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Video iPod Available... Sort of

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-you-can dept.

Pirogoeth writes "The fine folks over at Engadget have figured out how to get your new iPod Photo to play movies. According to the article, you use Quicktime Pro to export the movie as thousands of individual frames which you export to the iPod, send the soundtrack to the iPod as well, then, if you haven't guessed by now, while playing the soundtrack, put the iPod into slideshow mode and use the scroll wheel to manually keep the frames in synch with the sound. Sound impossible? Here's a video (in mov or wmv) of the Episode III trailer in action..."

7 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. That's pretty retarded right there by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Informative


    Geesh. Why not just print all the frames out onto paper and make a flipbook?

    If you want a video player in an iPod's form factor, either sit tight for 2 years until a honest-to-goodness Video iPod to come out, or buy a Gmini 200 (Flash page).

    I chose the latter and haven't looked back.

  2. Re:Or... by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 2, Informative

    My Axim has a CF slot (which I'm using for wireless right now) and a SD.

    1 GB of either of these formats will run you about $100. Compared to a 40GB drive at the iPod price, that's terrible.

    Of course, 1 GB of video is probably plenty when the screen is 320 x 240. The one I got came with something like 32 MB.

  3. GBA by KillaKen187 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The Gameboy Advance SP can play movies too. No need to convert the files either. Just put on CF and go. :) My brother has one and it was pretty cool until he updated the firmware and broke it... bummer.

  4. Alt links by BostonRob · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google Cache w/o photos: Google Link

    Mirrordot.org also has a copy available:Mirrordot.org

    --
    Big Dig-ing until the money is gone...
  5. iRiver H3xx by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The US iRiver H320 and H340 models can playback XVID if you flash them with the recently release v1.20 Korean FW (iRiver is a Korean company). Don't worry, all the menus will still be in English. The video does need to be down-converted to the proper resolution and framerate before playback, but it is a trivial process that can be automated using VirtualDub or any other number of programs. At $300, the H320 is by far the most versatile DAP on the market, imo.

  6. Steve Jobs has critized portable video players. by joelhayhurst · · Score: 3, Informative

    Watch the Apple Special Event video from Oct 2004. Skip ahead to about 12:35 in the video. Jobs says, in a humorous fashion, that he believes the competition is making a mistake with video on portable players, and lists reasons he believes they are impractical.

    The arguments he makes are:

    • Competing video players are too heavy and cumbersome.
    • Users don't have video content.
    • The screens are too small.

    I think it's safe to say there won't be a video iPod.

  7. Re:Why no videa on the new iPod? by ortcutt · · Score: 2, Informative

    The chip which the iPod photo (and the 4G iPod) uses, the PP5020 (aka personal media player: photo edition) can play MJPEG video. MJPEG is basically a series of JPEG images though, so it's not far off what these clever folks have done. MJPEG playback could certainly be added in a firmware upgrade. Apple is probably waiting for new versions of the PortalPlayer chip that have real compressed video support before it sells an iPod billed as a video player. http://www.portalplayer.com/products/platforms_med iaplayer.html