Ipod question

[midnight Target]

The new video Ipod looks like a nice thing to have on business trips and such.

Anyone have one? Anything I need to know about it before I buy? What kind and how much media is available? Can I DL a DVD onto it, say from DVD Shrink?

[CyranoAH]

Can't tell you much about the ipod Video, but I'm very happy with the Creative Zen Vision M. It has a better screen (256000 colors vs 64000 of the ipod), FM receiver, and plays most formats (wmv, wmv+drm, avi, mpg...)
6h+ endurance and 30 GB capacity.

Daniel

[OOZ662]

I, myself, like my PSP, but I'm guessing people looking for video as the highlight of the machine would find the PSP to be a pain in the butt. Everything has to be either MPEG4 or that codec that Sony put out in order to play. If you update the firmware to the current version the video feature breaks. Can't wait 'till they fix that.

[tapakeg]

I am pretty sure you can get programs off of download.com to convert DVD to Ipod so you can watch movies on them.  check it out

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by midnight Target
The new video Ipod looks like a nice thing to have on business trips and such.

Anyone have one? Anything I need to know about it before I buy? What kind and how much media is available? Can I DL a DVD onto it, say from DVD Shrink?

I would get the Dishnetwork Pocket Dish, which is a rebranded Archos.

You can pull anything you want off your Dishnet PVR via USB, rather than pay to download a limited number of DRM restricted titles from Apple.

I think the Archos players play nice with Tivo, Direct TV and Dishnetwork.

Apple sells episodes of "Weeds".. if I had a pocketdish I could transfer them for free... or any show I've recorded.

Someone will hack "DishLinux" to bypass the pocketdish and allow straight usb 2.0 to PC... that'll be cool.

[mietla]

Originally posted by midnight Target
The new video Ipod looks like a nice thing to have on business trips and such.

Anyone have one? Anything I need to know about it before I buy? What kind and how much media is available? Can I DL a DVD onto it, say from DVD Shrink?

I got one. The device itself is pretty cool, but I hate iTunes with a passion. The most fascist piece of software I've ever used. Basically it is a POS software trying to limit your music/video selections to what you can buy from them ($0.99 for a mp3 and $1.99  for a music video).

iPod is very restrictive as to what formats it'll play. There is a bunch of converters that will produce mp4, some (like Video Vault I use) will actually upload converted video directly to iPod. Works great... until you connect to fascist iTunes again. The first thing the iTunes does is to wipe out anything that has not been uploaded from iTunes.

In addition iTunes is the worst UI/functionality you can imagine. It is completely unusable in auto-sync mode, and marginally usable and very cumbersome  in a manual sync mode.

[mietla]

let's be more specific

Originally posted by midnight Target
Anyone have one?

yes

Originally posted by midnight Target

 Anything I need to know about it before I buy?

when you buy it ($300), the first thing they offer you is a "real" warranty for $50 extra. They selling point is ... if your batter goes bad and loses charge retention, you can't buy is separately. You CAN'T open this thing except in a factory. The "real" warranty allows you to claim a free battery exchange if its charge life goes down to 50%.

Originally posted by midnight Target


What kind and how much media is available?

ITunes and stuff available through it is crap. Vids selection is extremely limited. I bought iPod with an intent to upload my own stuff. This includes both music and vids that I've already own and paid for already. Although it is possible, the iTunes makes every thing possible to prevent you from doing it, or at least make your life harder.

Originally posted by midnight Target


Can I DL a DVD onto it, say from DVD Shrink?

Do not know about Shrink, bu Video Vault will rip a DVD, convert to mp4 and save to a file or upload directly to iPod.

BTW, Video Vault is probably the best video app I've used and I tried a bunch of them. I use it to convert all my media (including hundreds of my DVD), and dumping them onto a bunch of TeraStations, and then played by a LinkTheater. Both TeraStation and LinkTheater are from Buffalo Systems, and I'm pretty happy with them although there are some glitches (choppy beginning on mp3s and garbled album art).

