Others have complained about ipod classics freezing up. Might be related to them using traditional platter hard drives (
http://www.f30post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=817605). Try one of the ipods that use flash memory instead - I use an ipod touch and it never freezes.
As for screen resolution for album art, again my ipod touch was a better choice due to its screen resolution. The album art from my ipod classic was pretty crappy (
http://www.f30post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=816572)