No Video iPod Coming?

Fuzzball963 writes "ThinkSecret is reporting that a video iPod is not going to be released on Oct.12th. Instead, the announcement will be an 80 GB update to the iPod, along with size improvements on the color models. The analysts seem to say that the video iPod is in development, but that lack of a licensing agreement between Apple and the studios has made it a no-go for now." From the article: "While a video-capable iPod remains in development, without the agreements nor infrastructure in place to deliver movies to customers through a store-like interface, Apple sees little value in releasing such an iPod at this time. Apple insiders have also said executives see consumers needing the capability to easily import the DVD movies they own to a usable format (similar to the encoding functionality provided for audio CDs with iTunes) in order for a video iPod to be truly successful. The complexity to date of accomplishing such a feat has meant only a minority of computer users have dabbled with watching full-length movies on their computer, with most of those having acquired the content through file sharing services."

Comments

What about?

[Phil1]

Home-made movies?

Is the Video iPod worth the wait?

[Dynamoo]

I have to question the whole buzz about the Video iPod, and indeed any other similar portable video player (such as those made by iRiver and others). It's an much small niche market than audio, because unlike music playback, video demands your full attention. You can't reasonably watch a video while out walking, jogging, riding a bike or working away at your desk. Plus, the small screens don't exactly do justice to most of the things you are watching.

So, I think the lack of a Video iPod is no great loss. What Apple are missing out on is a decent iPod-style phone. According to The Register, the Motorola ROKR iTunes phone isn't shifting in any significant quantity. Perhaps if Apple and Motorola had come up with something more like the (admittedly flawed) Bang & Olufsen Serene then it would be a real seller. That's the kind of unified gadget there's a market for.. a good mobile/music player hybrid. B&O showed that it's possible. But Apple have either missed the boat on this one, or perhaps they do have something in development in-house.

Really though.. if I want to watch a film while I'm away.. I stick a DVD in my laptop. That has a nice big screen and I've never run into DRM issues with that. Yet.

Re:Is the Video iPod worth the wait?

[Kjella]

So, I think the lack of a Video iPod is no great loss. What Apple are missing out on is a decent iPod-style phone. According to The Register, the Motorola ROKR iTunes phone isn't shifting in any significant quantity.

Up until the iPod nano, I would have disagreed. But now I agree. You already have the screen, input device and battery. Include a mic, radio antenna and basic SMS/MMS and you have a working phone that isn't too big. Just include a little bit of sane battery management (that is, not let the pod drain the phone beyond a certain threshold). With the relatively large battery for a phone they might even catch a niche market for people who want extra long life. In other words I'd much rather have an iPod with phone than a phone with iPod. The ROKR is going about it in a completely wrong way, at least to my tastes.

Copying your legally-owned DVDs...

[Trollificus]

...to an mpeg/divx/whatever format isn't as difficult as they make it sound. I currently use Smartripper to rip the .vob files and separate my audio and video tracks, and DVDx to encode the audio to mp3 and video to DivX and package it all up in a nice .avi container.

Granted, it is not as easy as ripping a CD, but if anyone can streamline this into a single-step process(to the end-user anyway), it would be Apple.

Re:Copying your legally-owned DVDs...

[Val314]

its easy, but unfortunatly illegal.
at least here in Austria its not allowed to break a copy protection. (and yes: CSS counts as copy protection)

Re:Copying your legally-owned DVDs...

[plj]

Mod parent up. The DVD CCA will never grant Apple a license to rip CSS-encrypted movies to a hard disk. While it is technically entirely feasible to make DVD ripping as easy as CD ripping, it is not, for legal reasons, anything that a major consumer electronics manufacturer like Apple can do.

This is all just DVD DRM (aka CSS) hard at work, stifling innovation.

Thank god, no UMD

[aussie_a]

Thank god they didn't decide to go the route of Sony with a special format (such as UMD) that can only be played on a tiny machine. It's just a cash-cow for sony, and I hope that it doesn't work (I'd hate to see yet another competing video format, one that isn't even for the main television, it would be like getting movies on gameboy cartridges).

