iPod Video 5th Generation Review

The 5G (5th generation) iPod with Video and Photo viewing capabilities is the latest evolution in the iPod line. The key word here is evolution, as, for the most part, it only includes a few minor improvements from the previous 4th generation iPod. Read on, and I'll tell you exactly what I think of this hot new product.

Installing

Installing the iPod, I decided to just plug it into my computer. Unfortunately, the iPod locked up! That seemed pretty bad to me. After browsing the web a while, I figured out how to reboot the frozen iPod (hold down the middle select button and the menu button at the same time for about 6 seconds to reset/reboot it). Also, make sure that the iPod hold switch is not set when you try to reboot it. After rebooting, I decided to upgrade my iTunes from 6.0 to the most current version at the time (6.0.1.3) just to be safe, and then plugged in the iPod again, and it worked this time.

Design

The 5G iPod has the same classic iPod look of the 4th generation design. From a design standpoint, it is gorgeous, the same width and height as the 1st generation iPod, but about half the thickness. It has a classy and classic design that looks beautiful and elegant. In the hand it feels nice- moderate weight but solid. One thing that you'll notice is how minimalist the design is- there are very few buttons and knobs and switches. The most notable thing is its round touch wheel which has 4 buttons embedded on it and a button in the center. The 4 clickwheel buttons have a nice tactile feedback when you push on them, however, they are completely flat on the touch wheel. In fact, it's so minimalist that there is not even an on/off switch (you have to hold the pause button down for several seconds and then flip the hold switch). There is no volume knob- you use the touch wheel (which also serves also to scroll through songs and also for rating your songs). Sadly, the latest touchwheel is a downgrade from all previous versions. It is much more "twitchy", and error-prone than the one on my second generation iPod mini, and much inferior to my 1st generation mechanical wheel in feel and accuracy.

The LCD screen is color and it's beautiful. It is 2.5" diagonal and has a resolution of 320x240. Videos look good on the screen. Motion is clear and smooth, though the screen is really too small to watch long movies on. On the top edge, there is one headphone jack and a hold switch. On the bottom, there's a custom connector which you can use a cable to connect to your computer's USB port (Firewire is no longer supported). No docking station is included, a money-saving tactic on Apple's part.

I Call It Scratchy

The 5G iPod has a very scratch-prone screen. In fact, after just 1 day of using it gently, and putting it in my pocket (without any metal objects or coins) it somehow developed far more scratches than my 3 month old 2G iPod mini which was not babied at all. In fact, it's rather upsetting that the screen in some parts is so marred with scratches that it causes video playback to sometimes shimmer in that area. At least Apple now includes a new ultra-thin neoprene-like case. I like the case a lot, it's very simple but compact and provides just enough protection for carrying around without adding much bulk.

Features

The iPod is fairly light on features. It plays music files in AAC format (used by Apple's iTunes music store) and plays MP3s and Apple Lossless format. Apple has finally added reasonable recording support (though you need to buy a separate add-on microphone). And, the big news is, Apple's video support. Actually, video support is pretty good. Apple's web site says it supports H.264 video at 320x240 resolution at up to 768 kbits/second, or MPEG-4 resolutions of up to 480x480, and 2.5Mbits/second but. The MPEG-4 video size limit is slightly misleading, as it in reality supports resolutions that have up to 480x480=230,400 pixels. That means with a normal 1.33 aspect ratio, it can actually do up to 554x415 pixels (good for output to a TV, the built-in screen is 320x240 and downsizes the video shown to fit the built-in screen). Note, using higher resolutions increases file sizes significantly and could severely decrease battery life because of the increased computation power needed. Other reasonable resolutions for a 1.33 aspect ratio are 512x384 or 480x360. I've decided to standardize my video content on 480x360 at 1.5Mbits/sec. as a reasonable compromise in terms of quality and space.

Photo viewing on the 2.5" screen is very nice. However, Apple left out the most important feature, being able to zoom in on the details of an image. Even my obsolete 3 year old digital camera could do that. Also, the iPod doesn't support viewing RAW photo file formats.

There is still no FM radio, there is no bluetooth wireless connectivity built in (you can buy extra 3rd party addons for bluetooth, but really, it should be built in), there is no 3rd party software support for applications to run on the iPod. I hope they'll correct these deficiencies soon. There are a few extras like an alarm clock which which is practically useless because the built-in speaker is so weak, and there are a couple of games that aren't very good.

