Video iPod Available... Sort of

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..."

Comments

Or...

[Kenja]

Or you could just buy somthing that can play both video and audio. Like a PDA or one of the many portable media centers on the market. This is like saying that your printer can play movies if you print out each frame and then flip through them.

Re:Or...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're trying to watch a video on the subway, you're kind of SOL.


You go around flashing expensive toys on the subway you might find yourself SOL anyway.

Re:Or...

[Kenja]

"1 GB of either of these formats will run you about $100."

No it will run you about 60$.

"Compared to a 40GB drive at the iPod price, that's terrible."

Yea, but see your Axim can play video while your iPod cant (despite what this FA claims). An iPod is also cheaper then a new car, but it works better for some things.

Why no videa on the new iPod?

[3770]

What is more likely?

1) The new color iPod does not have video because the hardware can't support it.
2) Apple does not have a way to sell movies and videos on iTunes.

Or...

[DaveCBio]

You could just buy a portable video player that does everything the iPod does and more for about the same price.

Apple losing direction

[xThinkx]

Mod me as a troll of you wish, but I'm not trolling.

I think the fact that so soon after the new ipod comes out people are brute forcing it to play movies is a demonstration that Apple may be losing its direction in innovation

I'm an avid digital photographer, and in almost all of the photo boards I hang out on, the opinion of the photo ipod was generally disappointing. How hard would it have been to put a freakin CF card reader in it? How hard would it have been to enable movie playback in at least ONE format?

The ipod was helped in its jump to the top by the fact that it was innovative, so much so that people were willing to ignore its high price tag. Apple missed two big opportunities on this one; movie playback AND easy storage transfer from camera media.

I'm not buying a photo ipod now, but I would've in a second if it had those two features. Apple, I hope this is an isolated incident.

Re:Apple losing direction

[Anonymous Coward]

The ipod was helped in its jump to the top by the fact that it was innovative

Err... no. It was (and is) successful because it's easy to use. It does what most people want and not much more.

I'm an avid digital photographer,

You are not in the target market for the iPod Photo.

The iPod Photo is for people that want to show their holiday or family pictures around. Not for photographers as a storage medium.

No idea if there are enough people in that designated target market. But apparently Apple thought there would be.

Andreas

Re:Apple losing direction

[nine-times]

The ipod was helped in its jump to the top by the fact that it was innovative

Nope. The iPod made its way to the top by being *simple*. No useless features. No features that *sort-of* work. No features that make the thing a pain-in-the-butt to deal with. It did 1 thing and did that 1 thing well, simply, and trouble-free. Now it does a couple things well, simply, and trouble-free.

This isn't because Apple can't figure out how to do these things-- you just won't see it in a commercially available product until Apple feels it has it all worked out into a simple interface. And when I say simple, I mean like the scroll-wheel design for the interface, or the fact that there's only 1 in/out port (the dock connector). Apple likes their designs to be fool-proof.

PS- You can transfer images from a digital camera, but you need an accessory.

Re:Apple losing direction

[thatshortkid]

it would be a correct mod, you are trolling.

look, you want a card reader? fine, there it is. but to make it built in would be ludicrous. if they did put one in, it would probably not be the card of your preference, so adding even more slots would increase the bulk (and price) on the ipod. secondly, it's a (repeat after me) MUSIC PLAYER. yes, it can be used as a portable hard drive, but that's a niche market compared to its overall first use, bringing music to your ears.

as for movies, nobody wants to walk before they can run around here. if they had added quicktime movie playback, everybody would be up in arms about why battery life sucks more than it already does. it only gets 5 hours of battery life as it is with STILL images! if you want a portable movie player now, these people can help you. although i doubt you'll like what they have, since again the card reader is an attachment and not built-in.

Re:Apple losing direction

[EricHsu]

You're not a troll, but I do disagree with you. 1. The iPod didn't sell because of innovative features. It sold because of innovative interface and style (and herd-like fashion momentum). When it came out /. was crapping itself to talk about how stupid the device was because of... low features! Some things never change. 2. Jobs has said many people play music hundreds of times, and only few people play movies repeatedly. The fact that one guy did a 'cause it was there' kind of movie hack on the iPod does not make a market. Maybe as digital video gets easier (got to love those flash-card mini-camcorders, too bad about the shooting quality), the market will grow. 3. It costs money to squeeze features on. It's already expensive as it is. 4. If Apple 'missed' the opportunities, then who is taking advantage of it? Is anyone making money off of a portable mini movie player? I'm not convinced a market exists. My own consumer opinion is I'm not going to get a photo iPod, but I can see the market, especially for the output-to-TV features.

