Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback Black
Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback Black Product Features
Stores up to 7,500 songs, 20,000 photos, or 75 hours of video playback
2.5-inch (diagonal) color LCD with LED backlight
Up to 14 hours of music playback; up to 3 hours of slideshows with music; up to 2 hours of video playback
Comes with earbud headphones and USB cable
Compatible with Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback Black Review
As of this writing, no reviews are from someone who actually HAS one of the new iPods (10/19). That is about to change....
My 40GB iPod's hard disk had been deteriorating for a while, until it stopped working altogether. That happened to be the day before the iPod video announcement (last Tuesday).
On to what you really want to know, and what you can't get from Apple's website, or reviews regurgitating technical specifications:
1) Can you actually enjoy watching video on a screen that small? What about the video quality?
In short, if you're holding the iPod as close to your face as you would hold an older iPod to really read what song is playing, the video quality is actually quite nice. The screen is noticeably bigger (the height is about the size of the old iPod width). If you're wondering how the quality comes out on an iPod screen (which is normally fairly pixelated), when you load a video it toggles into a mode much akin to when a computer plays a graphics intensive video game. It takes about 10 seconds for a feature-length film to load (i.e., between clicking play, and when it starts playing).
With regard to movies, the iPod doesn't support chapters. My guess is that people will eventually want movies distributed as folders, witch chapters being the individual files. This will allow chapter skipping. That said, once a movie loads, fast forwarding works very well.
I loaded a fairly graphics-intensive movie on there, at about the highest quality the iPod would allow. The actions scenes come out fine...about what you would expect for an MPGE4.
2) What the heck does this thing actually look like in your hand?
It is about the size of older iPods. It is thinner (a lot thinner, if, like me you are upgrading from a non-photo Gen4 40gb). The front is a flat screen, much like the iPod nano, but bigger. The clickwheel is a bit smaller than it was on older iPods, but bigger than that of a nano.
3) The screen
I have to say, the bigger screen is nice in and of itself. If you have longer track names (if you have live music, etc.) a lot more of the name will appear. This is a very nice subtlety since in oder to read a song title you don't need to wait......for....it....to.....scroll....
4) Is it worth it?
Jobs called this a regular iPod with "video capability." I'd say the video capabilities are a little better than that gives it credit for. I don't yet have a composite adapter, so I can't see how this comes out on a TV...
With regard to exporting video to TV, there ARE the following options:
TV Out (on/off)
Video Signal (NTSC/PAL)
Widescreen (on/off)
If your iPod is breaking, or is pretty old, I'd definitely upgrade. If you travel a lot or have downtime where you could hold the device pretty close to your face (train, airplane, etc.), I'd definitely get it. If you don't have much time to enjoy the video capabilities, then it probably isn't worth it.
5) Firewire
The tech specs didn't say anything about firewire, so I had been wondering whether it is supported. It actually is not supported at all. In fact, I tried connecting via my old firewire cable, and the iPod brought up a screen that said something like, "firewire is not supported. Please use the supplied USB cable."
6) The "case"
I saw that a case was included on the Apple website...basically the case, as you might suspect, is pretty bad. I got a 60GB model, and it barely squeezes into the case. That said, cases that support the new screen will likely be unavailable for 3 weeks or so (if what happened with the nano repeats itself), and so it is ncie to have SOMETHING to prevent you from scratching your new screen (which is now more important because it plays video).
Anyway, I hope this answers any questions you might have. I've tried to stick to differences between this beauty and the iPod photo.
If you're still on the fence, let me say this...go for it. It is really quite nice.
Stores up to 7,500 songs, 20,000 photos, or 75 hours of video playback
2.5-inch (diagonal) color LCD with LED backlight
Up to 14 hours of music playback; up to 3 hours of slideshows with music; up to 2 hours of video playback
Comes with earbud headphones and USB cable
Compatible with Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later, Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later
Apple 30 GB iPod with Video Playback Black Review
As of this writing, no reviews are from someone who actually HAS one of the new iPods (10/19). That is about to change....
My 40GB iPod's hard disk had been deteriorating for a while, until it stopped working altogether. That happened to be the day before the iPod video announcement (last Tuesday).
On to what you really want to know, and what you can't get from Apple's website, or reviews regurgitating technical specifications:
1) Can you actually enjoy watching video on a screen that small? What about the video quality?
In short, if you're holding the iPod as close to your face as you would hold an older iPod to really read what song is playing, the video quality is actually quite nice. The screen is noticeably bigger (the height is about the size of the old iPod width). If you're wondering how the quality comes out on an iPod screen (which is normally fairly pixelated), when you load a video it toggles into a mode much akin to when a computer plays a graphics intensive video game. It takes about 10 seconds for a feature-length film to load (i.e., between clicking play, and when it starts playing).
With regard to movies, the iPod doesn't support chapters. My guess is that people will eventually want movies distributed as folders, witch chapters being the individual files. This will allow chapter skipping. That said, once a movie loads, fast forwarding works very well.
I loaded a fairly graphics-intensive movie on there, at about the highest quality the iPod would allow. The actions scenes come out fine...about what you would expect for an MPGE4.
2) What the heck does this thing actually look like in your hand?
It is about the size of older iPods. It is thinner (a lot thinner, if, like me you are upgrading from a non-photo Gen4 40gb). The front is a flat screen, much like the iPod nano, but bigger. The clickwheel is a bit smaller than it was on older iPods, but bigger than that of a nano.
3) The screen
I have to say, the bigger screen is nice in and of itself. If you have longer track names (if you have live music, etc.) a lot more of the name will appear. This is a very nice subtlety since in oder to read a song title you don't need to wait......for....it....to.....scroll....
4) Is it worth it?
Jobs called this a regular iPod with "video capability." I'd say the video capabilities are a little better than that gives it credit for. I don't yet have a composite adapter, so I can't see how this comes out on a TV...
With regard to exporting video to TV, there ARE the following options:
TV Out (on/off)
Video Signal (NTSC/PAL)
Widescreen (on/off)
If your iPod is breaking, or is pretty old, I'd definitely upgrade. If you travel a lot or have downtime where you could hold the device pretty close to your face (train, airplane, etc.), I'd definitely get it. If you don't have much time to enjoy the video capabilities, then it probably isn't worth it.
5) Firewire
The tech specs didn't say anything about firewire, so I had been wondering whether it is supported. It actually is not supported at all. In fact, I tried connecting via my old firewire cable, and the iPod brought up a screen that said something like, "firewire is not supported. Please use the supplied USB cable."
6) The "case"
I saw that a case was included on the Apple website...basically the case, as you might suspect, is pretty bad. I got a 60GB model, and it barely squeezes into the case. That said, cases that support the new screen will likely be unavailable for 3 weeks or so (if what happened with the nano repeats itself), and so it is ncie to have SOMETHING to prevent you from scratching your new screen (which is now more important because it plays video).
Anyway, I hope this answers any questions you might have. I've tried to stick to differences between this beauty and the iPod photo.
If you're still on the fence, let me say this...go for it. It is really quite nice.
posted by George at 1:36 AM
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