Click the pic to check out all of my iPod 5g pics!
OK, I won't bore you with talking about how great a music player the iPod 5g is. It is and it sounds better than the 3g, though I've never had a 4g, so I can't compare. By "better" I mean, I don't hear any of the hiss I used to on my speakers when the iPod is docked.
OK, the main reason I upgraded wasn't just to replace my 3g, which I still adore. It wasn't to have a bigger iPod, in this case, one that could hold three times as much as my 3g could. It sure as hell wasn't so I could display photos on it, though I have discovered that it is kind of cool having photos on there. No, I got the iPod 5g because I wanted to watch movies in the palm of my hand.
Now, I don't know about you, but for me, the highest level of fun I have with any gadget is when I open it up and try it for the first time. Click the pic above to check out my flickr.com pics that follow each major step of the "opening the package" process. :) Or check out the videos below to watch the first few times I use my new ViPod. Each vid is in iPod compatible format--natch.
 This is my iPod 5g's maiden voyage--COOL!! Free of any content, I turn her on and pick a language! YIPPEEEE!!!! And you'll never guess what language my iPod defaulted to. Well, you could just look at the thumbnail, there. That might give it away. :\This clip is 9.1mb. |
 Anyone who knows me knows that it's going to be pretty easy to predict what video I'll watch first on my brand new iPod 5g. Of course, this clip would be better if I had thought to plug my PC speakers into it, but my dorky reactions to watching Star Wars in the palm of my hand are still pretty funny.This clip is 19mb. |
 VADER'S ON MY iPOD! Actually, I was mere inches from calling this iPod "Pod Vader" or "Darth Pod." I even considered "Sith Pod" but since I have a tradition of naming my Apple hardware after my favorite anime, I opted for Jetto, as in Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop ("Jetto" being how the Japanese pronounce "Jet" in their language). Every iPod needs a name!!This clip is 2mb. |
 In this clip I talk about a strange issue I think I've determined to be related to keyframes. Mind you, this is not a DVD rip of the original Star Wars. This is an LD rip. I dubbed the 1982 LD to my DVR, burned it to RAM and then ripped it from there on my Mac using Toast. I'm either so damn cool or too damn dorky--can't decide which.This clip is 9.5mb. |
Now for the Pros.
Video on the iPod--what more needs to be said? Well, a few more things, I suppose. First off, anime looks great on the ViPod. I was worried the subtitles would be too small, but every anime I've tested has subs large enough to be read with ease. Of course, I haven't had time to watch a full episode or a full-length feature, but so far, so good. I'll post again if I do get headaches. The picture is incredibly crisp--much more so than my GBAMP (GBA Movie Player) which allowed me to watch videos on my Nintendo DS.
Conversion into mp4/iPod-ready format is generally pretty damn easy. I use [http://homepage.mac.com/tylerl82/|iSquint] for converting vids I already have in some portable format like divx. Of course, iSquint is for Macs, but I've heard from Jen that [http://www.videora.com/|Videora] works really well for PCs. However, I should add that iSquint won't work on the most random of formats. I can't get it to convert any type of MPEG even though it claims to do it. Nor can I get it to convert an OGM of Colossus: the Forbin Project which is driving me nuts since I LOVE that movie. The good news is that Toast, of all apps, handles converting from MPEGs and un-copy-protected DVDs very easily. Using [http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14414|Mac The Ripper] allows you to copy your DVDs to your hard drive. From there, Toast can access the VOB files. One thing that's perplexing me about Macs is that they see VCDs and SVCDs as copy-protected--which is hillarious since most of my VCDs and SVCDs I've made myself. Good thing I keep my PC laptop around for these sorts of situations.
I remember in the weeks following the ViPod's release many journalists were talking about how a lack of programming would be a major issue for the device. I wondered why since before the iTunes Music Store (iTMS), plenty of us had mp3 players, we just ripped tracks ourselves. The same thing goes for the ViPod, obviously. However, there's also plenty of content online available, too. Sure, you can pay for it at the iTMS, but there are sites that have vodcasts (video podcasts or Video On Demand casts) available and full on feature films.
Check out PodGuide.tv for reviews and links to all sorts of great iPod-ready vids.
