Apple iPod Video 30GB Review

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Isaac Uni • October 13, 2005
Rating: 2/5
The new Ipod Video has gotten everyone excited. First of all the new Ipod really isent that great. First of all Ipod has and probly will always be the BEST music player out there. Now that they have added the music video and tv show option it has not changed much from the reguar ipod color. The screen quality has not changed much and is actually to low for what they are trying to accomplish.(even with hi-def) The screen is incridibly small and is “cool” but certainly not cool enough for my liking. I have turned away from my 4g ipod, bought a shuffle, but I decided to go with the new Creative Zen Vision. Suprizingly Creative has made a decent video player. This media device is made for movies with a side of music. The same hard drive as the newest ipod (30gb) makes movies more realistic. Plus the fact that you can put on over 5 diffrent types of files on to the Zen is nothing short of awsome. The 262,144 pixel screen that is close to an inch bigger than the ipod makes watching some clips a little more tolorable. If you are looking for a “Video Player” I would rethink about the ipod. If you are looking for a music video (1.99 each) I would advise you to get a new Ipod its cool. To many people are getting misinformed about this thing jamming out movies.
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
bill • October 22, 2005
Rating: 4.5/5
There are ways to rip dvds to mpeg 4 so that they cn be played on your ipod.Search Handbrake in google
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Scott • October 25, 2005
Rating: 4.5/5
Well, after just recieving my Video iPod, I have to say that I am thrilled with this little monster. A lot of people like to slam this Video iPod, but they have nothing to complain about. I hate when people say the screen is too small. What do you expect? It’s an iPod, not a portable DVD player, and you should know how big the screen is from the-get-go. The quality is amazing. 150 hours of video is insane. For a person that flys a lot, this is my best friend. I have music and movies and even TV Shows at my fingertips. C’mon, if this iPod doesn’t fit your liking, then NO portable mp3/mp4 player will.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Matt • October 26, 2005
Rating: 4/5
Well after owning the newest 20g, and then switching to the 30g video, I have to say that the video ipod hesitates more in menus, my comps have a harder time detecting it, it makes more audible drive noises but still works fine. I am not happy that you have to have a newer version of OS to run it (10.3.9)and that apple stripped the wall charger from the package, I guess I should be happy that you still get crappy earbuds with it.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
josh • October 26, 2005
Rating: 4.5/5
I just got the new Ipod Video and it is a grat product, the sound quality is so much better than my 30gig Ipod Photo that I called all my friends with older Ipods and told them to upgrade! it is simply amazing. I have also added my favorite movies to it along with some TV shows and music videos that I down loaded from Itunes and have been thrilled with the video quality. Apple has really outdone themselves this time, this is the best Ipod to date, even if you don’t want to take the time (or can’t figure out) how to compress your dvds to play in .mp4 format, you will be impressed by the difference in sound quality of the newer units. A+
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Rappa2cool • October 26, 2005
Rating: 5/5
no you see some people here are being really silly, U act as if the ipod was soley built 2 play video, man u should not compare it to a sole video player because it is really a music player and they have decided to add video to its auxillary of features. Audio quality has even got better than the last version, photos appear better and all the other features are intact, it is now displaying content in high quality which is great and now the size is a lil slimmer. look at the end of the day I don’t see Isaac Uni taking marks away from the zen and in terms of audio quality it’s simply lacking, any way let me just say that the ipod is great for several types of media but I most tell u do not buy it if u already have on and are just being it 4 the sole purpose of watching videos, though the video playback is nothing less than incredible. I hate apple so much but I have to give them props for such a great device
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Ed Streiff • October 27, 2005
Rating: 3.5/5
I recieved my new 60gb Black IPOD video and I must say the sound quality is what I was expected.
Cons: Scratches easily, and when i say easily i mean it I have had it for two days now and the surface around the click wheel is all scratched just from my thumb scrolling on it. Plus the screen looks like hell at the right angle because of all the micro scratches. Its impossible to keep this thing looking like new for very long which is too bad because its really a great product.
