My iPod is full of unusual bugs. Any support would be great.

Question

Man, I pray I’m not as stupid as I look. Got my 160gb classic yesterday and have combed through the entire “feature guide” (Apple PDF download) and still have more bugs than a hornets nest. I own several other ipods as well as other Mac equipment and have become well versed in trouble shooting issues that even Apple couldn’t initially diagnose. Be that as it may, after turning on my new “classic”, I custom set everything the way I am comfortable in using the equipment. After connecting the ipod to my computer and agreeing to be an honest John with Apple’s software, I chose to manually control my library. This was the first problem. My entire library consists of my own purchased CD’s from over the years. Every CD was converted EXACTLY the same way in iTunes to MP3 format @192kb. In other words, I have NO downloaded music from the iTunes store - or any other such method. Meanwhile, I get a message that 100’s of songs cannot be copied to my iPod because they are in a format that my new iPod doesn’t understand. The reason I’m perplexed is, is that my entire library of approx. 5,000 songs were taken from my CD collection and converted in the exact same fashion. So, my question is: how can 3 or 4 arbitrary songs across dozens of CD’s not be recognized?
Second problem, every time I shut down the power to the iPod everyone of my custom settings revert back to the factory settings – including asking me which language I prefer to use when I power it up again. Also, in my “main menu” settings, even if I un-check a feature so it shouldn’t be visible in my “main menu”, surprise – it’s there. There are actually other bugs but one that bothers me the most is, if you watch a movie in wide format, I may have two black bars (top and bottom) or two white bars that will change intermittently throughout the movie.
Sorry for the long post. I haven’t posted in ages. I simply haven’t had any problems with any other Apple products. Has anyone else experienced these problems? Are they problems or, as I asked in the beginning my post – am I really that stupid that I can’t figure these things out on my own?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
On a personal note, I prefer the previous interface. To me simplicity is more attractive and elegant.
I hope someone can help me before I pack this baby up to back.

Answer 1

Thanks for all of the feedback.
My issues extended beyond music and into the video section that could not be controlled under any command. I have to say I am an original 5gb first generation iPod buyer and have purchased a new one each time a new one was introduced. This is strictly my opinion, and I’m certain I’m in the minority – but I downright disliked the new interface. In essence, Apple enlarged the iPod screen with the first generation video units only to cut the screen in half making everything on the screen very crowded unless it's 12 inches from your eyes. I’m a hard core, exclusive Apple user but the new classic iPod is their first product I'm genuinely disappointed in.
Just a note for everyone who would have loved to buy the touch iPod but couldn’t live with the reduced capacity. That iPod will be the sweetest ticket in town since the introduction of Apple’s first iPod as the capacity grows. I own a 4gb Nano that I hardwired with a line level connection in my car. In all of time I’ve owned it, I never once removed it from my car even though the climate in my area can drop to zero (inside the car) on a winter night or reach blistering temps of 130 degrees or more when parked in direct sunlight with the windows (pardon the term) closed during the summer months. Still, I haven’t had so much as a single glitch from this baby. The reason is superior durability! With solid state or “flash” architecture you need not worry about expansion and contraction during climate changes like you do with a mechanical hard drive. I have a few friends who killed their hard drive based iPods within a few short months by leaving them in their cars during climate changes. I’m sure it will be a while yet before we see some serious flash storage capacity – affordable at least. I don’t remember where I read or heard about the cost comparison between flash and mechanical drives. It may have actually been on Apple’s website or during S. Jobs keynote. If I remember correctly, flash is around 1,800% more than traditional drives.
I guess I’ll save my nickels for now. But, for everyone else with a classic, dig it, love it , enjoy it for many years!! With all of that capacity, everyone should have at least 1 Grateful Dead CD on their iPod. Sorry...just a bit of a Dead Head, here.
Thanks again for everyone’s input. Good luck!