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 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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-18-2005 @ 9:23PM
duncan Hopkins said...
have you tried adding any ripped video in m4v or mp4 format?
either from QT 7.03 or others?
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10-18-2005 @ 9:24PM
C.K. Sample, III said...
Duncan, yes. An episode MP4 works swimmingly. So far, none of the h.264 files I'd converted work.
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10-18-2005 @ 9:24PM
Caleb Dewberry said...
sounds cool. i bought a 40gb ipod photo from best buy way back when, and then they stopped making the 40gb and my ipod freaked out and they upped me to 60gb cause i got a warranty. im hoping my new(ish) ipod freaks out to so i can get a free 5th gen. lol i know im cheap. are there any ways to break an ipod without voiding the warranty? (never thought id say that)
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10-18-2005 @ 9:27PM
duncan Hopkins said...
have you tried adding any ripped video in m4v or mp4 format?
either from QT 7.03 or others?
Reply
10-18-2005 @ 9:33PM
duncan Hopkins said...
not good to hear - i have several files waiting when my arrives - what about converting the h.264(.mp4) in QT "export to ipod" - .M4v?
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10-18-2005 @ 9:38PM
Grappik said...
C.K., I ordered the iPod A/V cable from Apple, and it works fine for connecting the 5G iPod to my TV. It is the A/V cable they came out with for the iPod Photo. Has a special headphone connector, and plugs into the headphone jack.
The picture quality on my 36" TV was fine. Nothing majorly noticeable in the way of artifacts. However, crappily encoded video still looks crappy.
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10-18-2005 @ 9:40PM
C.K. Sample, III said...
Grappik, now I am angry with the guy at the Apple Store. Grrr... but thanks for the info! Going to go buy a cable tomorrow. w00t!
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10-18-2005 @ 10:55PM
jimmie said...
C.K. why oh why must you do this to me?lol. You've convinced me. Thursday is pay day.
On a funny note I wanted to see if the Apple store in my area had them in yet (I am not getting one,yet) when the salesman answered I asked, "Do you have the new iPod in?" to which he responded "What new iPod? only kidding, we've only got a few 30GB white ones."
http://www.gadgetsonthego.net/2005/10/mac-website-proclaims-new-ipod-best.html
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10-18-2005 @ 11:00PM
deranged dude said...
Start your Handbrake, ladies and gentlemen. Back up those DVDs.
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10-18-2005 @ 11:01PM
bobbyc said...
Looks great but I still have a problem with the short battery life for watching videos-- 2-3 hours right?? It's not even long enough for a Chicago to L.A. plane flight.
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10-18-2005 @ 11:02PM
Tom said...
Almost makes me mad I spent my money on a nano...but ever since my old 4G 40GB semi-crapped out on me after I ran with it (yes, I know, I shouldn't have) and now skips constantly (so much that I can't even keep it in my pants pocket) I'm wary of hard drives. Go flash memory! Thanks for the great roundup though C.K., look forward to more impressions.
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10-18-2005 @ 11:17PM
Zsolt said...
I bought a 30 GB black one at the South Coast Plaza Apple store in California. Waiting for my 10 GB library to transfer over USB 1 from my TiBook. No power adapter included, bummer.
Zsolt
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10-18-2005 @ 11:36PM
Jon said...
This question must have been asked before, so sorry if people have seen it umpteen times already, but:
Approximately how big are the TV show files from iTunes?
I'm just wondering how much of a TV / music ratio we are going to have to decide on. I mean I'm not too fussed about quality but if we are talking 300-500mb an episode, that's going to wreak havoc on your music collection, especially if, like me, you kinda like the idea of being able to carry a whole season of Lost around with you.
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10-18-2005 @ 11:44PM
ThePete said...
I was wondering if I could appeal to CK or any other ViPod owner's good will. I've converted an old QT file I had to mp4(ISMA) with AAC (128 kbps) and a resolution of 320x240(QVGA) and I wanted to make sure it would work on one o' them new iPods. It's just an 8.3mb download so it'll hardly take any time. Here's the URL for it: http://thepete.com/t5ms20030122.mp4
If not, that's cool, too. Just wanted to make some content available on my site and thought it'd be silly to not have it be iPod compatible.
Thanks for the great blog and the first impressions, CK! I'm looking forward to your second and third impressions. :)
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10-18-2005 @ 11:59PM
Moosey said...
I'm glad you enjoy this new iPod and all, but I still think that the nano i the "best iPod ever." While it doesn't play video and scratches like a toddler with chicken pox, it's beautifully small and brilliantly designed.
I think the nano is the best iPod so far, and the 5G is a good start to what could be a very intereting 6th Generation. I'll keep my PSP for video viewing until the next iPod has a better, bigger screen.
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10-19-2005 @ 12:12AM
Reid Bode said...
I was in the Apple Store Southdale (MN)for a while today, and they had a few (3?) white 30gigs out on the floor. Only 1 had anything on it, as they had yet to be set up (they came in today). It sounded like they had more, but I didn't ask if they had any for purchase yet.
What I'm wondering is what you all paid for tax.
MN sales tax in 6.5%, and if my calc widget is correct that's an extra $25 for my black 60GB. I'll order online and get the video cable instead.
Oh, do the album video download extras work on the iPod?
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10-19-2005 @ 12:25AM
John Tokash said...
ThePete, #15, your video runs fine on the ipod 5g. A little blocky, but I'm sure it's just over-compressed.
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10-19-2005 @ 12:32AM
Ben said...
I agree with Moosey. I've had my a 3G 30 gig iPod for a veeery long time, and that battery really started wearing down. So I bought a nano, and it was the best decision I could make. Despite the beauty of the magnificent 5G creature, it has nothing on the sheer size of the nano. I admit, with a 100 gig music collection, having 30 gigs for my favorite was nice, but I'm willing to convert my most favorite of the bunch to 128 bit AAC to fit as many as possible just because the nano is so slim and sleek and can be slipped easily in just about any pocket. Besides, video isn't for me. Until I see the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on the iTMS, you won't see with with a video enabled anything.
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10-19-2005 @ 12:39AM
icruise said...
"Start your Handbrake, ladies and gentlemen. Back up those DVDs."
Handbrake apparently doesn't work, at least not for h.264 encoding.
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10-19-2005 @ 1:45AM
ThePete said...
John Tokash: Thanks so much for testing my file! So, it actually is pretty easy to convert existing mov files to mp4 for ViPod use. It took about 7 minutes to convert that 5 minute clip and I did it in QT 7.0.3. So, I'd suggest not using the built in iPod setting in QT, but to use the settings I mention in my earlier comment, above. The blockiness was because I converted from a crappy source file. That video was rendered on a PC back in 2003--I'm sure I can make movs that look much better on my powerbook G4. Thanks, again, John!
As for the iPod Nano, yeah, it's cute, but I never needed anything smaller than my current 3g iPod. That 60gig black iPod is just calling my name...
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