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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..."
Competing video players are too heavy and cumbersome.
My Archos Gmini 400 is no larger or heavier than an iPod. And it was released 2 months prior to Jobs' statements.
Users don't have video content.
Sure I do! The challenge, and I will admit there's really no user-friendly way of doing this yet, is figuring out which files will play on it as is--that is, MPEG4-SP video AVI files (eg, DivX or XviD w/o bidi filtering), no more than 640x400 resolution, no more than 30fps, with IMA-ADPCM or MP3 CBR soundtrack--and figuring out how to convert other content to meet those specs (if possible).
The screens are too small.
Irrelevant. This is a PERSONAL video player.
I can hold the 2.2" screen a foot away from my eyes, and it takes up the same amount of my viewing area as a 30" television across the room. Uses a whole lot electricity that way, too.
Jobs would be smart not to put a Video iPod on the market NOW, but he would be foolish to NEVER put one out.