Review on new Apple I-pod Video 30 GB

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debaisaindian

LOVING UBUNTU
Hi guys, this is my first review. Please post comments after reading this. From the beginning I am lover of music. But I love music on the move. So I planned to buy a good mp3 player or a good mp3 phone. As you know most of the mp3 phones have an expandable slot for storing more data, and they are not preferable as there are some software issues with most of them. So I enquired for a good hard drive based mp3 player. There were many choices for me and you also, like Apple ipod, I-river and lots of other companies. Now choosing Apple (as you know there are lots of fans), I have to make further choice that which model should I buy. Now in the market there are only three models are available, I-pod-Shuffle (512Mb and 1 GB), I-pod Nano (2 GB and 4 GB) and I-pod Video (30 GB and 60 GB). I would suggest you, if you are looking for a MP3 player for just listening music (means top charts) then go for shuffle. If you want a collection of a bunch of music albums then go for I-pod Nano (but I think Nano is not a decent decision!). And finally if you love a huge amount of music albums go for the I-pod Video. I decided finally to buy I-pod 30 GB video as I don’t want to loose my pockets for next two years to buy a new mp3 player.

I went to the nearest Apple reseller and asked him for the price of the I-pod 30 GB video. I have visited the Apple’s global site and got the price there for 30 GB video is $299 .But beyond my imagination the reseller charged me an amount of Rs19000 inclusive of all taxes and you can also see there is no price listing for I-pod Video in Apple’s India website till date. Finally I have to manage with his price as there is no way for me. I have bought the I-pod Video 30 GB.

*img480.imageshack.us/img480/6530/14un.th.jpg

*img480.imageshack.us/img480/3325/21sq.th.jpg

*img480.imageshack.us/img480/4918/30yr.th.jpg


Technical Specifications (I-pod 30 GB Video)-

Storage and song capacity-30GB (7,500 songs)

Battery Life-30GB: Up to 14 hours of music playback; up to 3 hours of slideshows with music; up to 2 hours of video playback.

Display- 2.5-inch (diagonal) color LCD with LED backlight
I-pod ports- Dock connector, stereo minijack, composite video and audio through minijack

Connectivity-USB through Dock connector; composite video (with AV cable, sold separately) and audio through headphone jack or line out on the ipod Universal Dock (sold separately)

Charge time-About 4 hours (2-hour fast charge to 80% capacity)

Audio support-AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Music Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF

Photo support-Syncs iPod-viewable photos in JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only) and PNG formats
Video support-H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320 x 240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480 x 480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

Size
(in inches)- 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43

Weight-4.8 ounces

Included software-iTunes for Mac and Windows

Included accessories-Earbud headphones, USB cable, Dock Adapter, case

Documentation- Electronic Features Guide and Printed Quick Start Guide


My Experience-
After a long expectation I had my new i-pod video in my hands. It’s packed with an attractive box. The I-pod is also tight packed with an external transparent plastic wrapper. I brought it home and connected to my Windows system. Unfortunately Apple lacks a feature to synchronize with both Mac and Windows at the same instance. As the result it told me to format the external drive. When I formatted it, I found the software of the I-pod is just gone!!!! But no matter, thanks to Apple they have updater software which reinstalls the software automatically. Now I installed I-tunes. Like most of the users, I am also not habituated with I-tunes. I generally prefer to listening music by Winamp. (Hope most of you also!) So adding the songs to I-tunes is also a hard job for me as I have not tagged all the music albums. Here, I thought if there would a folder system in I-pod it would be great. Unfortunately there is no such system! I have to view my songs in album wise or by artist wise. Here, Apple’s 5th generation click wheel worked better. Its fun to scroll through the click wheel, no matter how long list you have!! So, I tagged all the music albums and added to the I-tunes music library. When I connected my I-pod to the computer, I-tunes automatically transferred the music collection to my I-pod in few minutes!! It is really fast and I appreciate this.

Now, let’s check the music quality. The sound is simply superb with the earphones provided by Apple. You can even hear almost every bit of music. I was amazed with the sound clarity also. It was a fantastic experience. But on the move it lacks a feature of creating play lists in the I-pod. That creates a pretty much problem to the listener on the move (means in bike). Besides there is equalizer settings with much of predefined presets.

Picture quality in its 2.5” LCD is also excellent. You can also carry your personal photo albums in high quality and view it on TV with an optional AV cable. But there are some difficulties with synchronizing as it can’t support folders in a folder feature. And it also adds a feature of slideshow of pictures with music. It’s a great experience.