This isn't going to be a movie iPod

[the_unknown_soldier]

It's going to be a VIDEO iPod. Did anyone notice that free music videos on iTMS, which used to be updated lots haven't since June? Perhaps apple isn't giving them away because they want to sell them now!

I very much doubt they will launch with movies. If they do it will be limited. They will simply market it as an added extra similar to album art on the color iPods.

A Video iPod may be nice..

[Sunsetbeach]

If it can be connected to any TV.

I mean imagine, you could go visit a friend, and bring your movie/porn collection...

Re:A Video iPod may be nice..

[Xarius]

Or even better! Some kind of "storage medium" that has "players" installed in most households now-a-days! Imaging most modern computers being able to Digitally write to this Versatile format? Some kind of new Disc perhaps?

I already have an iPod Video...

[michaelzhao]

Its called the iPod-Linux. If you install Linux on your iPod Photo, it will play video. It takes 24 bit uncompressed AVI files and splits up the sound. It takes each frame separately and stores it as a slideshow. Next, it goes to the slideshow and accelerates the frames to 30 frames a second while playing audio in the background. Voila! Although the screen is small, no screen is too small for the Boondock Saints.

There won't be a video iPod

[joelhayhurst]

Jobs has said time and time again that he thinks the idea of a video iPod is stupid and doesn't want to make one. And yet, Slashdot keeps acting like it will be a reality. He even went so far as to mock companies that were pursuing portable video.

I've actually posted a comment similar to this a year ago. Here is the Apple Special Event 04. 12:35 into the video.

Re:Haven't been paying attention

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes... The iPod nano sales are so lackluster that Apple can't even keep the 4gig versions in stock. Please actually look up information before you invent it.

Media event for modest product updates? No way.

[calstraycat]

I have no idea what will be announced at this event, but I think it's safe to assume that Thinksecret's assertion that Apple will simply announce modest updates to it's iPod, Powerbook and Power Mac product lines is highly unlikely. Apple only orchestrates these types of highly-publicized events when they are introducing a brand new or substantially different product.

I just can't see Jobs deliberately getting the media buzz going with his cryptic little invitation and then getting on stage and saying "look, here's our new 80 GB iPod and our dual-core Power Mac...oh, and one more thing...our Powerbooks have higher resolution screens".

Something new will be announced. I'd bet against a video iPod, but this event is most assuredly not for announcing product updates.

Re:Seems a bit strange

[mstone]

Think of it as a bonus for people doing video production. I'm not talking about playing video on an iPod, but rather people who want to carry video data from one place to another.

Networking geeks have an old saying: "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes." It takes a little more than three minutes to send a gigabyte of data through a T3, assuming ideal transfer conditions. By that standard, 80GB would take 240 minutes, or six hours. If we assume an average walking rate of 4mph for the average person, a pair of sneakers and an 80gig iPod would have better bandwidth than a T3 out to a range of about 20 miles, including the time necessary to load and unload the data via FireWire (@ 100MB/sec).

Video people already like FireWire. Apple won a Clio for it a few years ago, because it gave video production companies a way to move large chunks of data around easily. Directors have come to love the idea that they can buy a Powerbook and a copy of Final Cut Pro for about the price of one day's postprocessing fees, and have immediate feedback to what they're shooting.

For those people, the iPod is an inexpensive, ultra-portable data storage module. You could fill a briefcase with the things for a few thousand dollars and have more than enough space to carry the raw footage for an entire movie around with you.

The same general idea works for photographers and musicians. It's easy to accumulate 80 gigs of high-quality, first-pass data when you're in the content creation business, and an iPod gives you a convenient way to stick all that information into your pocket and carry it wherever you need to go.

Apple already knows that the sweet spot for actual music storage is about 5 gigs. They have a whole line of products for people who just want a straightforward music player. The higher-capacity models are for people who want to carry data.