iPod Video - Review
Yeah, this article is a year too late, but I'm going to write it anyway. I decided it was time to get an mp3 player back in May and iPod is the defacto standard right now.
Personally, I was sold on the video that the iPod was now capable of. So I did a bit of research and found that there were tons selling on eBay for around 100 bucks less than retail (I still had to pay the shipping). So I ordered up a nice black 30 GB iPod and awaited its arrival.
I have to say it is an awesome little device. The interface is intuitive, the screen is bright, and the battery life is decent. The iTunes software isn't the best, but it does the trick.
Music
Nice and simple. Simply put your cd's in the drive, iTunes will import them, and then put them on your iPod when it's connected. It is simple to organize your music as well. If you want to re-categorize an album, you can just select all the songs and change them all at once.
Video
Unfortunatley you can only play mp4 or the quicktime format of video. If you have a good collection of video already as avi or mpeg format you are going to have to convert it or redownload it in the right format. Finding a good freeware video encoder is annoying and most are a $40 license.
The video for the most part looks awesome though. You only get a couple hours of battery life out of your iPod when playing video, but the screen is nice and bright and it works well when you are in an airplane or taking transit.
I find the best video are the cartoons (Family Guy, Simpsons, etc.). The colors are so bright, it makes it really easy to see.
A Portable Movie Player
Another cool option is to buy the A/V cable for the iPod (it's cheap on eBay). Now your iPod has become a portable digital movie player. Just plug one end of the A/V into the iPod and the RCA jacks on the other end into a television or monitor. You can watch the movies on a bigger screen then. You'll want to make sure you leave your video as a higher resolution if you plan on doing this. A video that looks good on an iPod won't necessarily look good on a bigger screen.
Photos
Another use for the iPod is as a photo storage device. If you ever want to do a bit of a slideshow you can load your photos up and have the A/V cable I mentioned above to hook up to a t.v. It even lets you play music as the slideshow happens.
Photo Storage Device
Apple has a nifty little device to connect you digital camera to your iPod. It lets you copy all your photos across from the camera to your iPod. Then view them (if they are in JPEG format. RAW won't work). If you are on a longer holiday and need to clear up some space on your memory card. This is a great way to do it. Plus, with the larger screen of your iPod, you can see if the picture is a throw away or not.
Screen is Easily Scratched
This is one bad feature of the iPod. Fortunately, the screen is so bright and crisp that it overcomes a lot of the scratch annoyances. The one I purchased one eBay came with a few scratches so I found a site online that described how to remove them.
Basically, it involved Brasso (a brass polishing oil) and a cloth. It worked reasonably well, so if you are interesting in cleaning up your iPod try it out. Keep in mind, it is oily so be careful using it. Just put a bit on a cloth and rub the the face of the iPod in circular motions for awhile and see if it smooths out some of those marks.
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Category: General
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