ipod touch and audiobooks in mp3 format

[etheesdad]

I am getting some audio books for my sister who is vision impaired. She wants to play them on an ipod touch. The files are in sequential mp3:
book1-1.mp3
book1-2.mp3
book1-3.mp3
etc....

book2-1.mp3
book2-2.mp3
book2-3.mp3
etc....


File sizes vary (one book all the mp3's are 1.9mb, another book all the mp3's are 17mb)

Ive never used an ipod touch. Can anyone tell me, will there be a gap between each file when she's playing them back? (does the Touch play sequentially numbered files seamlessly?)

Is there an optimal / maximum filesize for mp3 files on an ipod touch? (if I convert the files to a single mp3, say 400mb in size, will it be able to play it? ... are there significant performance issues if I do this?)

Also, one of the books is wma. does touch play wma files - or do I need to convert to mp3?

[Mawdryn]

The short answer is yes, they will play in the right sequence as long as shuffle is not turned on and the parts are labeled in such a way as to sort in the correct order. For example, book 1-10 will play before book 1-2, but after book 1-09.

To avoid confusion, I prefer to combine books into one large file or sometimes a couple files. I read somewhere that you should keep the file size below 250 MB, but I have played 600 MB or larger book files on several iPods with no trouble.

The iPod cannot play WMA files directly, but itunes will convert them for you automatically when you import them. They will convert to whatever setting you have for import. I normally import to AAC 128K, but that's kind of a high bit rate for an audiobook. 32K is common. Best to use the same bit rate as the source file when importing. But then don't forget to change it back when importing music. Otherwise, you could just convert them outside of iTunes and not mess around with iTunes import settings.

I hope this was useful and not too confusing.

[etheesdad]

Ok. Thats really helpful. Thanks very much :)