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Ars Technica Vivisects A Video iPod

Posted by Zonk on from the all-in-the-name-of-science dept.

phaedo00 writes "The guys over at Ars Technica have put together another one of their infamous reviews. This time they tackle the video iPod and give it a proper review, complete with vivisection and a discussion of the guts." From the article: "It wouldn't be an Ars iPod review without a dissection (or in this case, a vivisection since the patient survived) and discussion. Talking about what changes were made on the exterior of the device is fine and well, but the real interesting stuff--to me anyways--is found within. As the old adage says, 'it's what's on the inside that counts.' With that, I'm dismantling this iPod in the name of science. All went well: I was able to put to back together and it's working fine." An interesting counter-point to previous coverage.

25 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Vivisection... by br4dh4x0r · · Score: 4, Informative

    a vivisection since the patient survived

    Vivisection means you cut on a living animal. Not that it survived the process.

    Just sayin.

  2. word choice by PresidentEnder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, dissect is a synonym for "analyze," which in this case is appropriate; however, when we say dissect, we usually wish to evoke images of tissue and high school biology. The definition of dissect has no reference to anything dying. Vivisect, on the other hand, means "to cut a body open while still alive," which means that it has to be alive in the first place. Given that the video iPod was "dead" for a part of the procedure (can't run it while it isn't connected to battery, for example), dissect may be more appropriate. However, given that this is a gadget and not a living being, I would have chosen "disassembles" or "takes apart." Vivisect just sounds cool, though. That said, was anything learned that wasn't in apple's literature? Have we now any enjoyable hacks for the video iPod?

    --
    I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
  3. Your browser's fault... by Animaether · · Score: 3, Informative

    Your browser should ignore the file extension and instead look at the content-type header.

    A la :
    cmd> GET /reviews/hardware/video-ipod.ars HTTP/1.0
    cmd> Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
    cmd> User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; DigExt)
    cmd> Host: arstechnica.com

    hdr> HTTP/1.1 200 OK
    hdr> Connection: close
    hdr> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:00:44 GMT
    hdr> Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
    hdr> MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
    hdr> X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
    hdr> X-AspNet-Version: 1.1.4322
    hdr> Cache-Control: private
    hdr> Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
    hdr> Content-Length: 16964

  4. iPod Video review at Designtechnica by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3298.html

    These guys actually posted their last night, worth a read too.

  5. Perhaps of more interest to /. readers..... by 8127972 · · Score: 5, Informative

    ..... is the this Vivisection of an iPod complete with a cost breakdown of the components and an estimation of what Apple makes off of each iPod.

    https://jefferies.bluematrix.com/docs/pdf/31086.pd f

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  6. Re:In other news by HushedTruth · · Score: 3, Informative

    it appears as if it is a ribbon cable or some sort, and should be easily replaced. At the very least, it's not soldered like the nano.

  7. There is no "video ipod" by csoto · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are the iPod, iPod nano and iPod shuffle. It just so happens that the biggest ones also play video.

    --
    There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
  8. Re:No firewire! by lidocaineus · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, they plug a fw cable into it, and it says on the screen "you can no longer use firewire with the iPod, please plug in the USB cable" or something to that effect.

  9. No firewire is not a LITTLE sad... by alispguru · · Score: 2, Informative
    ... it's big-time sad. Google around for "USB vs. Firewire" and you'll see:

    The Firewire protocol was designed for video

    Pretty much every test shows Firewire 400 outperforming USB2, despite the 400 vs 480 Mbit theoretical speed difference

    The performance difference is significant (at least 10%, and often more), and it goes up with bigger files, like video

    You would think that a video iPod would be the place you would definitely want Firewire, at least as an option.

    My daughter is getting ready to buy herself an iPod, and I may have to tell her to look for one of the previous generation - her desktop at home is a hand-me-down G4 466 MHz, which has Firewire but no USB2. Yeah, I can shove a USB2 card in it, but still...

    --

    To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
    1. Re:No firewire is not a LITTLE sad... by badasscat · · Score: 5, Informative

      The performance difference is significant (at least 10%, and often more), and it goes up with bigger files, like video

      You would think that a video iPod would be the place you would definitely want Firewire, at least as an option.

      It would be nice to still have but you're making too big a deal out of it in this particular case.

      The iPod's video files are native 320x240 mpeg-4 files. You can go up to something like 480x480, I guess, and if you compress them yourself you can make them relatively huge (not that you'd want to; it'd just be a waste of space), but the point is that in absolute terms, these are not large video files. You could easily stream them over USB2 with no hiccups whatsoever. You could probably stream a dozen of them at a time if the iPod supported such a thing.

