Why do photos take so long to sync with my iPod touch?

Question

Recently my 60Gb iPod touch has been taking longer and longer to sync photos. Music, movies, apps, etc are all ok, its just pictures taking a very long time indeed.
I have tried resetting and erasing all data to start from scratch but I still have the same issue. For instance, I set the iPod syncing at 0830 this morning, went out for the day and as I type now at 2215, (well over 12 hours later) iTunes says it is 'optimizing photo 4103 of 9713'. Not only that, it only appears to be optimizing 1 photo every minute or so. Do the math, its going to take forever to complete the process!
I know its a lot of photos, but it never used to be problem. I should mention that my data is on a remote Netgear Stora 1Tb drive, but I dont see how this would make a difference, as music, movies, etc are copied over extremely fast. It is only photos that are causing me problems.
I would be grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction on this one.
Cheers,
Vmondo
System details: Dell Dimension E520 running Windows Vista Home Premium.
Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.8GHz with 2Gb of RAM.

Answer 1

Vmondo--
A couple of items, one of which has already been mentioned: Picture size. Another is picture type; jpegs seem to load faster.
iOS4 has several new bells and whistles, which may affect things. Things like folders, multitasking, etc. also consume processing speed. The iPod isn't like my MacBook which processes things really quickly. It should; it has more processing capability.
As a side note, part of the issue may be iTunes for Windows itself. (No proof, but the iPod is an Apple gadget, and as such works slightly better with a Mac. Slightly is the key word here.)
Finally...the iPod is, at the end of the day, a music device--not a pocket sized photo album. That it can hold every digital picture one has taken in the last five years is not really relevant. It can hold video clips, pictures, etc. but it's still a device for music and some well-crafted apps. The hope is that, in the next update of iOS4, the picture issue (because you're not alone) can/will be resolved.
Now...
1. I tried answering this above.
2. You might want to check your settings for photos. It shouldn't be optimizing every time you synch, I wouldn't think, unless you are adding or changing pictures.
You can fill your iPod with whatever you want. From Computer Science 225: All an iPod is, is a fancy HD like what is on a computer. The more you put on the HD, the slower it takes to get where you want to go. This is why it is recommended if you get to with 10-15% of full on your HD, you remove stuff--or get a larger HD and migrate everything on the old HD to it. Even a SSD like the iPod touch has a limit, based on processor speed and available memory.
Doc