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5th Generation iPod: First Impressions

by C.K. Sample, III Oct 18th 2005 at 9:00PM

5th generation iPodI've only spent a few hours with my new 5th generation iPod so far, but I wanted to give you some more details about the device than were included in my first post about it.

First off, before you ask: I don't know how it looks when hooked into a TV. They didn't have any of the new peripherals (like the new Dock) available in the Apple Store and I didn't want to risk spending the extra loot on a 3rd party video adapter cable that I wasn't sure would work. I talked to one of the Apple Store employees who recommended that I order the Dock and cable online. I thought, Good idea, I better grab this iPod before they all sell out, and ran.

The screen is amazing. To continue my previous musings on the iPod vs. the PSP, while I think it really is like comparing Apples and oranges, I can at least say something comparatively about the video and the screens. The iPod's screen is not as large as the PSP's but the video quality when playing back iTMS-purchased video, like the Lost episode I watched on the commute home, is as good as watching a UMD movie on the PSP, and it is superior to all the videos I have converted to Memory Stick for my PSP. That extra hard drive space on the iPod really makes a difference in the quantity and quality of the video you can squeeze in there. There were no artifacts whatsoever, and no odd burps in the playback. The video is crisp and clear and I will be watching much more on this little wonder.

More after the jump...
Unlike with the nano, the connection via USB on the 5th generation iPod is fast. I mean, pretty blazingly fast. Every episode of Lost had moved successfully over to the iPod before I even thought to check on the progress. I thought, I wonder if its made it through more than 2 or 3 episodes yet?, and there was the whole thing. Evidently the slowdown of transferring the songs and images over to my nano was a bottleneck caused by the flash memory drive in the nano and not by the USB connection. This hard drive based iPod shoots through file transfers, so I'm not missing the Firewire that much.

However, there are some file transfer problems. One of the malformed videos in my iTunes Library stopped the transfer of everything listed behind it *twice* before I figured out what was happening. It gave an error about the file, and gave the option to find the file or cancel. Since the file was missing I hit Cancel, which evidently stopped the transfer (even the iPod kept acting like it was moving the files over for a little bit). I was also shocked to find that when there aren't any TV shows on your iPod, the TV shows menu doesn't show up. This makes sense, but it still freaked me out when I thought I had just transfered over a bunch of shows and there wasn't even a TV option.

Also, the little "case" that is included is actually pretty nice. Before getting mine, I thought, "That's just a piece of crap sleeve, not a real case!" However, after using it for a bit, it's nice. You can slide the screen out of the case and watch your shows. The sleeve is thin enough that you can still manage to control the iPod with ease while watching in this manner, and it keeps the iPod clean and polished. The cloth is soft on the inside and works well as a chamois cloth for cleaning off that beautiful little screen.

Speaking of the screen, lets get back to it for a second. I watched an entire episode of Lost, holding the iPod in my lap while on the train and I could see everything clearly with no squinting necessary. There's no need to hold the screen right up to your eyes, as some people have claimed would be the case. Then, after I arrived home, I propped up the iPod in the kitchen as I cooked dinner. I simply turned the audio up all the way and dropped the earphones in a little cup (nice acoustics trick there for a lo-fi amplifier) and could hear everything nicely as I cooked up my steak for dinner.

Overall, this is a great iPod. Get one. Get one now. I'm actually revising my last month's proclamation of the iPod nano as the best iPod ever. The 5th generation is the best iPod ever now. I'm selling my 4G and my nano. I'll have another more detailed review after I've run this thing through the full gamut this week.

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I've only spent a few hours with my new 5th generation iPod so far, but I wanted to give you some more details about the device than were...
 

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jim

Yo, looking for some help with the 5 Generation iPOD. !the backround- a WINDOWS XP OWNER.QUICK TIME 7 & iTUNES.All updated with the latest files.USB connection ok.sync ok for music downloads to iPod. iPOD will not accept video podcast.The podcast (on iTUNES)has been downloaded to a iPOD with a MAC.MESSAGE APPEARED on my pc/ iTUNES:"Some of the video's in your iTunes Libeary.....cannot be played on this iPOD".The particular podcast has been correctly encoded H264.ANYBODY GOT A suggestion what to do next please.??

December 05 2005 at 3:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bonny Kamen

5 generation Ipod is really great. However I bought Logitec Bluetooth headsets that I was told would be compatible but no dice. They had a little dock connector close to the headset pin which did not have a place to be plugged in. Your supposed to use an extra wire plug which is awful because the adapter is left hanging off like a waving flag. Could not get it to work anyhow and returning. Would like to hear if anyone has found blue tooth technology headsets for 5th G that are working?

December 03 2005 at 11:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
denny

Is there ny news on the 5th generation IPOD of a way to do audio recording with it like the 3rd and 4th Gen.?

November 18 2005 at 11:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tony

i may be the first person to have serious problems with my black 5th generation iPod 30gig. after 10 days of my purchase i put it on my computer as i normally do and then it starts stuffing up. i tried to put an album onto it and my iTunes froze.. so i took my iPod out and reseted it... Next thing my iPod wont show up on iTunes or even my computer... Also i am unable to play any of my songs... but when i look in the "About" section of my iPod it says there is 0 songs but there is 12.5 gigs of space available... i have reset it many times now, put it in disk mode, and tried to update and restore. i sent it back i juz hope apple fixes my problem... Man hasnt even been 2 weeks and my iPod is stuffed

November 10 2005 at 8:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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November 08 2005 at 6:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Vanessa

Hi, im new at this, but i just purchased my 5gen ipod and am loving it to death. ONLY problem is, is that my home videos [sound included] wont convert them with sound when i use QT 7 pro. Any suggestions on why this is happening? Maybe this isn't the only case? Thanks in advance, Vanessa

November 02 2005 at 12:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan Hawbecker

I've had my 5th gen Ipod for three days now, and this thing is amazing. You're right about the file transfer speed. Unbelievably fast. I knew that the stores were not going to have any accessories available yet, so I ordered everything at once online from Apple. I hooked it up to my 50" widescreen and watched a Pixar movie that I downloaded. The quality was much better than I had expected. Overall, really great device. Order now. They aren't going to have any left.

October 26 2005 at 8:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eddie

You can screw up the ipod intentionally with a magnet a still not void the warranty, or so i've heard.

October 24 2005 at 9:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jeff

Just thought I would throw in my experience here. I bought the 5g this weekend, never owning an iPod before and think it's amazing. I had a little bit of trouble moving videos over to the iPod but figured it out eventually and was able to copy my entire Entourage, Season 1 DVD onto my iPod. First, use DVD Shrink (freeware) to rip the episodes from the DVD onto your hard drive and into a smaller file size (you don't need the high quality video for the iPod). Then use Videora (freeware) to convert the VOB file generated by DVD Shrink to mp4 (iPod) format. It takes a while to reformat, but it's well worth the time. After you reformat each episode, iTunes will be able to copy it over to the iPod.

October 24 2005 at 1:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jahpaul

Hi just want to let people know that you can use a cheap radio shack a/v cable with the new ipod ,for some reason apple swapped the yellow and red cables .So the red cable is the video cable and the yellow is audio white is the same.

October 21 2005 at 2:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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