I like to think that with enough time and devotion, I can unwrap the knottiest iPod problem, but today I’m stumped. And because I am, I turn to you. Here’s the thing….
My colleague at Macworld , Cyrus Farivar, produces a very nice enhanced podcast for Macworld. Nice though it may be, it won’t play on a 2G iPod with the latest iPod software. Apple’s iTunes New Music Tuesday, another enhanced podcast, plays perfectly well on this old iPod. Both podcasts play just fine on more recent iPods.
I’ve compared the two files and their bit- and sample rates differ. The Macworld Podcast is offered at 32kbps, mono, at a sample rate of 32kHz. The Apple podcast is encoded at 128kbps, stereo, at a sample rate of 44.1kHz. According to Apple’s specs, the iPod should be able to play a 32kbps file at 32kHz. And when I strip the enhancement from the podcast by converting the file within iTunes (to the same 32/32/mono setting) the podcast plays back as it should on the older iPod.
This leads me to believe that there’s something about the enhancement setting or that setting in combination with how the podcast is encoded that’s causing the problem.
But what?
If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.