ipod question
 

Ok, so I'm 27 and behind the times a bit. I've never had an mp3 player or ipod. I want to get one for downloading audio books to listen to in my car, I travel quite a bit for work. I'm leaning toward the ipod nano 8gb gen5.

The system I have to use is called overdrive to download books.

has anyone used this before?
I also have no idea how to use itunes.

I haven't used Overdrive before, but according to their website, it's compatible with iTunes, so I don't think it will be too difficult to figure it out.

I guess the question is whether the Overdrive Console negotiates with iTunes or the iPod directly. If it's iTunes, you might want to familiarize yourself a bit with that. You might want to change some settings on the audiobooks or maybe organize them a certain way. iTunes isn't that difficult to figure out if you're using it for one specific purpose such as this.

I don't know. Maybe Overdrive allows you to do it all.

I checked the website and the instructions are kinda vague. It says to download itunes but doesn't have any further instructions than that. itunes doesn't have any instructions that I can find either.

It says that all you have to do to transfer items to your device is to connect to it using the Overdrive Console. To me this means that you can do everything from there.

Have you used the Overdrive Console before?

iTunes is actually quite well designed when it comes to integrating with other software, so I've seen. It might be all automatic. All you might need to do is install iTunes and then let each of the two software programs do the work. i.e. Overdrive might do the iTunes stuff for you.

No I just downloaded both today. I don't even have an ipod yet. I'm gonna grab one after work today, I'm going on a business trip for about 2 weeks, that's the reason for the audiobooks.

If there wasn't any further instructions from overdrive then i would assume that it does all the work for me...hopefully. Thanks for your help!

No problem.

I use audiobooks on my iPod Touch. It's a great little device to have, especially while commuting or travelling.

That Nano should serve you well for your purposes.

Not to derail your post, but have you looked at other media players??

I had an Ipod for years and found it very usable. Recently I needed to replace it and started looking around to see what else there is available. What I found is that Ipod's are very limited in what a media player can do.

I ended up with the Cowon D2: It's small, less expensive, has a huge 50hr battery life (one of my biggest peaves with the Ipod was short battery life), sounds far better, can play back almost any media format (Ipod only plays MP3's), has an expansion slot for sd cards (so your memory is infinitely expandable or you can just record several different books on different cards to go, etc. I'm sure there are a plethora of things I'm forgetting. Bottom line is, I got a far better player for less money with the Cowon.

Check out this sight for other non-Ipod related items:

Anything But iPod - MP3 Player Reviews & News

There is a huge world of media players out there that Ipod isn't keeping up with. If you just want something very small, check out the Sansa Clip.


Brock

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The iPod doesn't only do MP3s, AAC is the primary format, and iTunes can convert anything you throw at it. One of my favorite features of my iPod Touch (which I use for Internet browsing for hours a day,) is the 2x playback of audiobooks and podcasts. The Nano also appears to have this feature. It takes a bit of getting used to since it doubles the speed then phase shifts the audio back down an octave, but it sure is efficient.

So i bought a nano 8gb 5thgeneration, downloaded an audio book from overdrive with no problems. But when I play it through my aux input in my car i have to have my volume maxed out to even hear anything, and even then it sounds like really bad am broadcasting. Any suggestions?

Are you using the headphone out or the dock port out?

You also might want to check your volume settings for the files in iTunes (or maybe Overdrive).

I've never heard of this before. I must check it out!

I'm using a 3.55mm aux cable from my headphone out port to my aux port in my car. With the volume maxed in my car I am barely able to hear anything.

When I attempted to transfer the audiobook from overdrive to my ipod it forced me to switch to manually manage my imports in itunes. it was a seemless transfer. I bought an fm transmitter and the sound is better but I have to constantly switch stations wich is very annoying. I think I'll take that back.

Make sure your iPod has the volume turned up all the way. I'm pretty sure every player I've owned, iPod or not, has needed that to use in the car.

Then make sure you turn it back down when you plan on using headphones :lol:

Tried that too. It's almost like it's just a really shitty recording. It sounds like really bad am radio. It could be my sterio though, it's just factory headunit and speakers in my camry

I use one of these: Griffin Technology: AutoPilot - Charge/control/play your iPod through your car's AUX-in port . It keeps the iPod charged, and uses the line-out part of the dock connector to go to the aux-in port. The charger also has a switch for use with aux-out to get the balance correct.

I may try that but I don't see what the difference would be with that aux cable and the one I have.

If you go into iTunes, each of the files will have an option to change the volume.

Under "Get Info" and the tab "Options," it's called "Volume Adjustment." It's a sliding scale of +/- 100%. By default it's set at "None." But if you have a file that is louder than others or, in your case, too quiet, you can adjust it here. Be sure to update/sync your iPod after you've made these changes. The files will have to be retransferred.

Thanks B_G I'll try that tomorrow when I get home.

I stole this information off of the iLounge forums: