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Video iPod Screen Test
Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal's Walter S. Mossberg has an interesting review of Apple's video iPod. From the article: 'It's a surprisingly decent video player, with crisp, smooth vivid playback of TV shows, music videos, short films, video podcasts and home videos. We wouldn't want to watch a full-length movie on this iPod -- the screen is just too small. But, for short things like music videos, video podcasts or even hourlong TV shows shortened by stripping out the commercials, as Apple is doing, the new iPod provides a pretty good experience.
However, there are some significant downsides to the video function on this iPod. Some of them are due to Apple's design decisions, while others are due to restrictions imposed by media companies, or to the simple human factors that go into watching video.'"
I don't know why the guy is that surprised. Apple lately has a reputation of making good products, minus some untested issues with first generation products like scratches on iPod Nano. But apple products for the last 4 years have been releasing good products. I would be more surprised if Apple released a very poor product. I think the guy probably has IBM Good and Apple Bad idea stuck in his head from the 80s
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I agree about watching videos on the computer. I have no intention to my a video iPod, but I'm using iTunes to catch up on episodes of some TV programs. The quality on my computer was great.
I'll probably delete the episodes soon to reclaim the space. I'll just write it off as rental price.
I think the _REAL_ question is...
Yes, but how does pr0n look on it?
The joke is I can already do this on my palm Zaire only better. If it wasn't for battery life I could hold two movies on a 1 gig memory card. I already have trailers to the movies I shot and my CG reel on it. Not to mention my portfolio and several hundred stills and I haven't begun to fill the one gig memory card. The screen is larger than a video Ipod and has a good quality image. I wish they'd come up with an add on battery pack for them. The sound isn't bad through head phones. I'd love to be able to load a couple of films on a memory card for plane flights. Ipods are convienent but I like Palms for flexsibility. I even find myself using the built in camera quiter often. Handy devices.
I submitted a story yesterday (rejected :( ) about this article by Gary Krakow which tempers some of the iPod hysteria. I've met a number of folks (some of whom were musicians) that have bought iPods for their "cool" factor without examining all the features, limitations (no 16-bit 44KHz audio recording unless you install Linux), or the competition's offerings.
Archos has had a portable media device that records video/audio from analog inputs for a number of years now.
Nothing interesting to say...MUST...NOT...REPLY...ohtheheckwithit.
But to add to your comment. Should we focus on integrating devices and be happy with it or integrate and microsize it before we release it?
My fear is that, someday, we'll have a all-in-one device and it'll be the size of my head! Cell phone, av output, video, camera, gps etc etc etc.
If manufacturers race to increase capability without decreasing size and and other aesthetic appeals we won't be any farther than we are right now.
Kinda get what I'm saying?
Just your everyday corporate code monkey.
Maybe I really am crazy, but the article mentioned Quicktime Pro 7, and "various other encoders" as a means to create iPod playable video. The iPod plays H.264 Mpeg 4 video, would pspVideo9 not work just as well as QT Pro? If you encode a video into a 320x240 resolution clip, with a bitrate not higher than the 768KB per second, then wouldn't it work? I cannot test this idea yet, as my 60GB 5th gen iPod hasn't arrived yet, but it seems likely to work. Correct me if I am wrong. And also do you think VBR H.264 would be a problem for the new iPods?
If you can't afford a cheap notebook, you shouldn't be spending $300 on an MP3 player. The one is more important and has more utility and more bang-for-the-buck than the other.
An iPod Video is pure luxury. A notebook is, for many people, at least part necessity. It also has a potentially longer life, performs many more functions, etc.
If it comes down to (a) spending $300 on an iPod or (b)spending $999 on a notebook, and you can't afford (b), the best option is (c) IF YOU DON'T HAVE $999, YOU CANT SPARE $300.
You know, I've seen this high school student comment more than once. WTF? The only time I had in high school to do anything was at lunch. Don't you go to class? Study? Interface with people? Or is it this much vaunted "video iPod rulez" syndrome that makes it so great, even though it isn't?
--ngoy
The iPod could compete with the PSP by replacing the screen/touch wheel version with a full sized touch screen.
t ml )
The touch screen could approximate the 16:9 format of HDTV.
The iPod 'Wheel' could be displayed when you touch the screen in a certain location. You could see a display of the original formatted screen/wheel.
After selecting a video to view, the wheel vanishes and gives you the whole side of the iPod in Widescreen mode.
They would need to boost the size of the battery by a couple of millimeters of thickness to get some more playtime with the bigger screen.
In addition to the widescreen format touch screen, the actual display elements could be Organic LED (OLED) if that would help produce a brighter picture and clearer display.
(See Epsons OLED: http://www.epson.co.in/aboutus/newscentre/OLED.sh
Some touch screen technologies could be even more sensitive than the current wheel technology.
Also, a icon list of videos (like in the new iTunes 6) could scroll down the screen in landscape mode, and then the user could touch the little icon to begin playing Christina Aguilera or the next episode of LOST, or watch Toy Story in it's original format.
That's the next logical step for the iPod, then it could simulate an HDTV type experience on a 4" screen.
Now, if they would only up the resolution to 1080p and add a Universal Dock to HDMI adapter, you could take your favorite movie over to your friend's house and watch your iPod play connected to their 42" Plasma HDTV!
Speaking of, my Dell Axim x50 PocketPC can play all flavors of audio (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Flac, WAV, what-have-you), video (MPEG-2, MPEG-4 in the form of DivX and XviD - and in a bigger screen and 4 times the resolution of the iPod at that), has a built-in calendar, can browse the web, receive e-mails, chat over multiple IM protocols, and can make VOIP calls using Skype's PocketPC client and the built in wifi. It's just missing a camera...although, I could buy this one.
It doesn't have a HDD in the 10s of GB (just a 2.5GB microdrive I bought for it), but that wasn't in your list. It's "all-in-one" enough for me! =D
Hopefully this will push QuckTime to be the standard format for internet video, like on websites and such. After all, if you are going to post content wouldn't you rather it be available on the most popular portable media player? If I never have to view another .WMV on my Mac I'll be happy.
The only downside is that you don't get those trendy earbuds and...
Oh god, those earbuds. I cannot explain how much I loathe them. What is it that people find so aesthetic about them? Personally, I've taken to wearing the earbuds that came with my Samsung YP-MTetc-etc instead of my normal headphones just so that the blackness and more, shall we say, professional looking design of them can contrast with all the oddly cheap-looking white ones everyone else has attatched to their iPods.
At least the newer stuff since the minis have been partially-coloured (they still look like someone just put a plastic plate of colored plastic overtop of a fundamentally white iPod, though the nanos finally overcome that). Before, with the all-pure-white ones, it really showed off the mass-production monopoly thing. It felt like early Ford Motors inverted; I can just imagine Steve Jobs saying "They can have any color, as long as it's white."
I remember sigs. Oh, a simpler time!