I also bought Cucusoft's iPod Video Conversion Suite. It offers lots of in/out formats. Seems to work fine, but I haven't pyaled with it extensively yet.

[SOB]

If I was gonna get something as big as a normal iPod, I think I'd have to go for the Palm Tungsten TX.

[midnight Target]

Thanks all.

I like that Pocket Dish idea. I have Dish Network now and Mietla is scaring me off of the Ipod. Appreciate it though.

[Black Sheep]

There isn't anything wrong with the iPod or iTunes. You don't have to buy from thier store....and it DOES support almost every audio format. If for some reason it doesn't - thats what conversion software is for. I love mine - and I get about 12 hours avg. battery life per charge.

[Sandman]

Originally posted by Black Sheep
There isn't anything wrong with the iPod or iTunes. You don't have to buy from thier store....and it DOES support almost every audio format. If for some reason it doesn't - thats what conversion software is for. I love mine - and I get about 12 hours avg. battery life per charge.

IMHO, the iPod/iTunes DRM is far too restrictive. Both my children have iPod Nanos (although I tried to talk them out of it), and my wife has a Creative Zen Nano (or possibly Muvo). The PC treats the Creative player as if it were just another flash drive. No need for special software.

I hear there's a plugin for WinAmp that will allow you to upload to an iPod.

Can you purchase songs for an iPod from anyone but iTunes?

[nirvana]

My sister has a Creative Labs and not only was it cheaper, I think it has more space.  Oh and you don't have to send it to the factory for battery replacement, the batteries are just a somewhat expensive add-on.

[Blank]

ok guys, there are 2 ways to configure an ipod (i have a 30gb video)

1: as a player, can hotswap connection to pc set up to run with that particular ipod with no need to eject it, just yank out the usb cable when you feel like it.

But it doesn't show up as a disk its only visable to itunes.

2: set up as a disk: this is how i have mine set up, why? simple so i can just plug into any pc and it shows up as a disk that i can store any file type i need onto it, which is very useful for me at work as i'm a 3d artist, so i can move 3ds max files and textures around easily from work to home.

Now as a player functionality is not changed except when you plug it into your pc you have to eject it like you do with a usb key.

Also in this mode means you can use a small program called sharepod :

http://www.sturm.net.nz/website.php?Section=iPod+Programs&Page=SharePod

this little application runs from your ipod and allows you to download music FROM your Ipod onto another computer  ;-)

the ipod plays a number of different formats, including mp3, mp4 so you dont have to use the mp4a (think thats what it is off the top of my head) format if you dont want to. so you can play any mp3's you've downloaded, or change itunes (in its options) to convert any music you load on from cd's into mp3's as well.

Now the video, the ipod plays its own format so you have to convert you DVD,  Quicktime Pro can convert into ipod format as can quite a few other programs, and the phono/video out put on the ipod can  display it on a tv if needed, (though i haven't done this as i dont have the cable so couldn't say what it looks like)

ok thats all thats good stuff..

Now video: using the amazing loverly screen on the ipod video (it is nice) absolutely kills the battery and you only get a couple hours really before it needs charging,

Itrip (radio transmitter must have accessory): I had an itrip on my old ipod colour which pluged in the top the phono jack output, was really good, as you could turn the ipod volumn down and turn up the radio to reduce and radio crackle you got.

Itrip for Ipod video isn't as good, not so solid connection to the dock connector and as its working through the "line out" now you have no direct control over the volumn from the ipod which is a pain, i hope apple does a software change in the future to change this.

Hope this helps a bit.

I love my 30Gb Ipod Video

[CyranoAH]

Try both if you can, the difference in image quality is quite noticeable.

Daniel

[Nilsen]

Originally posted by SOB
I think I'd have to go for the Palm Tungsten TX.

Great PDA. One of my slaves has one and he loves it. Ive played with it abit and I would not be suprised if I too end up owning one soon. I will see how the SE P990i works for me first.