iPod's now play Videos too (Apple iPod (5G) 60 GB)

Member Name: johnnyho

Product:	Apple iPod (5G) 60 GB
Date:	07/03/06 (1086 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks cool, easy to use

Disadvantages: Quite pricey, video quality and playback not good especially compared to the new Creative

Well, it's been a while since I last wrote a review on dooyoo, so here I am writing about this beautiful product, the 60GB iPod Video. This is a replacement for my 4G 20GB iPod, and they have come quite a long way in just over a year.

The iPod itself
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There's no doubt that the iPod is beautiful to look at. I have the white version, which apparently doesn't show up scratches as much as the black one. I also chose the white one because I think it is the classic colour of an iPod, and the black one just isn't right!

Accessories
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The iPod comes in a surprisingly tiny box considering the price of it, but it just seems to fit in with the minimalistic Apple approach of doing things. In the box comes the iPod unit itself, the white iPod headphones (which I have not even opened), the USB cable for syncing and charging via USB, a slip case which is very simple and basic but seems to do the job (the old iPods didn't even come with any case so I think this is quite good of Apple) and the installation CD and manual. The problem with the new iPods is that they don't come with a wall charger, something that I would not be able to live without. This means that to charge your iPod (which can take about 5 hours), you need to have your computer on all the time. This may not be a problem for most people, but I’m sure some don't like to keep the computer on just to charge the iPod. I am lucky as I still have my wall charger from my old iPod. The do cost quite a lot of money to buy so consider this when you're considering buying the iPod.

Software
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As most of you will know, the iPod works with software called iTunes. iTunes used to really frustrate me in the way it likes to do everything by itself, but once you get the hang of it and get used to it, you actually start to enjoy using iTunes. It organises your music well, and is very easy to use. Syncing your music with the iPod is also very easy. It is basically just a case of plugging in your iPod by USB to your computer and starting iTunes. Then iTunes will automatically update your music, videos, photos and contacts etc to your iPod. Of course, if you don't like it to be all automatic and you control what music you put on your iPod yourself, you can choose this in the iPod options in iTunes. iTunes is also a very good legal music download store. It seems to have most popular music available and is very easy to use. The only problem is that basically only iTunes and iPod can play these files.

Using iPod
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It is very easy to use an iPod and for those who have never used one, it will literally take you two minutes to get used to it. The scroll wheel is excellent, easy to scroll through your entire music collection and select things and the menus are laid out in a way which is very easy to follow. The battery life of the 60GB model has improved greatly from the earlier models - being quoted as 20 hours from a single charge by Apple. In real life circumstances, I have been able to get around 18 hours of playback, so these figures seem to be quite accurate. I even skip tracks quite often and have the volume quite high, all decreasing battery life, so this really isn’t a big issue.

Playback and video playback
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Playback of music seems also to have improved from the older models. Selecting tracks seems to be faster - but only with the latest version of the iPod software, version 1.1. This version does have its problems though - it creates playback issues for videos that you have converted yourself with 3rd party software. It is only a problem when the file is above a certain length. For example, a music video encoded at a decent bit rate will playback fine, but an episode of a TV show for instance will not playback correctly. The actual problem is that after a few seconds of playback, the video will freeze, then continuing to play without sound. This can be very irritating. The only way to solve this is to downgrade the iPod software to version 1.0. The problem with this is that the iPod runs much slower and that it cannot be used with the radio remote, an accessory which I paid £35 for. The old in line remotes for the iPod do not work with the video as the port is not there; therefore I was forced to buy the new radio remote. So at the moment the videos on my iPod cannot be watched without the freezing problem. Apple I think are also aware of this issue, but it doesn't seem to affect the 30GB model. So feel like I have paid more for a product which doesn't function as well as the cheaper model.

The video playback format is MPEG-4, which looks fine when viewed on the iPod screen. However, when enlarged onto a television by using a cable, the quality is very poor. The other problem is also that MPEG-4 files are not small. The longer the video, the bigger and bigger the file size gets. For example, a film which can be compressed by xVID or DiVX to around 700MB, a MPEG-4 film will be around 800MB and the quality will be much poorer than the xVID or DiVX. If you are quite serious about video playback, seriously consider buying the new Creative Vision instead, as it is able to play all popular formats.

Overall
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The iPod is a very nice machine but the sound quality is still not up to standard compared to others such as Sony. Video playback is also quite poor, but a simple music video on the iPod's screen can sometimes be quite enjoyable. Overall, I am quite pleased with this purchase, but I am disappointed with Apple about the whole Version 1.1 video playback issue and the radio remote.




UPDATE
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Apple have now released a new software for iPod, version 1.1.1. This has resolved the video playback issue and has added a few minor additions such as a volume limiter.

Summary: Good machine but flawed

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