Video iPod Available... Sort of

Pirogoeth writes "The fine folks over at Engadget have figured out how to get your new iPod Photo to play movies. According to the article, you use Quicktime Pro to export the movie as thousands of individual frames which you export to the iPod, send the soundtrack to the iPod as well, then, if you haven't guessed by now, while playing the soundtrack, put the iPod into slideshow mode and use the scroll wheel to manually keep the frames in synch with the sound. Sound impossible? Here's a video (in mov or wmv) of the Episode III trailer in action..."

Their Other Idea

[FuzzzyLogik]

In the Engadget Podcast the other day they discussed the idea of having Picture Podcasts. Where at certain points during a podcast they could have a way to display a picture on "picture" supported audio players (ipod, iriver, etc). I thought it was an very very cool idea, I don't have a photo ipod or any of the others, but it would be a neat feature if i had one.

Re:Video in Action

[morcheeba]

Here's a video of an iRiver playing a movie of an iPod photo trying to play a movie [engadget.com]

Since engadget is slow now (wonder why!), here's the text from the above link:

We're the first to admit playing a "movie" on an iPod Photo by exporting the sound, and thousands of frames is as silly as it sounds, so ludicrous that we had to do a how-to on it. Now things are getting toally wacky, and already a video has turned up of someone watching a video on their iRiver H320 (an MP3 player which just recently acquired the ability to playback video clips) of us "watching" the new Star Wars trailer on our iPod Photo. It's getting mighty recursive in here.

Read [misticriver.net]

Another chance for Apple to make me want an iPod..

[Silverlancer]

To start with, for you apple-crazed mods, this isn't a troll.

iPods are nice. Now when I bought my mp3 player a year ago, I got a 20GB Lyra for $180. Since the cheapest iPod was $400, it was definitely worth it. Plus the Lyra didn't have the battery problems the first-gen iPods did, and it had considerably longer battery life.

Well now iPods are lots cheaper. And they have somewhat better battery life, no dying batteries, and hold more. But if I wanted a new mp3 player today, I still wouldn't get an iPod. Because for the price of an iPod, I can get:

1. A Creative Zen Touch 20GB, has a touch scroll similar to the iPod's and has 60-80% more battery life. Plus I save $90. And it looks cool like the iPod.

2. A video player--larger than the Zen or the iPod, but plays both music, video, and all that.

Now if the iPod, at $300, had number two in there... lets just say it might find its way into my budget :). Basically, Apple needs to solve this "there are better mp3 players for less" problem. They're not going to cut prices (see the fact that their computers cost twice that of an equivalent PC--I simply can't afford a decent G5), so they might as well make what they're already selling better.

Re:Steve Jobs has critized portable video players.

[poot_rootbeer]

Competing video players are too heavy and cumbersome.

My Archos Gmini 400 is no larger or heavier than an iPod. And it was released 2 months prior to Jobs' statements.

Users don't have video content.

Sure I do! The challenge, and I will admit there's really no user-friendly way of doing this yet, is figuring out which files will play on it as is--that is, MPEG4-SP video AVI files (eg, DivX or XviD w/o bidi filtering), no more than 640x400 resolution, no more than 30fps, with IMA-ADPCM or MP3 CBR soundtrack--and figuring out how to convert other content to meet those specs (if possible).

The screens are too small.

Irrelevant. This is a PERSONAL video player.

I can hold the 2.2" screen a foot away from my eyes, and it takes up the same amount of my viewing area as a 30" television across the room. Uses a whole lot electricity that way, too.

Jobs would be smart not to put a Video iPod on the market NOW, but he would be foolish to NEVER put one out.