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.'"

Comments

It's a surprisingly decent video player

[jellomizer]

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

Admitting to breaking laws?

[rdwald]

In addition, we obtained from a friend an illegally downloaded episode of the TV show "Battlestar Galactica," which she had converted to one of the video formats the iPod supports.

What, Mossberg has no fear of repercussions? Or does he figure that the Sci Fi channel will figure the plug is worth the copyright infringement?

Watching videos on the computer...

[WarpedMind]

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.

Et tu, video iPod?

[MightyMait]

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.

Re:Et tu, video iPod?

[mblase]

Archos has had a portable media device that records video/audio from analog inputs for a number of years now.

Yep, and it's got a lot of features an iPod will probably never sport. Being able to record video from an analog source is something Apple probably will never do, because they're trying their best to play friendly with the media companies. Plus it's got a smaller screen, a focus on music and not video... but since Archos hasn't been selling their player nearly as well as Apple's been selling iPods, it's reasonable to assume that portable video just isn't there yet.

But despite what critics have said about TV on the iTMS, I think it'll be the next big thing. Sure, TV is free -- so is radio. What you get on the iTMS is commercial-free video, on demand, with no commercials. Sure, you can see the new episode of "Lost" on TV this week, but what if you missed last week's and didn't tape it? What if you want to watch a few episodes of season 1 without waiting for a DVD rental to get to your house? It won't replace TV or DVD by any stretch, but it fills in a gap in the viewing experience that's been there for some time. And hey--you don't need a new iPod to watch those episodes. They look pretty good on a 17" monitor, too.

I think it's safe to say that the iTMS/iPod combo and the Archos player fill two different niches--one's a system for video-on-demand, the other's basically a portable TiVo. The iPod has never been designed to record radio, and you can only record voice with a plug-in accessory -- it's a player, period. Let each device do its job well and there's room in the market for everyone.

Missing accessories

[blackmonday]

I can forgive Apple for discontinuing Firewire on the new iPods, but I can't forgive them for not including the charger in the box. I understand that the USB cable doubles as a charger, but I want to charge it in a hotel room, friends's house, etc. How much could that little charger possible cost Apple? 2-3 bucks? I'll stick with my 3rd gen until it dies, then I hope my existing accessories will still work on the newer iPods.

Re:Missing accessories

[Dan East]

Apple expects you to do the reasonable thing - buy one of them PowerBook-iPod-charger-thingies. You just plug your iPod into the USB port of the charger (aka PowerBook). Yeah, they're a little on the big side for a power supply, but I've heard they can be used for other things too.

Dan East

Re:But... Can I put my divx's etc on it?

[siliconjunkie]

Can it play divx's/xvid's?

Nope.

From http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html

H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

sign of the times

[rebug]

Even the Wall Street Journal editors think nothing of downloading and sharing TV shows. I think this pretty much reflects the average person's stance: it's just not a big deal.

IP owners sure have a tough battle ahead of them.

Re:Sweet!

[leenoble_uk]

Yes, but how does pr0n look on it?

like this

Am I the only one?

[jacklexbox]

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?

Other interesting comments

[mblase]

This video format and conversion problem is a mess that will hold back the video iPod unless Apple fixes it by incorporating free, reliable, and easy video conversion in iTunes.

He's got a point. Quicktime Pro is a $30 upgrade no user should have to pay for just to do this job. iTunes can easily convert between MP3, AAC, WAV or AIFF -- it ought to do the same for MPG and MOV videos.

Apple should also include a stand with the video iPod, to get around the problem of holding the thing in viewing position for long periods.

This comment I don't get. It's supposed to be a portable video viewer, not a comfortable one.

Re:Other interesting comments

[badasscat]

Pretty simple premise, really. If you're sitting in a plane, having a little wire stand would mean the iPod could sit up on the tray table for you to watch without having to hold it the whole time.

It's called a dock, and Apple sells them for $39.

If you don't need docking functions, try one of these, or these, or these, or these.

Would it be cheap for Apple to have included one? Sure - that $15 one is just a little piece of plastic, I'm sure it costs about 45 cents to make. But what would Apple gain from it? They're not going to sell any more iPods because it comes with a stand, and they're just going to annoy their accessory makers. One of the things that's kept the iPod so popular is this cottage industry of accessories that's grown up around it - people know they have many options to customize their iPods, so it makes them more likely to buy (vs. another player that may have a smaller selection of cases, stands or other products available).

I do personally wish the iPod still came with a dock, but I don't just want a crappy little stand. And I understand why Apple took the dock out of the package - it hasn't hurt sales any and it's let them do these feature and spec upgrades without raising prices at all. I'm not defending their removal of the dock from a consumer's standpoint, but I do understand it from a business standpoint.

Replace the Wheel with a full sized touch screen.

[Anonymous Coward]

The iPod could compete with the PSP by replacing the screen/touch wheel version with a full sized touch screen.

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.sht ml )

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!

Re:Sweet!

[eMartin]

Yes, you have to be 21 to view porn.

18 is the age you have to be to star in it. ...jk

Re:Technology Changes, and so do preferences..

[JazzCrazed]

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

It's an iPod regardless.

[vicgolgo13]

I don't see why everyone is having a hissyfit about not wanting to buy the video iPod. It's essentially an iPod with video added on for no extra cost.

What's that you say?

Did I stutter??? It's an iPod with Free Video Capabilities.

If you don't like the video aspect of it and just want an iPod that plays music, guess what? It still plays music! Just don't download any videos to it and you'll be fine.

People are missing the point that the new generation iPod is an improvement altogether: Thinner case and improved battery life.