Slow – I have 9,000 songs which is a lot but its only 23gb out of 60gb and the thing is slow between songs, it takes a couple of seconds to load the songs and go to menus
Battery – Apple says it last up to 20 hours of music playback. I can tell you right now that on my 60gb it doesn’t I get about 2 hours at the best playing music and about 45min watching a video, it maybe because of the number of songs on my IPOD causing the hard drive to keep seeking alot or something I dont know but it doesn’t last long, but two hours is good enough for me.
For all those considering buying either the 60GB or the 30GB, I dont see the benifit of the 60gb you’ll never fill it and if you do it will be very slow it doesnt seem worth the extra money, orginally i though bigger is better, well its really a waste i have close to 10,000 songs taking up 23GB if i had the 30gb model i would still have 7gb free for other stuff. So before you spend the extra money consider that also
Color – Get white if your 50/50 on the color, my friend has the white one and you cant see the scratches and scuff marks on his, my black one its really bad and makes the player look like hell plus all the accessories for the ipod are white so it kinda looks goofey when you have accessories plugged in
Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Martin • October 31, 2005
Rating: 4/5
I just got my iPod a few days ago and I got to say, my first impression was, wow so thin. The sound quality on this thing is amazing and for those who complain about the screen size, there isnt much to complain about. Its made for people to store in their pockets and comparing the screen size and resolution to how thin it is, I think apple did a great job on this new iPod. Plus with the huge memory storage it offers, you can pretty much store all your pictures, videos and songs onto it without even concerning that it will run out of space. Now the down side, the only thing which makes me go insane about is the chrome on the back of the iPod. It looks really cool and for sure it stands out, but it just seems like you can never keep it 100% clean, because no matter what, there are always going to be finger prints on it! Mostly importantly though, the major improvement apple has to make is to increase the battery life. Even when I just listen to music with no backlight on, the iPod lasts a max of 3hours. But overall I think the new iPod is by far the best MP3/MP4 out there.
Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Geoff • November 9, 2005
Rating: 0.5/5
I have been watching the evolution of the Ipod over the years and decided to take the plunge. Purchased a Black 30gig video on Monday evening and immediately experienced problems with the unit, freeze up in video mode, unresponsiveness, and the ever popular little apple computer icon telling me to contact apple.com service. Returned it to Best-Buy but had to take a white version as the black 30 gig’s were sold out. Got a white version and began having problems with the quality of songs. The unit would skip, and generally the quality of some songs was not great. The first unit was a hardware problem. I think this unit is fine but it looks like the iTunes software is not converting the songs properly.
The third problem was with the FM modulator (Aftermarket- non Apple) but an expensive version. A major purpose of getting the ipod was to listen to tunes in the car. I was very dis-appointed with the quality of the FM broadcast, an unacceptable level of static, etc.
As it turns out 3 stirkes and you out, 300+80 + tax is a lot to pay for more hastle than it’s woth. Ipod, and all other stuff returned for full refund. I will have to wait til the technology is more mature. Unfortunate….!
Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Mort • November 14, 2005
Rating: 4.5/5
It’s hard to get the videos on the dam thing but once you’ve done it once it’s easy and very much so worth it. The quality is 10/10
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
ross • November 16, 2005
Rating: 0.5/5
i think that its stupid that apple relese the ipod nano so every one goes and buys that and then like shortly after the ipod video comes out so every one who saved up for the latest ipod and got the nano is now crying because a new ipod is out and there broke, well i hope that they bring software out for the nano to play videos as that would be amazing!!!!
Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Alex • November 18, 2005
Rating: 5/5
Hello,
I do belive that larger hard drive, bigger screen and slim, sleek design makes it so good. I may be wrong but I think you are whining about it because you were one of the first people to go out and buy a nano. I am personally happy cosidering I have now saved up enough for teh video. It should arrive tomorrow.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
jetsetprep • November 21, 2005
Rating: 5/5
only one crying about anything is you for spending all your savings on a nano. You wish you had enough for both nano and 5g video-pod. i have the nano to work out and short commutes and the video with 60gig for business travels. better luck next time kid! by the way, your the only person who wants the nano to play video on a one inch screen.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Taylor • November 30, 2005
Rating: 5/5
The majority of the wireless FM transmitters don’t work well with any iPod models. I have bought three iTrips and they all have just died. I haven’t dropped them or anything. I reccommend you get cassette adapter for your iPod, they work great. Also, are you getting these poor quality songs and freezing up videos from a place other than iTunes? For example, LimeWire songs have poor quality and I have found that online downloads do too. Also, if you have a slow connection, iTunes may not be downloading the song fully.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
todd • December 10, 2005
Rating: 3.5/5
I bought my 30g video 4 weeks ago, and here are some pros and cons: Pros; nice design, good sound quality (you can manually set an equalizer before you import songs using itunes, since an equalizer on ipod doesnât do much justice), a bigger and better screen. Cons; the first one I got had problems, it froze all the time, and was unresponsive, so I had to wait like a day before it started to work again (as a result, I exchanged it, if your ipod does this, take it back within 14 days, otherwise they will most likely repair it but not exchange it, hey who wants to spend $300~400 on a defect item!). Also, THAT first one had very minor scratches, so I am thinking it was a refurbished item. If apple has guts to sell a refurbished item as a NEW item, somebody better sue them. With my second one I have so far no problem. Take home message; when you purchase it make sure it is without any defects, and if it is, EXCHANGE! Good luck.
Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
G-man • December 30, 2005
Rating: 4.5/5
I love my 30gb video. Its very neat and has loads of space. Headphones could be better but the sound quality
is still very good. The screen quality is clear and i think is better than most TV`s.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
jack • January 5, 2006
Rating: 4.5/5
this ipod is fantastic but the only thing that it’s too big and the songs of ituines cost too much without talking about the videooooo
but except from that it’s fantastic
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
tallcoolon • February 10, 2006
Rating: 5/5
Let’s assume for a moment that Ross is indeed 13. Why would someone taunt a 13 year old? Jetsetprep wrote “You wish you had enough for both nano and 5g video-pod. i have the nano to work out and short commutes and the video with 60gig for business travels. better luck next time kid!” You could own 10 iPods, Jetsetprep; one for your car, workouts, living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. However, nobody cares but you.
Anyway, so about the 5G iPod. I was very satisfied with it. The particularly good qualities are video playback, size, design, capacity, and the new color (black). It’s cool to be able to watch movies, music videos, and podcasts on. Also, if you are a student, sometimes university instructors post videos online to go with their classes. It’s very thin. I have the 30gB model which is .3 inches thick. I have mine in an iSkin to protect it and even with that on, it’s very convenient to carry. It looks pretty cool. I like the new sharper corners. 30gB is more than enough for me and I think worth the trade for being slightly smaller. A feature that I’d like to see in later software updates might be a way to adust the brightness of the screen. While the player boasts 16 hours of playback time, the video playback time is 2 hours. If I could adjust the brightness, perhaps I could extend that slightly. It is hard to watch video with the backlight completely off. I don’t understand why the headphone jack is moved and their is no remote port wich disables use with most previous accessories. Perhaps it would not fit with the larger screen.
Overall, great product!
