Quality Settings

Different iPods have different storage capacities and use cases. podkit lets you set audio and video quality independently for each device, so you can use lossless audio on a high-capacity Classic while using compressed audio on a space-constrained Nano.

Unified Quality

The simplest approach is to set quality on a device, which applies to both audio and video:

[devices.nano]
quality = "medium"            # Both audio and video use medium

Audio Quality

For audio-specific control, use audioQuality on a device. This overrides quality for audio:

[devices.classic]
quality = "high"              # Video uses high
audioQuality = "max"          # Best quality — ALAC on Classic (overrides quality)

[devices.nano]
audioQuality = "medium"

This overrides the global audioQuality and quality settings in your config file. Available presets:

Preset	Bitrate	Best for
`max`	Lossless or ~256 kbps	ALAC on supported devices, otherwise same as `high`
`high`	~256 kbps VBR	Good quality, reasonable size (default)
`medium`	~192 kbps VBR	Saving space
`low`	~128 kbps VBR	Maximum compression

For predictable file sizes, set encoding = "cbr" on the device. See Audio Transcoding for full details.

Video Quality

Set the video quality preset per device with videoQuality:

[devices.classic]
videoQuality = "high"

[devices.nano]
videoQuality = "low"

Preset	Description
`max`	Highest quality, largest files
`high`	Excellent quality (default)
`medium`	Good quality, smaller files
`low`	Space-efficient

Video resolution is automatically matched to each device’s capabilities (e.g., 640x480 for Classic, 320x240 for Nano). See Video Transcoding for device profiles and format details.

Example: Multi-Device Setup

# Global default
quality = "high"

[devices.classic]
volumeUuid = "ABCD-1234"
volumeName = "CLASSIC"
audioQuality = "max"          # ALAC on Classic (it supports lossless)
videoQuality = "high"

[devices.nano]
volumeUuid = "EFGH-5678"
volumeName = "NANO"
quality = "medium"            # Both audio and video use medium
videoQuality = "low"          # Override: low video quality
artwork = false

The Classic gets the best audio quality (ALAC, since it supports lossless playback) and high-quality video, while the Nano uses medium audio, low-quality video, and skips artwork to save space.

Setting Quality via CLI

You can set quality on a device when adding it or at any time afterward:

# Set quality when adding a device
podkit device add -d classic --audio-quality max --video-quality high

# Change quality on an existing device
podkit device set -d classic --quality max
podkit device set -d nano --audio-quality medium --video-quality low

# Clear a setting (reverts to global default)
podkit device set -d classic --clear-audio-quality

Sync-Time Overrides

You can also override quality for a single sync without changing device settings:

podkit sync --quality medium
podkit sync --audio-quality max
podkit sync --video-quality low
podkit sync --device nano --quality medium --video-quality low
podkit sync --device /Volumes/NANO --audio-quality high