iPod Video

[galactica]

Shashdot has an interesting story Which proclams that iPod video is in the works.

I remember reading somewhere that a guy got into the firmware of the iPod color and saw some stuff that hinted at video ability. Interstingly it sounds like there will soon be an iTunes Movie Store!!!!!

The thing that made me laugh was the end of the little blurb

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."

We are the minority i guess
Personally, though it would be neat, i cant imagine watching a movie on 2" screen!

[AntnyMD]

Its interesting ... Steve Jobs, and many Mac fans, cant imagine watching a movie on a 2" screen ... However people like Verizon and Sprint are banking their future that people will want to watch all kinds of video content on their mobile phones ... phones with what ... a 2" screen?

I can totally see watching movies and other video content on an iPod ... I work in a city where I commute to work on the subway, so I can totally see getting my morning news downloaded into my iPod and watching on the way to work. Last week when I was in so many airplanes my head was spinning, I would have loved to have a few sitcoms or last week's episode of Prison Break to watch to pass the time.

I can see folks whose lives are spent in cars cant watch video on their iPods. A video iPod would not be for you .. just like if you have 10 gigs of music, an iPod shuffle is not for you... Few saw why anyone would want pictures on their iPod and now the entire line (except shuffle) not only has that ability, but clear bright color screens as well.

Apple would be irresponsible to their bottom line if they didnt at least attempt a video iPod.

[celtic_druid]

http://ipodlinux.org/blog/

[thoughton]

Unless you've been under a rock for the past 48 hours you'll already have seen this:

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

[geacmbo]

Hey Galactica, do you think current iPod photos are video capable by just changing it's firmware, that is of course, if it is available or if Apple would make that accessible for those who own an iPod Photo (like me) instead of forcing me to by the so called iPod with video support....any clues?

[stniuk]

No firewire with these new ipods. It's a shame.

[willrob]

geacmbo:

The "video" iPods have a different monitor than the photo iPods; the picture quality wouln't be that great even if one could get some firmware patch. Technically, I think Apple oculd do such a patch; but since it hurts their bottom line, I doubt you'll see it from them.

The lack of firewire also makes transfering video to the iPod a lot slower—you'd have to have USB2 or be prepared to wait days...

The lack of firewire also means that the Belkin Media Adapter won't work with the new iPods. If you own a digital camera that lacks USB2 you need to get the much much slower Apple Connector, which not only takes along time but ties up your camera. The Belkin enables you to take the flash card out of the camera for the transfer; so you can keep shooting...

My bottom line: I wish Apple would stop concentrating so much on the iPod and maybe make some firmware updaters for the optical drives it puts in its computers. And fix a slew of bugs that Tiger still has.

[frankiec]

geacmbo:
The "video" iPods have a different monitor than the photo iPods; the picture quality wouln't be that great even if one could get some firmware patch. Technically, I think Apple oculd do such a patch; but since it hurts their bottom line, I doubt you'll see it from them.

iPods come with monitors?

Welcome to the real word. Companies don't like to "hurt their bottom line" unless it will make more money. There's nothing secretive or sinister about it.

geacmbo:
The lack of firewire also makes transfering video to the iPod a lot slower—you'd have to have USB2 or be prepared to wait days...

It is USB 2 primarily because most PC users have USB 2 and not FireWire. What are they supposed to do, ignore 90% of the market? Then you'd bitch about that too.

geacmbo:
The lack of firewire also means that the Belkin Media Adapter won't work with the new iPods. If you own a digital camera that lacks USB2 you need to get the much much slower Apple Connector, which not only takes along time but ties up your camera. The Belkin enables you to take the flash card out of the camera for the transfer; so you can keep shooting...

If Belkin finds producing a compatible one profitable then they will. In the meantime, maybe you should start up a company producing them -- you've seem to have found a market that Belkin (from your enlightening introspective) dropped.

geacmbo:
My bottom line: I wish Apple would stop concentrating so much on the iPod and maybe make some firmware updaters for the optical drives it puts in its computers. And fix a slew of bugs that Tiger still has.

Apple's iPod engineers don't work on OS X development, and vice-versa. From your logic, Apple accountants should be fixing OS X too.

[rotuts]

Will and others:

are you concerned about the lack of firewire connections on the new ipods and that apple may drop the firewire based on firewire 800 not 400?

isn't firewire 400 about the same as USB2? if the new top of the line powermacs maybe due this wed do not have any firewire 800 is there a USB greater than 2.0 on the horizon?

thanks rotuts

[shelbyGT]

No firewire with these new ipods. It's a shame.