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
iTuneshate • May 6, 2006
Rating: 3.5/5
The 30GB iPod video is great, if it use only for you, on your computer, with your songs and videos (you can’t transfer from ipod to computer), and your lifestyle (if you have a great working dad and mom, or a specially good salary, well the iPod is definitely a miscelaneus device, i bought it only because i wanted to stop filling my computer desk with burned cds and for back up my files, BAD choice!, the ipod ipod freezed and I had to restore it (delete everything, factory settings), now already 2 times, right now is on apple warranty service, the stupid iPod freezed again when i tried to install a program from ipod to computer, crap again, well the ipod as I told at the beginning is for you only for you, you can share the $300 piece of exclusivity, well, if you want one, don’t plug it on another computer that doesn’t yours, never unplug when transfering (too bad decision), and do not install programs from ipod to computer! Mmmm… thanks for reading my review, and if you still want a great mp3 (alike iPod) player, the creative vision m, is available, more battery, better lcd, radio fm, voice recorder and great beautiful colors!!!
Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Ricardo C. • June 26, 2006
Rating: 2.5/5
I’ve used an iPod video and I own a Vision: M. Creative totally killed Apple on this one, but i feel like no one knows. Even with all the brainwashing Apple has done, i think that if Creative just marketed/advertised more then at least some people would wake up. It’s like everyone thinks that iPod is the only media device, period. It really pisses me off when someone asks “Is that an iPod?” C’mon Creative, show the world your superiority! Next comment in random but i love the whole setting your pics as wallpapers thing. . .
Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
katherine • July 13, 2006
Rating: 5/5
6 WORDS. IPODS ARE BETTER THAN MP3 PLAYERS. THATS ALL IM GONNA SAY.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Dan Svob • July 29, 2006
Rating: 4.5/5
Im normally not one who likes to follow trends, but the Ipod is dominating the portable media world. I own several players, from Chinese generics to top-of-the-line, and ipod still takes the cake. Its high points are the ease of use, tons of available accessories, and extremely versatile design. I own players that do much more than the ipod, but they feel like your carrying a brick. Poor design’s seem to be a downfall on the other companies. The 2.5″ LCD seems adequate for this type of player. If people are complaining about the size of the LCD, they should by a friggin laptop. This is a on-the-go tool, that i dont leave home without. Do yourself a favor and go Ipod.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Jonathan I • December 25, 2006
Rating: 5/5
Excellent product, unlike this review indicates there IS a brightness control.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Louis • December 26, 2006
Rating: 5/5
The new Ipods are really popular now, and I just received one for Christmas. A Black 30GB Video iPod to be exact. I love it. It takes a while to upload everything if you have a lot and to convert, but it is worth it. This portable player can go anywhere with you, keeping you entertained and occupied for hours and hours. The battery life is pretty good, but not as good as it says. For me about 10 hours with a combination of Video and Music, 5 hours of full Video, and about 15 hours of music. Still awesome. The quality and colors are amazing. I heard people were complaining about the screen. It is better than the other iPod screens and since it is a small, portable player, the screen cannot be huge or the iPod itself would be huge. It is easy to use and handle, but fingerprints and smudges are bound to get on your iPod. Simply whipping them off or rubbing it with a cloth will clean it off. If you are worried about getting the screen scratched up, just don’t touch it for lay it on its front. Also get a case. The one that comes with it is okay, but it is just a basic case and almost is too small for the iPod. I recommend this player to anyone who loves music, movies, and photos. Or to anyone who hasn’t been successful with other video/music players.
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
unknown • March 3, 2007
Rating: 2.5/5
It’s okay, I think a little over priced for what you get
Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Erol • April 1, 2007
Rating: 5/5
Great product, better then the ZEN!
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Macca • April 8, 2007
Rating: 2/5
Zen Vision M much better for what you pay! Better screen than Ipod and better Audio quality plus FM Radio and Voice Record!!
