Rocking Apple i-pod 30GB video. Review on Apple iPod

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.

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.