You can still buy the firewire cable for them, can't you?
My 4G 40GB version came with firewire and USB cables. We were the last of the breed I guess. And it came with the dock... do they still do that?

[willrob]

No firewire cable or dock comes with recent models. You can get a firewire dock, but it can only be used to charge the device. You cannot sync your iTunes library via firewire. Only via USB2 (or USB1.1 if you're a masochist).

As a long time Mac user (20 years now) I find it sad that Apple pioneers technologies that it then abandons due to maret pressure or lack of immediate $uccess. While firewire is still the standard for video, few digital cameras have it, and many even lack USB2. Someday a USB3 will come along I suppose and be as fast as firewire 800.

And I guess developers like Belkin will come out with a USB2 card reader that can free up camera while 8G flash cards are transferring images, but I'm frankly getting wearing of changing technologies and hardware every two years just to do what i've already been doing. And let's not even get into the cost of all this upgrading.

[shelbyGT]

Wow... the firewire cable and dock as seperate? That's easily another $50 right there. I can't say I'm a huge fan of that move, really.

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

If i were looking to buy a portable video/mp3 player, i would choose this
http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/creative_zen_vision_portable_video_player.html

it has a larger screen and higher resolution 640x480, which is very sufficiant for converting from dvd as well as web content.
plus, unlike the iPod, which requires you to convert to AAC format, it plays direct mp3 files with no need to re-convert.

[thoughton]

Good for you!

Why not this one? http://www.x2usa.com/html/mega_view_561.html - which was released an entire year before the Zen you linked, and has virtually all the same features. Was it an iPod killer? Strangely no.

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

ahh yes. that does look like a good one.
i like the style, and the various hardware options (headfone plug, a/v out, etc)

the screen, i think, is smaller than the one i linked, and has a lower resolution (320x240). i dont know what rez the vid.ipod has, but i'm sure its 320x240 or lower.

i've seen some pretty good portable video players, but nothing good enough to make me really want to buy one. i'll just stick with my portable dvd player. it definately does have its benefits.

[thoughton]

Yeah the ipod is definitely 320x240. The megaview only displays 320x240, but I believe it records and outputs higher resolutions (could be completely wrong on that though!). It also comes with a remote control which I think would be useful. Not sure what use a tripod mount is though! I fully agree it looks great though.

I'm not all that convined on Creative's battery claims though. 5 hours of video playback would rock, but I don't really see how they manage to double the iPod's video battery life but come second on audio battery life.

[ashtones]

What are you talking about? My iPod doesn't have to convert files to AAC. Every audio file on mine is in mp3. Also one of the main reaons I would get a portable video player would be to output it to a TV. The new iPOD's dismal resolution would do a poor job at that.

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

My friend has an iPod and he says he needs to import the mp3's into iTunes, then convert to AAC and transfer to the iPod. it doesnt take mp3's directly, which is retarded.

perhaps it's his model # or his firmware version. i dont know.

i just know that basically everything made by Apple is crap. but thats a different subject so lets not discuss it here.

[Case]

My friend has an iPod and he says he needs to import the mp3's into iTunes, then convert to AAC and transfer to the iPod. it doesnt take mp3's directly, which is retarded.
perhaps it's his model # or his firmware version. i dont know.

All models, all firmware played mp3 from day 1. This friend should RTFM (add to Library, not import using AAC settings).

i just know that basically everything made by Apple is crap. but thats a different subject so lets not discuss it here.

Then don't bring it up in a Mac forum...

[iThinkYouBrokeIt]

My friend has an iPod and he says he needs to import the mp3's into iTunes, then convert to AAC and transfer to the iPod. it doesnt take mp3's directly, which is retarded.
perhaps it's his model # or his firmware version. i dont know.

All models, all firmware played mp3 from day 1. This friend should RTFM (add to Library, not import using AAC settings).

If I remember to, I'll let him know about the mp3 import.

i just know that basically everything made by Apple is crap. but thats a different subject so lets not discuss it here.

Then don't bring it up in a Mac forum...

Good point. I'll refrain from expressing such opinions here. but what i meant was that its not the subject of this thread so therefore shouldnt be discussed, on this thread.