      But that's not the way the iPod works anyway. Now, I'm not 100% sure that the 5G iPod works the same as the 4G and previous models (I would assume it does), but you don't generally "stream" anything from the iPod to your PC. You *can*, depending on how you set up your sync preferences, but by default all of your iPod's contents will be greyed out because they're by definition just duplicated on the PC anyway. Probably 95% of iPod users have their systems set up this way, but the remaining 5% will have no trouble streaming video from the iPod over USB2.

      Generally, though, the PC connection is just used for syncing. And you don't need to do that more than about once a week, unless you really collect huge amounts of music and movies on a daily basis. So you're not going to notice any speed difference between USB and Firewire there.

      Now, if you just want to use the iPod as a mass-storage device for video (which you can also do), and store really high-res, high-def stuff on it (like a full-res .ts file from a high-def 1080i capture), then I don't know, but I'd still think USB2 could handle that. You're still only talking a 19.8mb/sec streaming rate. My wireless internet connection can handle that without a hiccup, so a wired USB2 connection shouldn't have any problem with it. (USB2's theoretical transfer rate is 480mb/sec, although with overhead included, in reality it's much lower.)

      What Firewire is primarily used for in terms of video is uncompressed, full-res professional stuff. We use it where I work, for example, to store media on portable drives for transport. That's where the advantages of Firewire really make themselves apparent; USB2 never really gets near its theoretical speed limit and it'll hiccup more and more as you get closer to it, but Firewire stays nice and smooth right up to around 400mbps (assuming you're using Firewire 400, which is what older iPods supported).

      But I can't see that anyone who uses the iPod as designed is going to have any problems with video. And nobody who really needs Firewire for video is going to be using an iPod in that capacity anyway; that video would be too important (and probably too big) to transport with anything but an industrial-strength full-size portable hard drive.

      I'm glad I have a Firewire-capable 4G iPod only because I can use the included firewire cable and charger that came with my iPod without having to rely on my PC if I don't need to sync. But I could live without it if I didn't have it, and the video on the new iPod's really got no relevance to the issue.

  10. Re:No firewire! by argent · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know there's no rational reason for that (and they had good reasons to move on)

    Like, Windows supports USB better than Firewire?

    Mac OS sure doesn't. I have way more problems with USB drives on my Macs at home and at work than with firewire ones.

  11. Its not "video iPod" or "iPod video" by zwilliams07 · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's just a fifth generation iPod with video. Video is not its primary function, if it was, then it'd be an iPod video. God damnit, people need to stop spreading misinformation on things.

  12. Vivisection by umbrellasd · · Score: 1, Informative

    Since the patient survived, it clearly was operated on when it was living. Therefore, it does logically follow that the patient surviving implies that the operation was a vivisection. Your statement is correct, but the OP's statement was as well.

  13. Re:This is just a hunch by zsazsa · · Score: 2, Informative

    The reviewer must have fairly low standards if he thinks it looks good plugged into an SDTV. The iPod hooks up via a composite cable and the videos you buy on iTMS are 320x240. That'll look like crap on any SDTV made in the last 10 years. The 480x480 maximum resolution might cut it, but then the limiting factor is probably that composite cable! Argh.

  14. Re:In other news by Golias · · Score: 3, Informative

    Now that I've finally been able to RTFA, I see that you are correct. Removable battery. (Really small too... they must have ramped up power efficiency a few ways to get the extended life of this iPod.) Good news.

    Biggest bummer: They dropped FireWire support entirely. It's USB2 only. Probably to save space and power, not to mention money.

    Most important (to me) good news: It's the exact same width, so if I do end up buying one for some reason, it will fit in the same car-cradle as my current 3rd Gen model, with a tiny bit of padding to make up for lack of thickness. Needing to buy new accessories after moving up an iPod generatin or two is always a real buzz-kill.

    --

    Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

  15. Re:640x480 video? by 8127972 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The firmware is upgradable with new CODECS (at least that's what http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html says) so I suppose it's possible. However I don't see that happening as Apple loves to push Quicktime as a standard. FWIW, MPEG-4 is already supported as that is part of Quicktime AFAIK.

    --
    This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
  16. Re:No firewire! by DeeKayWon · · Score: 2, Informative
    There is no seperate physical port for USB vs Firewire on any of the iPods with dock connector. It's not an issue of having two plugs -- previous generations of iPod had the necessary circuitry within a single port to handle either connection type. So we're not talking about Apple dropping a physical port on the unit to make it smaller -- the port is the same size now that it has been for the last several iPod generations.

