Did The New iPod Just Get Less Compelling?
I know what you’ve been planning. You’ve been thinking that if you cram movies onto your iPod Fifth Gen at 480X480 (max res the new iPod will support) the quality would be enough to watch comfortably on your TV with the video out cable. No so fast my friend. As an alert reader points out (Thanks Johnny66) the TV out is only for slideshows. Johnny66 even found a tech note on the subject. Sure the article was written in 2004 but it was updated October 13th of this year. Not having a new iPod laying around I can’t say for sure but if the tech note is correct then the latest iPod isn’t as useful as first thought.
Update (minutes after posting): Apparently the new iPod can play out to a TV. At least according to a CNN demo (thanks dickrichards2000). Man, now I’m stuck buying one.
Side note: Isn’t this page a little misleading? I mean the video is playing full screen on an iMac. You try that with a purchased video and it looks pretty badto me even on an iBook (though not unwatchable). Ah marketing…
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Didn’t we all watch Stevie J run that U2 music video off the iPod - projected onto the theater screen?
I downloaded a couple episodes of Lost yesterday, and watched them fullscreen on my PowerBook G4/1.25. I thought the quality was quite good, both video and audio; nothing misleading about the ad as far as I’m concerned.
I downloaded Boundin’ and it looks fairly poor on my iBook if it is in fullscreen. The audio was fine but the video looked a chunky. I’ll try it on my widescreen display, could just be the ibook.
I consider the new iPod as an incremental enhancement to the line and a limited one at that. For those in the market (read Christmas) it moves the line ahead of direct competition - a real pain as the competition is now locked into their Christmas range.
The new iPod also provides the next step towards a full video device and, more importantly, gets the movie industry moving to Jobs way of thinking.
Finally, it is a complimentary product to the nano and won’t kill nano sales. All in all I think it’s a great move by Apple.
I gree MacKen, nicely put
Even 480X480 is a joke.
The iPod-compatible video should look as good as a video CD, as those are recorded at the same resolution, but with a less-faithful compression (MPEG-2). Please remember that “normal” TV is only 640 x 480, more or less. Blow that up to full-screen on your iMac and it will look pretty bad, too.