IPOD 80GB Video

[eric182]

Can you record with an 80gb ipod video?

[rhinowing]

yes, ask Five

[eric182]

thankyou

[Five]

I've also got the 80GB Video iPod (and also record on Hi-MD lol).

I bought something called "Belkin TuneTalk Stereo" for $80CDN ... its great, but only has line in and no way to set levels... at concert volume everything gets a little clipped at the peaks. Actually, quite a bit of clipping but it sounds mostly alright in spite of the fact. also, the mic stays attatched to the pod. There's an autogain switch that eliminates the clipping but it sounds really awful when turned on (I glued it in the off position).

I got another called "XtremeMac MicroMemo" for about $55CDN. It has mic/line in, but no level controls (as with the Belkin) and it is MONO and very very noisy. Using an external mic & headphone volume control I managed to get a half-decent recording with it. Without the headphone volume control its distorted as hell (much worse than the Belkin).

So now I read about this one called "Griffin iTalk Pro" which allows you to set levels using the built-in mics or external. I'm thinking three is going to be the charm here, I'm going to pick one up and try it out asap (probably in the next week).
http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italk/

The iPod writes 16bit/44.1kHz LPCM WAV ("cd quality", just be sure the quality setting in your voice memo menu is set to HIGH), when you get home just plug the pod in the computer and start up iTunes & the next morning there's a big long WAV file waiting on your HD. There is a DC Offset problem on all iPod recordings, but this is easily corrected (unless the recording it clipped, in that case just leave it alone). Recording lasts 3hrs, they say it is best to save every hour, but I have let it run for a steady 3hrs until the battery was totally dead and I got a 3hr WAV file just fine fwiw.

I can post up a couple samples of the sound quality if you're interested.