Also check out Archive.org's [http://www.archive.org/details/movies|Moving Image section] for stacks of newsreels, feature-length films, mental hygene films, documentaries, and a lot more. Most of the clips are in mp4 format, though some are not and you'll want to download the 256Kb MPEG4 versions. The 64KB version's resolution looks lousy on the iPod's screen.
You can also check out Podtropolis.com if you're used to using Bit Torrent.
Another thing I list under the positive column that a lot of iPod users don't is the fact that the 5g uses USB 2.0 for data transfer ONLY. I don't know why it doesn't just let you do both like my 3g did, but personally, I like it. Other folks say this is a pain since it takes up a precious USB port. I only have one Firewire port on my PowerBook and 2 USBs, so I'm screwed either way. Personally, I like the idea of getting power only from Firewire. One of the things that always bugged the crap out of me about my 3g was that every time I plugged it in to get power from my Mac, my Mac would stupidly mount it, as though that was the only reason I'd plug the damn thing in. So, three cheers for USB data only.
Now for the Cons--and there are a few.
First, the damn thing scratches too easy. Check out the pic there. You can barely see it, but in person, when you hold my iPod just right, you can see a series of scratches that begin halfway down the screen and continue to the bottom of the iPod. I noticed these toward the end of my first day owning the iPod. I'm a hardcore gadget user, for sure--I put my gadgets through the ringer, but there's no way in hell that I should have scratches that bad on the thing after just one day of usage. All I was doing with it all day was slipping it in and out of my 3g slip case. I didn't use the one that came with it because it was too tight and didn't let me see the screen through it. Since Apple no longer ships remote controls with their higher-end iPods we have no choice but to slide the thing in and out of our pocket any time we want to pretty much do anything.Of course, we can pause a track by pulling out the headphone jack, which seems like a cool feature at first until you think about two things:
1) What if you don't want it to pause when you pull the headphones out? There should be a way to turn this feature off.
2) It doesn't unpause when you plug the damn thing back in which means you have to pull it out of your pocket AGAIN.
My next complaint is a major one. It took me a while to get used to the way the iPod organizes music back when I picked up my 3g back in 2003. I still wish we could have more freedom in how we organize our music, but believe it or not, the way the ViPod organizes its videos is even worse. Within minutes of searching for a particular episode of Chappelle's Show, I found myself very frustrated that I couldn't just go to "genre: comedy" or better yet, "album: Chappelle's Show". But no--you can't really organize your vids at all, unless you buy them all from the iTunes Music Store.
Sure, you can create playlists and even smart playlists, but still, it's rather annoying that I have to bother. With my music, I just tweak the ID3 tags so that the album is accurate, then that's it. But there is no option to choose album or anything else tag-wise. All you can do is organize by Video Playlists, Movies, Music Videos, and Video Podcasts.
Video Playlists are fine, except that there is no way to create video playlists that only show up in the video playlist section. As it is now, I have about seven video playlists set up that show up in my regular playlists but video won't play from your regular playlists. Is that stupid, or what? At the very least, you should be able to put Video Playlists in the main menu, which you can't do currently.
The Movies option simply lists every video clip you've uploaded to your ViPod. I think this is rather stupid, too, since I think of a "movie" as a 90-120 minute feature film, not any video. It's also stupid because what if you have a giant-ass iPod like I do--60 gigs of space holds an absolute buttload of music and video. It's a paind scrolling through all of those damn video clips to get to Tron, or Wallace and Gromit.
The Music Videos option seems odd to me. I look at it the way some people look at me for wanting to watch a whole movie on a 2.5 inch screen. Well, I can't imagine watching a 3-5 minute music video on my iPod. I mean, what's the point? Also, the only way to see tracks listed in this option is by buying music videos from the iTMS. There's no way that I've discovered to set clips to show up in there on your own. I have a bunch of short cartoons and short films I'd love to just stick in there to keep them separate from the longer clips.
Video Podcasts is just as odd to me as the "official" audio Podcasts option Apple has already implemented. It's for stuff only iTunes determines to be a podcast, or in this case, a video podcast. In this sense, it's working positively Microsoftian monopoly mojo to keep us from using 3rd party track management software for our iPods. I hate iTunes, btw--too fat, uses too many resources, takes up way too much of the screen and thinks it's way smarter than it really is.
Oh and also, with the Video Podcasts option, there is no way to designate on your own what clips should pop up in here.