Re:Apple losing direction

[switcha]

How hard would it have been to put a freakin CF card reader in it? How hard would it have been to enable movie playback in at least ONE format?

I've got a pretty decent camera. It doesn't use CF. How many readers you gonna pack in and keep the form factor desirable?

As for video, if you've got a battery fashioned out of pixie dust and dreams that can power video for a reasonable amount of time (and keep the form factor down), I'm sure Apple would love to hear from you.

Everybody wants, wants, wants. "Won't but one until it has _____!". There are other options or devices out there (including waiting for technology to catch up). Criticizing people or companies who owe you nothing is such a habit of this board, that I don't think a lot of people step back to look at how absurd it is when they get bent out of shape because _____ isn't catering to their specific checklist of desires.

And to your point, if the fact people are doing it means that 'demand' demands it, then Apple must be way behind on adding LEDs and neon ground effects shit to their cases. Or adding wheels to the bottom. Or adding rubber cases to the iPod. Or...

What's the point of being able to play video?

[arhar]

Am I the only one who does not need this feature? I listen to my iPod when I'm on the train, when I'm walking somewhere, or when I'm working out.. all of these activities require using your eyes, so watching video is out of the question. Am in the minority here?

joke of the day

[l3v1]

This sounded so really ridiculous, I had to read it again. Then, it seemed even more so :) I laughed so loud I hope the neighbors didn't think I went nuts :D

So really, this is something a regular sane fellas would do with their iPods :D Oh, come on :)

You even can grab a dead cat and pull it with a piece of rope, but it won't run, even if you mew in the process :D

Re:Ugh...

[Orgazmus]

And if they do: why not implement movie playback in the first place?

Because iPod Video will be avaiable in a couple a months with a $200 addon in price :)

The next hack...

[JediTrainer]

Now I'm waiting for someone to visit Radio Shack, buy one of those little motors and hook that up to the scroll. Play with resistors to get it to the right speed.

Bonus points if you can pull juice right from the iPod's battery...

Flick through static pictures, why of all the...

[Trogre]

I think I'll stick with my zaurus, thanks.

This is one of the stupidest things I have heard

[Anonymous Coward]

I really am just so speechless I hate to post something. If you are looking for an mp3 player that actually has half assed video then look at the new iriver, as they came out with a firmware capable of playing low res xvid files or something. Yeah it sucks but it's more news than this is.

Re:Time to upgrade?

[baudilus]

You can't be serious. I have an iPod, and yes, while FM is a great option - I use the iPod in my car. That's neither here nor there, since there are people that walk around outside with their music players as well... but that thing is even uglier than this iPod "video" hack. It's obviously an iPod look-alike - the blue backlight, the shape, the "touch" pad, the wired remote. Even in the description!

There's no need to go round in circles with the ZEN MICRO's intuitive Vertical Touch Pad.

An obvious swipe at the iPod's scroll wheel. Honestly, I have had several mp3 players in the past, and the iPod exceeds them. I have yet to see an interface as innovative, intuitive, and simple as the iPod's scroll wheel (I prefer the 3g to the 4g wheel with buttons). Besides the fact that headphones are awesome as far as earbuds go.

Besides, it's only 5GB, and is only marginally smaller than the 40GB iPod.

Cheaper != Better Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Re:Steve Jobs has critized portable video players.

[Trejkaz]

Hey, it's not Steve's fault that he's living five years in the past.

But he's pretty much right about the screen size... at least on his OWN product. Everyone else's video player screens are a good size.

Re:Steve Jobs has critized portable video players.

[lpangelrob2]

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

I disagree... to support my position, you need only look at the prevalence of handheld TVs.

Oh, wait...

Re:Worse. Much MUCH Worse.

[micromoog]

It's spam. I'm not sure if you folks don't realize that, are in denial, or just don't care, but you're getting paid to send unsolicited advertisements. SPAM.