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General discussion

iPod Nano 3 gen. does not play some MP3 files

by Hello_World Mar 1, 2008 2:50PM PST

I bought a iPod Nano 3 Gen, 4GB version, as an upgrade to my iPod shuffle (it had stopped working after it went into the washing machine along with my jeans). I found that a few of the MP3 files which would play fine on the iPod shuffle now refuse to play on the Nano. The song would start playing, and then just stop and skip to the next song. At times, the song would cause the player to "hang" or freeze up, with non of the buttons working, and not being detected on iTunes, even if connected to my PC. So far, I've noticed this with a couple of songs, and here are the details of one of them...
bitrate = 192
codec = MP3
channels = 2
samplerate = 44100
mp3_stereo_mode = joint stereo
----------
12863855 samples @ 44100Hz
File size: 6 990 994 bytes

The file is a simple 192Kbps file (no VBR), so one would expect that it plays fine. I checked Apple's discussion forum, and found that there are more people facing this issue, so it is a "known" issue with the iPod nano. I wonder why Apple does not do anything about it?
I recently upgraded the firmware to 1.1, but that does not fix this error. In fact, the upgrade actually causes new errors in photos - the half-screen picture slideshow does not start when you browse albums. So I wouldn't recommend anyone to upgrade.
Considering that Apple charges way more than it should for it's iPod brand name, it should at least make sure that they can do the basics of playing Mp3 files!

Discussion is locked

10 Posts
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How did you make this MP3?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 1, 2008 10:04PM PST

I ran into this issue but they had got it from limewire. After pulling the song from the CD it played fine.

Which begs the question. Are MP3 players that can't play any MP3 from limewire crap?

Bob

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What did you use to encode the MP3?
by electronista Mar 2, 2008 12:38AM PST

Sometimes, it may be a question of what program created the MP3 version. It's true that most programs should produce entirely playable MP3s (especially 192Kbps continuous bitrate), but occasionally a third-party app may produce something oddly incompatible.

If you own the CDs for the music in question, try re-ripping the tracks. If not, another download may work. There's also the possibility that something happened to the music during the transfer to the iPod, in which case either editing the track information or restoring the iPod may help.

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I think it was LAME
by Hello_World Mar 4, 2008 8:55PM PST

Most of my songs were ripped using LAME. However, these came from someone else's library (acquired - the kind which Apple frowns on).

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And there it is.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 4, 2008 9:29PM PST

I can create MP3s that won't play on my iPod with LAME. So does that make the iPod crap?

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I think it does
by Hello_World Mar 6, 2008 1:47PM PST

LAME is one of the best encoders available out there today. Being open source, it is widely adopted, and you get the best audio quality (some website had done a test).
BTW, Apple removed my post from their forum... a pretty un-democratic thing to do. Looks like they dont want anyone saying that the nano does not play regular MP3's! Thanks to sites like Cnet, others can still see this...

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Did you just call all MP3 players CRAP?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 6, 2008 9:25PM PST

Armed with LAME I can make MP3s that won't play on any MP3 device. Following your line of reason you just dis'd all players.

Bob

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Tangential reasoning here...
by Hello_World Mar 10, 2008 3:21PM PDT

And I can build a road that breaks the suspension of any car... point is that with a tool like LAME it is easy to make something non-standard, as it allows you to tweak it, but the regular MP3's should play. Just to highlight that LAME is not the issue, remember I mentioned in my original post that the same MP3 file plays fine on my older shuffle?

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(NT) So we have a fix and all the players are OK now?
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 10, 2008 10:09PM PDT
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Format Error with IPod Nano 4gb
by nightshade1084 Mar 4, 2008 11:13PM PST

I have added mp3's multiple times and i keep getting the error message on my IPod.... FORMAT ERROR... does anyone know what causes this?

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So far, the issues noted above.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Mar 5, 2008 12:07AM PST

We can find MP3s that won't play as noted above.

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