Rating: 4 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
xofalloutgirlox • May 27, 2007
Rating: 4/5
Admit it, Apple iPods are better. They might not be better quality for the money, they may break heaps and may not have all the features that ZEN or what not have, but ask anyone out of the teenage population which is better/cooler and they will say Apple iPod. It’s the orginal of it’s style and it’s plainly more popular. Even I will admit that I have fallen for the Apple iPod craze. Any other design that looks vaguely like the Apple iPod, is passed off as a cheap (as a figure of speach) imitation. As a teenager myself, I have seen countless amount of my peers complaining that their iPod has broken down or in some way failed… yet still they insist to go out and purchase another Apple iPod to replace it. Maybe the only other contenter in the teenage popularity race (of MP3) would be the iriver. But the ratio of my friends owning them to the Apple iPod is 4:1. So plain and simply, iPods are better!
Rating: 8 :: 1 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.
Morgan • June 13, 2007
Rating: 0.5/5
I first got a Shuffle a while back and was happy with it. After about 7 months, a connection came loose and the Ipod stopped playing in one ear. (And yes, it was the Ipod, not the headphones). Good thing was it was still within the 1 year warranty. This time I took it back and upgraded to an Ipod 30Gb video at the same time. Guess what, 1 year, 2 weeks later… same problem!!! The Ipod only played in one ear! The problem this time was Apple or Future Shop wouldn’t exchange the Ipod since it was ‘Out of Warranty’. I talked with Future Shop about options to get it fixed, and found out it would cost at least $80, if not more. There was no way I was paying over $80 to get a small connection problem fixed, so knowing a decent amount about electronics and being an engineer, I decided to try to fix it myself. Bad idea, because Ipods are built to never come apart, and in the process I ruined my screen (flooded).
The Ipods may have the features and the style, but whatever happened to just having a well built product that will last over a year? I highly suggest not buying into the trend, do some research and find a music player that is well designed, rather than just being prone to ‘feature creep’ and style.
Rating: 1 :: 0 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.
Chloe • July 24, 2007
Rating: 5/5
I received an iPod video as a gift about a month ago, updating from a mini. I’m so happy with my video, everything is really easy to do.. photos, movies, its awesome. The back does get scratched pretty easily so buy a case/skin for it as soon as you can. Or just use the pouch that it comes with.
I definately recommend it to anyone who is even thinking of buying one!
Rating: 10 :: 1 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.
Cass • August 23, 2007
Rating: 1/5
After 2 months the iPod video started to freeze. At first it was whil playing a song. Then after a week, it stopped turning on. I have to keep taking it back to the store to get it fixed. THIS SUCKS!
Rating: 2 :: 0 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.
Sean • November 9, 2007
Rating: 4.5/5
I’ve had my iPod video for about a year no freezes or other problems. Chloe is defiantly right about getting a case as soon as possible because it’s essential, especially when you’re spending $400+ on an mp3 player. The only real problem is that the battery eventually dies and you have to pay almost the same price of a new iPod to get a new battery.
Rating: 9 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
William D Mays • November 28, 2007
Rating: 5/5
We bought the 30 GB right after it came out and have not had a single problem. We use it daily with thousands of pictures, music and video files. We even bought software to put movies on it. I feel this is way better than the Zune that my friend has. The thumbwheel control took a day or so to get use to but is a breeze now. I highly recommended this
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Zaib Ali • December 5, 2008
Rating: 5/5
I have been using my 30gb video iPod for 1 and a half years and have not faced a single problem with it. Its very good the sound and video quality is out of this world!!!!
Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.
Shikha • March 11, 2009
Rating: 3/5
You have to admit for once that opting Apple products in the several players available is simply a trend. There is nothing so great about this piece. The battery begins to die very soon after about a year and it costs a lot to get it replaced! Other than that the headphones really suck, it would be a good idea to try out a Sony headphones set instead. To top it all, there is no feature which supports transfer of files from your iPod to your pc! In one word that is simply, inconvenient. On the flipside you have some good features too. The screen size is rational and the sleek body gives it an edgy look.
On the whole I would say for the most it is user – friendly so if it is just a device you would use for some hours, all right then, but if you really care about quality and after sales problems, look for other players in the market!
Rating: 6 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.