal, there should be no difference. There's a fixed-size buffer that data gets put into from the hard drive, and it plays that data until it runs out and needs to refill the buffer.

What might actually make a difference is the quality/bitrate of the audio file. A high-quality song would take up more data than a low-quality song, so if it plays a lot of high-quality songs, it'll have to refill the buffer more often. That would increase hard disk usage, which would in turn drain the battery faster.

bingo, lossless uses your battery quicker causes it refreshes the buffer 4-5 times at least during a song, really long songs at low bitrate are all as normal

 

[gammamonk]

I use mostly Apple lossless on my iPod (3G with a new battery). The run time I get is about half what was advertised on my new battery. (Before the battery, I would only get about 2 hours tops, now I get about 5.)

Did you know that you can RENT CDs in Japan?