One reason I was so excited Apple had decided to go with video was that I felt like their hardware would basically be flawless in what it could run. Get a clip into mp4 format with something close to 320x240 and you'd be able to run the clip with no worries. This has NOT been the case.
Generally, the clips I watch run fine, but on a few clips I've downloaded from Archive.org my iPod has completely locked up. What's weird is that I reset the thing and play the same vid again and it runs fine for a while, even passing the spot on the vid where it last locked up, only to lock up again later on in the clip. I can't figure out why, but it only happens with clips I've DLed from Archive.org--PLEASE NOTE: not every clip I've downloaded from there has given me trouble. I think I've had trouble with about four of the 25, or so, that I've DLed.
So, never let it be said that I'm some blind-ass Mac-baby who thinks Apple is beyond reproach. They're a lame-ass coporation like any other. They use focus groups to make decisions regarding their products and do their best to fuck their best customers at every turn. I should know, I've had plenty of experience with their typical-corporate tricks.
That said, they make pretty damn good stuff and while I am considering buying a PC laptop down the road somewhere, I have no illusions. Hardware put out by Apple is worth the extra money because it's way more stable than anyone else's stuff.
OK, I think that's pretty much it.
OH yeah:
Accessories I Recommend
First thing I'd get is a case. I recommend the [http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_ID=253387|Belkin Kickstand], though you should buy it from the Apple store since it's $5 cheaper ($25) there than at the Belkin website ($30).
The next thing I'd recommend is some sort of external battery pack. If you're only going to listen to music, then you should be fine--this thing plays music for like 12 hours or something. However, I've only gotten it to play 4-5 hours worth of video before conking out. Now, I don't know about you, but that's not enough for me. I recommend picking up Belkin's [http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=148969|battery pack]. It runs on four AA batteries and I've stocked my with rechargeables. The advantage to going with this sort of battery pack over one that you have to recharge on your own is that you don't need an outlet and a lot of time to create more power for your iPod. Just stop in any drug store and you're good to go. The Belkin will run you $50 while Griffin's [http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/tunejuice/index.php|Tune Juice] is just $20 but runs on the 9-volt batteries and not the more common AA batteries. I went with the Belkin strictly based on the fact that I don't have any rechargeable 9-volts laying around.
Next, I HIGHLY recommend you pick up the [http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/airclick/index.php|Air Click] from Griffin. A remote is an absolute requirement for any iPod. I had the Air Click for my 3g and LOVED it. Alas, the older Air Click is not compatible with the 5g thanks to Apple being greedy and removing that extra jack on top of the iPod (thus making us all buy new accessories). What's worse is that the 5g Air Click doesn't have a dock connector passthrough so you can't plug it into your dock and still use it like you could with the older version of Air Click. This forces us to buy Apple's absurdly expensive remote and "universal" dock. The catch with the Air Click is that it will use up battery. This is another reason an external battery pack is helpful.
Should you get the "universal" dock? Well, if you want an easy way to output your iPod video signal to your TV, then yeah. Just undersand that you'll have to keep your dock pretty close to your TV or be willing to spend an extra $20-$30 for a long S-Video cable. I bought it because I didn't realize how expensive S-Video cables have gotten. I may buy the Apple remote at some point, but it's such a waste of money at $30 for an IR remote--Griffin's remote is RF--in other words, you don't have to point the damn thing at a receiver. Apple screws the pooch big time again on this one.
There's also the iPod AV cable which is supposed to be proprietary--in other words, it doesn't work like other AV cables. This is only partly true. I think I read on TUAW.com that all Apple did was switch the red cable for the yellow. In short, you can use any AV cable that has a mini-headphone jack on one end and three RCA jacks on the other. Just plug the red RCA jack into your yellow video-in port on your TV or video deck. Of course, most non-Apple-brand AV cables cost almost as much as Apple's so, I figured I might as well just drop $20 on Apple's cable.
OH yeah and an extra USB 2.0 cable is a good idea--one for you to leave at home and one to come with you. The extra one I bought has both Firewire and USB 2.0. This way, I can get power to my iPod 5g without having to mount it if I don't want to but I don't need a separate cable to do it. However, if you don't care about this, there are cool retractable USB 2.0 cables you can get which are perfect for travelling.
OK, now I'm done. WHEW!
No comments:
Post a Comment