Other extras include a contact manager, a calendar, and the ability to show text notes.

A recently added feature is support for Podcasts. Podcasts have their own menu and also are bookmarked if you switch to something else in the middle of listening to one. Also, a dot appears next to podcasts that have not yet been listened to (a nice touch). Happily, smart playlists work correctly (if you set the star ratings for a song for instance, it will dynamically get updated on the iPod without having to re-sync with the computer). This feature had been broken by Apple for my 2nd generation mini with Firmware version 1.3.

In Use

With all this talk about design and features, we shouldn't forget, it's all about the audio. My opinion is, the iPod's audio quality is very good. Audio is clear and clean. It seems to be an improvement on the iPod Mini I own, as it doesn't seem to have audio glitches when switching tracks. I'm not an audiophile, so you may want to check for yourself if you're particularly picky. Overall, I'm happy with the audio quality.

Where the iPod really shines is on the software side. iTunes integration is fantastic. Keeping your music in sync between the computer and the iPod works really well. iTunes is great at managing your music, if you are willing to give it full control over organizing your music- I fought this for a while, but in the end gave in as it's just easier to let it manage and consolidate your collection. It has nice little features like finding duplicate songs so you can clean up your collection. The iTunes user interface and functionality is excellent.

Playlist management in iTunes is fantastic. It is easy to create playlists and rearrange music within playlists. In addition, playlist management is very good on the iPod itself as well. Smart playlists are playlists that dynamically get updated (for instance, you can have a playlist of all 5 star rated songs, or of the most recent songs you've downloaded). You can create on-the-go playlists on the iPod directly, which is one feature I really love.

This 30GB 5G iPod I own is advertised as having an 14 hour battery life, or 2 hours for video. The iPod battery is also not easily replaceable, so you can't just switch batteries when it runs out, instead, you have to recharge the iPod. Your battery results may vary. (Come back later for a full report on battery life!)

Video content is now available on iTunes. However, the quality and the restrictions are a joke. You pay $1.99 for video content (such as music videos, or TV shows) but you get poor quality 320x240 resolution videos that you can NOT burn to DVD. Low quality and severe restrictions, together with a lack of much content to begin with is a disappointment.

Trouble in paradise

There is a very dark side to using the iPod and iTunes, however. Apple has been very consumer unfriendly by refusing to let iTunes protected AAC format music to interoperate with other software and other MP3 players. You can not play music purchased on iTunes using any other MP3 player on the market. Although you can burn the music onto CD and then rip it again, that is a rather annoying and time-consuming barrier. Furthermore, if you purchase music from any other online store such as Real's or one that supports WMF, you can not play it in the iPod. In fact Apple has threatened to sue Real for making their music files playable on the iPod. This level of anti-consumer monopolistic behavior is beyond comprehension, for a company that has so much going for it. They basically lock you into their system and keep you there through incredibly anti-consumer practices. There is no excuse for Apple's monopolistic behavior and consumer unfriendliness here. They have a good product that stand on its own merits.

A Note on iTunes Encoding Sound Quality

When ripping songs from your CDs, you need to think about what sound quality you will be happy with. The audio encoder and quality settings are found in the iTunes Preferences (under the Edit menu --> Preferences), and select the "Importing" tab. The general consensus is, the high quality 128K bps AAC setting is adequate for most purposes, though definitely not CD quality. In general it's a lot of trouble importing your entire CD collection into iTunes, so, I recommend picking a higher bit rate AAC encoding to get higher quality (select the "Custom" option). I experimented with MP3 encoding and it seems to be produce poorer quality audio in iTunes. I ended up choosing the AAC Encoder at 192 Kbps, which is a reasonable compromise in terms of space usage and audio quality. At this quality level, all but the most serious audiophiles should be satisfied. See A Report on Apple's iTunes AAC Compared to CD. See also the iPod Audio Page for more details on audio quality.

Conclusion

The iPod 5G is an excellent music player, though still missing some important features. It has style and design that's unmatched, and works well with Apple's outstanding iTunes software. It is functional and works well for what it was designed for. Features are lacking, certainly lagging behind the competition, and you get locked in Apple's system, so that's a tradeoff you will have to weigh. I like my 5G iPod video edition, and plan to keep it at least until the next generation comes out.