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Video iPod May Arrive in September
Fuzzball963 writes "MSNBC is reporting that Apple is in talks with major record labels to license and sell video content on the iTunes music store. The videos would sell for $1.99 and be playable on a video iPod, which Apple has reported may come out sometime in September." Update: 07/18 18:54 GMT by T : Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Just to add to the previous Apple post, here's a free link to today's Wall Street Journal article upon which the MSNBC article was based."
Allegedly the current chip that's now being used for all ipods is capable of playing MPEG4 video. Will we see video support being released as a firmware upgrade or as a whole new ipod? I want to say new ipod but I really don't know if I'd be suprised if apple released it as a firmware upgrade.
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I'd be more interested in a hacked version of this new ipod that can play ANY video I want.
If I could buy them and burn them to DVD using iTunes, then hell yeah I'd pay $1.99 per video. However, if they expect me to have to watch them on a tiny iPod screen or on my laptop then forget it. I have about 6-7 DVDs of music videos that I've downloaded online. If I can't watch them on my TV using VCDs or DVDs, then this isn't a good reason for me to give up on downloading music videos.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
you have a point.
adding video to iPod (which does one thing and does it well, except now it can do two things -- photos) makes it perhaps too complicated.
however, what i am suggesting is that Apple would now have a tool to dominate the online video market the way they do music.
think about it. we're all waiting for movies for download. who's gonna do it and how? Apple is the only company that can even try. All they need are the contracts, bandwidth, and video iPods.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
The record companies usually don't make anything from the videos, they are made to promote the single. Anything they make from selling the video on iTunes will go straight to the bottom line.
Problem with video tech so far is that you have to settle in to watch it: fire up the home theater, point & click several times on your laptop, open & hold the awkward portable DVD player ... watching videos requires setup time and awkward movement-unfriendly positions. The technology forces you to not move, coupled with set-up/down time.
... perfect for intermediate "dead time", especially when commuting.
Contrast that with a video iPod:
iPod audio is right there - in pocket, instant on/off.
iPod video will likewise be right there - in-hand and running practically instantly
Spending 10 minutes on a bus? Waiting for an airplane? 5 minutes early for a meeting? Unexpectedly waiting an hour for someone? No time to watch that movie, but have 15 minutes a day to kill?
One second flat from bored to watching something interesting. Enough storage to actually store several interesting things.
Yeah, the screen will be small - but it's right there, unlike your laptop which has to be hauled out of your backpack, or your >15" TV which is in your living room and definitely not on the bus or in the elevator with you.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
No grandparent poster is right. No one wants to use a computer to serve video from an iPod to a TV. Too many components. These small cables are much easier.
On the other side I doubt this is what apple wants people to use the iPod for. P2PNet has a good post listing why this isn't what you think. Apple knows a video iPod would get hacked to play nearly anything (though any mpeg4 video like xvid/divx is probably too cpu intensive to work) to play on it. This functionality will be for crap quality
The quality will be crap so that no one feeds it to a TV, so you don't need a fast processesor to run it, and so file downloads and transfers to iPod don't take forever. Uploading higher resolution video won't play, not because of codecs, but because there won't be enough cpu cycles.
They can be so much more than music on the go. I perform using mine. I can DJ 2,000 songs, in addition I record songs using garageband on my G5 iMac, a FOSTEX 8 track digital recorder and a mixing board. I then play them back over the PA while I sing and play the guitar. It works like a charm! I will probably use a laptop sometime in the future. But for now the ipod works great! Before I do a show I edit the play lists for each set. The great thing is when I DJ, I don't have to carry all my CD's and I'm no longer burning cd back ups all the time. CD's tend to get scratched too easy.