    He's referring to the space saved by not having firewire hardware on the circuit board, not space on the exterior. FireWire is a complex spec and the chips that support it are of significant size, especially to portable devices like the iPod.

  17. Re:This is just a hunch by Abcd1234 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except that most people are still getting 320x240 from their cable/satellite receiver over *coax* and don't seem to complain. As the reviewer mentioned, videophiles (like, evidentally, yourself) probably won't be satisfied, but for your average joe (like me), who likely doesn't even know what a composite cable is, it's probably sufficient.

  18. Re:No firewire! by fermion · · Score: 2, Informative
    In addition to all the other issues with no firewire...Apple support for USB is not that great, USB cannot boot, USB is slower than firewire 800, there is one other big issue.

    USB will not charge over the port unless the computer and device is on. That means if the device battery is dead, or you want your let the computer sleep, the device must be charged by an external charger. One of the greatest things about the iPod was I was able to just leave it hooked up the Firewire hub and have it charged, then have it synched. A single cable. The shuffle is not such a big deal becuase the battery lasts so long, and does not take long to recharge.

    I think I will buy an older iPod with firewire, or perhpas another mini, and just use these until they die. This and the scratch issue makes the nono and new iPod a very unattractive option. Let others buy the cheap consumer tech.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  19. Re:User-Replaceable Battery by WMD_88 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can buy iPod batteries and install them yourself. They even give you the tools required. Okay, it's not as straightforward as it is on devices such as PSP, cell phones, and such - but it's not too hard. The easiest to do it with are the big iPods, with the mini being somewhat more difficult.

  20. iPod now records audio from a mic! by bach37 · · Score: 2, Informative

    A HUGE feature IMHO that Apple and others are leaving out is that these new ipods record high quality stereo from a mic, into wav files. After recording, simply mount your ipod then drag the file to your desktop.

    Voice recording settings:
    Low (22.05 KHz, mono)
    High (44.1 KHz, stereo)

  21. Apple's certification program by osssmkatz · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple now has a certification program. All accessories that have a "Made for iPod" logo on them will work with all iPods Apple ever makes. Apple gets royalties. Creative has a similar certification program which is free. But in any case, this problem should not occur in the future as long as you buy certified accessories.

  22. video out is not limited to 320x240 by YesIAmAScript · · Score: 2, Informative

    The video out is 640x480, but only photos can use the full res.

    Videos can be up to 480x480 if they are MPEG-4 (although some other combinations work too, like 640x336), and are output at the resolution they are encoded at, not just at 320x240.

    Also, it's not wider. It just plain isn't. It's easy to verify, it's ridiculous that someone would do a review and get that wrong.

    --
    http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
  23. Clarification to article about widescreen by mr_zorg · · Score: 3, Informative
    From the article (page 4):

    The inclusion of a "Widescreen" option is puzzling, since the iPod cannot display video beyond 320x240 in h.264 and MPEG4 in 480x480. I'm not sure what benefit you'd get from changing this option. Perhaps this setting has something to do specifically with how widescreen televisions expect their video input, but since I live in SDTV land, I wouldn't know. I tried setting the widescreen option to "Yes" on my normal TV and it didn't seem to have any effect.

    Discounting HDTV, the "Widescreen" DVD's are still technically formatted at a 4:3 aspect ratio on the disc. The only difference is that video is "squished" down from the 16:9 widescreen ratio. Video material that is flagged as widescreen and sent to a widescreen TV will be "unsquished" by the TV and stretched back out to fill the screen without black bars. On a standard aspect tv, the playback device must do this unsquishing itself and add the black bars to bring it back to a 4:3 ratio. The purpose of this setting in the iPod is probably the same as it is in a DVD player -- to tell it whether it should pass the video and flag is is (Widescreen = yes), or unsquish, add the black bars, and strip the flag (Widescreen = no). On programming that already is the standard 4:3 ratio this will make no difference.

  24. Re:No firewire! by Yakman · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's what I was wondering about. The other thing is I found when I connect my iPod with the USB cable it will only charge if it's "on". If I try and turn it off (holding play) the USB device gets "disconnected" and it stops getting power. With the firewire cable it continues to charge, just like if it was plugged into the wall adapter.

    I prefer to charge this way to reduce wear on the HDD, I would think if the USB device was active it would occasionally need to spin the disk, like if you went to "My Computer" under Windows. Hopefully they've done something about it, or it's just a product of the USB interface in the computer i'm plugging in into (a Dell at work, I use the firewire at home)