And at last the video quality. You can’t just imagine how good it is. It takes you in a magical world as if you are watching a DVD. It seems to be like DVD quality of any video in its 2.5” LCD. As you know it supports only *.mov and *.mp4 video so you need an external encoder to encode your video stuffs and put it on i-pod. But it has no brightness or contrast modifying feature in it. I think Apple will change it in its next revision. Due to poor battery life of 2 hours in video you can’t watch enough on the move.

The other extra features of the I-pod are calendar and address book option which you can update by MS outlook. It also adds 3 games to play to relax. There is also a screen lock system which locks the screen of ipod by a password and protects from unauthorized access of others. A hold button is on the top which locks the I-pod from key presses.

So finally I tell it’s a good portable music and video solution for the people who love music on move. But the I-pod Nano is not a good decision to buy as you can go for 30 GB video with couple thousand rupees more. Ultimately Apple has created a solution for portable entertainment, means only for audio not for video. The product is good and you can go for it without any hesitation.


Pros-
Excellent music and display quality
High storage capacity
Also capable of playing videos

Cons-
Poor battery life in video
No option for creating playlists in I-pod
Can’t sochronize photos in side some folders
 

Nemesis

Wise Old Owl
IMG tags removed. Please post thumbnails of your images. There are a lot of members who use dial-up modems so please be considerate. Use the thumbnail for forums code after uploading the images on ImageShack.

Moved here from Hardware
 

bala4digit

Journeyman
Oh man nice review......one question!

ISn't the video in the small screen .....somewhat toooooo small????


BYE!!!

-MOJOJOJO-
 
OP
debaisaindian

debaisaindian

LOVING UBUNTU
bala4digit said:
Oh man nice review......one question!

ISn't the video in the small screen .....somewhat toooooo small????


BYE!!!

-MOJOJOJO-

I can't understand u.Please explain it to me.
 

mail2and

Walking, since 2004.
nice review...

i know how good it is to open an apple product... the packing is awesome :D

i had the same feeling when i opened my mac mini :)
 

Sreekanth V

Journeyman
Very informative review, dude. Just like digit's page- "30 days with". You spend a lot of time to make this review, keep it up.
 

masterasmit

Broken In
bala4digit said:
Oh man nice review......one question!

ISn't the video in the small screen .....somewhat toooooo small????


BYE!!!

-MOJOJOJO-

of course the u have to watch the video in a small screen but the quality is outstanding man. u will simply love to watch the videos again and again.

gre8 review debaisaindian :p
 

vmp_vivek

In the zone
Good review man. :D By the way, I own the same Ipod Video model and yeah, TOTALLY agree that the battery life is poor for videos. :x :? :)
 

goobimama

 Macboy
Hey, nice review.

Btw, you CAN create playlists from the iPod itself (at least in the 4G). All you have to do is select the track with the wheel and then press and hold the center button. Keep adding in the same way and finally go to Playlists > On the go> and they will be listed there!

Also, instead of folders in the iPod just create separate playlists..
 
OP
debaisaindian

debaisaindian

LOVING UBUNTU
goobimama said:
Hey, nice review.

Btw, you CAN create playlists from the iPod itself (at least in the 4G). All you have to do is select the track with the wheel and then press and hold the center button. Keep adding in the same way and finally go to Playlists > On the go> and they will be listed there!

But the playlist will be named as New playlist1, new playlist2 and so on.
 

kato

Karthiksn
Actually he did post the corect price or approx price as it differs from place to place it is acording to wat he said 19000/- and in the site they tell its 299/-

Anyways very good review indeed
 

Dipen01

Youngling
kato said:
Actually he did post the corect price or approx price as it differs from place to place it is acording to wat he said 19000/- and in the site they tell its 299/-

Anyways very good review indeed

oops...sorry..actually didnt noticed it..!!!
 
Got mine last night. :D :D It will stay indoors till I get a decent screen protector which should take another week *www.theinvisibleshield.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=199

No problems installing software or syncing with a PC unlike mentioned by the original poster debaisaindian The sound quality from the supplied earbuds is "simply superb". Didn't expect this at all. It's much better than previous 4th gen iPods.

Worked as expected and as advertised right out of the box. No complaints. Will try connecting TV-out tonight with Sony's minijack - RCA cable (that came with a handycam). I've read it works just fine and there's no need to spend another $20 on cables by Apple.

Here's a guide on preparing video for iPod (which is what I'm doing right now) *www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/guides.html

Want to copy songs from iPod to PC? Get PodUtil - *www.kennettnet.co.uk/software/podutil.php

And, here's a link to iLounge for all iPod queries *forums.ilounge.com/index.php?s=56aedf63fbc4826a0b166ee83899a28c

-Keith
 

goobimama

 Macboy
there is also a plugin for winamp which allows you to access and transfer files to and from your iPod....
 
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