Modding : Apple Video Ipod (5g & 5.5g) – The Compact Flash Version
| UPDATE: iFlash iPod CompactFlash adaptor has been launched. More information can be found here. |
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After re-attaching the battery, headphone / hold switch connection and the usb cable. ITunes popped up requesting I restore / update my corrupt IPod which I gladly ok’ed and a few more minutes’ later summary page showed me that I had 3.74 GB capacity. Success was mine!!!!!
Testing
So for testing I decided it would be a good idea to see how the device worked with a slow card and a more modern fast card, obviously I will compare these to the standard hard drive.
My first cheap and cheerful card is the 4 GB Kingston Technology Elite Pro with a 45x speed rating, the faster card is the SanDisk’s 4 GB Extreme III rated at 133x. For transfer rate measuring I am going to use WinAmp 5 installed with the excellent ml-ipod plug-in – mainly because it’s the best non ITunes system and because it displays the average transfer rate while syncing!!
- Standard Hard Drive – 10000KB/s (Peak 11000KB/s)
- SanDisk Extreme III (133x) – 8000KB/s (Peak 8500KB/s)
- Kingston Elite Pro (45x) – 2500KB/s (Peak 2700KB/s)
As you can see the standard hard drive wins, but the story is not that straight forward. What the above table does not show is the fact that you generally have to wait for the hard drive to spin up which I measure to be at least 2 seconds, then it takes a further couple of seconds to get up to speed.
The hard drive transfer rate is also affected by the mix of files, if the files are all very large than you can achieve the above transfer rates. However if you have smaller files than a lot of time is lost to head seeking. I would say in everyday use there is nothing separating the SanDisk from the standard hard drive. I would expect modern 150x cards to have the same transfer speeds as the hard drive.
In use I found both CF cards performed exactly the same, it was impossible to determine which card was installed from using the IPod. Song changes where instant and compared to the hard drive the user experience was smooth as butter, first thing you notice is there is no delays waiting for the drive to spin-up and move the head in to position. 
Visually you can see that the battery is having an easier life, normally with the hard drive you can see a slight dimming of the display backlight during spin-up. I am still testing battery life and I am in the process of making a circuit board with test points so I can take actual measurements.
Until then I would say for someone who leaves the IPod to play continuously without interruption may see an increase of up to 20% play time. On the other hand for someone like me who is constantly adjusting things, fast forwarding through video’s and never can wait till the song finishes to change track will likely expect to see doubling of play time, you may be thinking wild claims but you need to understand Apple uses quite aggressive power saving technique which have been designed assuming you hit play and leave alone.
I would also expect to see greater play time for video’s as I suspect the hard drive is lot more involved during this kind of use. I will update this section after more actual testing. The last difference noticed was how clean it all sounded, on my unit whenever the hard drive was spinning up or just idling the noise floor was much higher (this is probably due to the fact I use earphones which have very good high frequency response.)
Conclusion 
Concluding this article is quite difficult as what I have done while being neat and cool is at the same time not really worth doing. There is a big element of because I can!! Compact Flash cards are still quite expensive and on last checking you can pick up a 16gb 150x OEM card for about £80 ($160) which is about £20 ($40) more than a replacement 30gb hard drive, so it is not value for money.
My personal reason for starting this little project is expectation, I buy my equipment for its functional use – I expect my camera equipment to handle whatever my body handles hiking up a 4000m pass and I also expect the same from my music player. The IPod has been designed with this concept, with its steel backing plate and internal metal frame it is a survivor but sadly as all things it is only as strong as its weakest point – the hard drive.
The major downside is the storage capacity currently limiting you to 16gb which for me is no problem as my needs barely stretch over 6gb but for some 30gb hard drive is the only option. This project also has good side benefits, the extended battery life and smoother user experience is a serious improvement in itself.
Bottom line has to be if money is no object than it is well worth doing this mod!!
PS. My testing has been limited to 4gb CF’s, if someone is willing to donate a 16gb CF for testing (I will return it of course!) it will be much appreciated.
PPS. Several people have asked about the Microsoft Zune players, my internet searches tell me that the same kind of hard drive is used in these as the Video IPod. As my design fits within the size of the hard drive I assume it would work well.
UPDATE: Several people have pointed out this would also probably work in the iRiver DAP’s such as the H10 and most of the other hard drive driven music players. Pros
- Longer Battery Life
- Faster Smoother User Interface
- Solid Sate no moving parts
- Cleaner Sound
Cons
- Expensive
- Limited to 16gb (currently)
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