[AntnyMD]

Its amazing how some folks hold on to misconceptions about Apple, like a security blanket. The iPod originally played only MP3, WAV and AIFF files ... Apple even GAVE AWAY FOR FREE a library of MP3 files to get you started. I hated all their free music though, except "One week" by Barenaked Ladies.

As for video on the iPod, I am finding it hard to resist buying one, and I just bought a 60gb iPod photo last year, and a PlayStation Portable. I've been converting music videos for my PSP, then syncing the clips to the PSP and into iTunes. I hope the PSP-ready files play in the iPod with video, as I'm pretty sure Santa is bringing me one for Chrismukkah.

[ashtones]

As far as I know the movies have to be .mov for them to be compatible with the iPod. The resolution is 320X240 I think. It also takes advantage of H264.

[AntnyMD]

The maximum resolution for H.264/AVC video on iPod is 320x240. The maximum resolution for regular MPEG-4 video in a MOV, M4V or MP4 container is 480x480. See Apple's specs (scroll down 1/3 of the page, then on the right) > http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html

[willrob]

Two useful how to sites:

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2005-10-25/#4665

http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/ipod-video.ars

[rumplestiltskin]

QT Player Pro takes forever to convert to the H.264 spec. However, using the MPEG4 setting ("improved", 600kbps video, 128kb audio, 320x240) works very well and is reasonably fast. Quality on the iPod is superb. I haven't connected the iPod to my TV yet but will do so later today.

The MPEG4 setting is available from within iMovie (without having to pay for a QT Pro key.

I've also heard of a free PC app called Videora that converts lots of different formats over to MPEG4.

[willrob]

And there's this freeware:

http://www.digigami.com/download/

[ashtones]

Let me know how it looks on your TV. I am still not convinced I should upgrade from my iPod photo to video.

[AntnyMD]

It probably wont look so great on any television above 20 inches or so. For H.264 at this resolution and bitrate, you're getting slightly better quality than a VCD. It looks great on an iPod, sure ... even my H.264 encodes for my PlayStation Portable look great on that screen ... but when I look at them double-size in QuickTime (or iTunes 6), I just go blah. I think you'll eventually be able to purchase movies for the iPod but I dont think that kind of video will be popular. Things that are short will do well, like music videos, news stories, video podcasts ... but for feature-length material, I would require two things (a) a minimum of DVD resolution -- perhaps available only on the video out connection, and (b) pricing that is significantly cheaper than current DVD discs. I think its robbery that Apple is selling season one of Lost (and Desperate Housewives) for $34.99 when you can get the DVD-Video at higher resolution with extras for the same amount. Whats worse is if you purchase a season episode by episode, you're paying nearly $44.00 for the same content.

[willrob]

But for filmmaker wannabes this could be a potential new market/audience. Currently there is virtually no way to exhibit or sell short films. but think back to the day of silents, when short comedies ruled. I think the ipod video format might be a good way to distribute short subjects, hopefully even revive that lost art form. Especially comedies!

[rumplestiltskin]

Connected my Video iPod to my 32" TV this afternoon. I played a few movies I had transferred to the iPod. Results: As long as the bitrate is adequate (600+kbps@320x240,MPEG4), the movie looks just fine on the TV. You can see a bit of pixelation during transitions (cross-dissolve, for example, to/from a solid color) but subtitles are pretty darn sharp. I took a 23 minute movie (DV, in iMovie) and exported it to MPEG4, 650kb video, 128kb audio, 320x240; ended up with a 150mb file. It was sharp as a tack in the iPod and was better than SVCD (much better than VCD) when played through the iPod into the TV using the A/V cable. Frankly, it was pretty close to DVD quality. (Remember, this is my movie, not something from a studio.)

I also played a few movies from archive.org that were encoded at only 256kb (video). There's a reduced quality evident there but whatever tool was used to do the encoding is amazing considering the low bitrate. I did notice some minor audio artifacts when played on the TV that I don't think I heard when played on my Mac.

One podcast (democracy.org) really sucked but it was encoded at 56kb and was unwatchable on the TV. Rocketboom's podcasts, on the other hand, are encoded beautifully, and play well on my TV.

I had an old capture from VHS that was already encoded as mpeg1. I re-encoded it as MPEG4 for the iPod but the quality was pretty poor when shown on TV. It was, however, just fine for viewing on the iPod.

I agree with "willrob" - We're in the middle of the paradigm shift. Steve Jobs is the David Sarnoff of the 21st century.

Bottom line: I'm very happy with this new iPod and the possibilities of independent media production. Bring it on, guys and gals.