Our resident Mac whore at work already has one of the new video iPods. I was pretty dubious when I first heard about it. Who would want to watch video on that tiny little screen? But when he showed it to me, I was blown away. The video quality is really sharp. Might be a nice way to kill time during plane flights.
I’ve added it to the Gadgets I Gotta Have List … I guess my only concern is the battery life. There’s apparently a program that will allow you to rip DVDs to the device, but I’m wondering if it will have enough battery life to get through an entire movie. Guess I’ll find out. I just downloaded the latest iTunes update and the store now have videos you can buy and download. This could get interesting.
3 replies on “Video iPod”
A few FYIs….
My experience so far shows that playing video non-stop will drain the battery in 3 hours 18 minutes…. more than enough time for a movie.
And as for getting movies onto it, there’s a great little free program called HandBrake that rips DVDs with incredible ease in a mpeg-4 which works perfectly on the viPod. You can rip/encode a 2hr dvd in about 90 minutes.
Now, go buy more mac stuff. 🙂
One of the questions I had about the iPod’s video plan was how good the video would be if played on a larger display.
I got a Cowon iAudio X5 when they first came out (http://reviews.cnet.com/Cowon_iAudio_X5__20GB_/4505-6490_7-31383684.html?tag=viddet). While it was the first video player on the market, the video is pretty small by the time it is crunched into the right format. It plays mpeg4 at 15fps and 160×128.
Apple seems to have gone one better with a bigger screen and better resolution: 30fps and either 320×240 or 480×480 for mpeg4. (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/creatingvideo.html)
That’s pretty good, considering analog broadcast resolution is 512×400
Looking at that on a bigger display won’t be that bad at all, making the 1.99 purchase for that episode of “Lost” have more mileage.
I just stepped in to the times and picked up a photo iPod. Still not ready for the video yet, but have it on my list to look at.
I am leaning toward the PocketDish though as it has the bigger screen selections and works very well with my DISHNetwork DVR.
Could be my saving grace to catch up on CSI and Law and Order 😉