Well, mine has finally come through the post yesterday and in time for xmas as well - YAY!!

The ipod Video is fantastic, the only grumbles I've got with it at the moment are- no plug in power adapter to charge from a wall socket and the worst of the negatives- no firewire... big NO NO to apple for that one- also if you drop it, I guarantee its going to smash into small pieces.

Positives- video playback- is fabulous.
On its larger screen- the video comes out crisp and sharp and looks perfect... photo playback is excellent and the overall sound quality I think has gotten better as well.

Overall- a fantastic buy and I'd rate it 9/10 - just missing the 10 because of the lack of power adapter/firewire support.

I still have the firewire plug from my old white ipod, so I can happily charge it up without having to turn my PC on.

Have you encoded any video yourself? There's some decent (freeware!) software available for Mac and PC (although the Mac Software wins for ease and convenience).

Oh, and I recommend getting a case off ebay such as this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5835032956&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Mine's still as shiny as the day I bought it!

PM me if you want any software links!

Why would you want firewire??? Theyer USB 2 -- so why do you need firewire??

Firewire transfers faster than USB2.

Although, you can still charge the new iPods through Firewire I believe, not much use though :(

Well, strictly speaking they'll both reach a bottleneck at the same speed depending on how fast your hard drive is - if SATA can only tranfer 150mb/s then a 400mb/s or 480mb/s transfer rate is a big con really.

There's not much between them, although my new motherboard has one firewire "B" port which is a theoretical transfer speed of 800mb/s

Firewire is becoming slightly redundant unless you're into video editing, so that's why I apparently have 8 USB headers and 1 firewire header (well, 2 including the new one that isn't yet supported by any hardware).

Oh, if anyone's looking for decent video conversion software for ipod video, then checkout Handbrake for Macs and Videora for PCs.

Handbrake Link:
http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Videora Link:
http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/

Handbrake can take the content straight off a DVD and can handle subtitles, Videora requires you to rip the DVD contents to your hard drive first. There are forums for either piece of software which include how to guides and things to remember/watch out for.

Saved me spending money on quicktime pro... which would take 6 HOURS to encode a movie, whereas these will do it in realtime (Videora - 3.0 Athlon64 and a gig of 3200 DDR RAM) and about half realtime (Handbrake - Dual 2.3 G5 with 1.5gig RAM).

Marvelous

Originally posted by mr_chris
I still have the firewire plug from my old white ipod, so I can happily charge it up without having to turn my PC on.

Have you encoded any video yourself? There's some decent (freeware!) software available for Mac and PC (although the Mac Software wins for ease and convenience).

Oh, and I recommend getting a case off ebay such as this one

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5835032956&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

Mine's still as shiny as the day I bought it!

PM me if you want any software links!

Heyup mate

I've still got the firewire plug from my old Ipod so I can charge it away from the PC also- its just a pity that the ipod Video cant use it to transfer to and from my PC using it though!

I've encoded 2 films to fit onto the pod- The 'Burbs and The Goonies using Imtoo Dvd To Ipod Convertor from the net- very good program and it converts them in less than 1 1/2 hours for each film!

I'll have to look into the case as my old Ipod is scratched to death.

Thanks for the reply :)

A little off topic, but, does anyone know if the Nano has Firewire support, Im presuming not, as the 5G doesn't. They charge, I know that, but it's the transfers im wondering about with the Nano.

I don't have a Firewire cable yet, but I'm wondering if it is supported as my USB is a bit flakey. I don't want to buy one if it isn't. :confused:

If your USB is a bit flakey, it's liable to be your OS install or your USB port (they're easily damaged). Firewire wouldn't be any more reliable, and as Apple haven't brought out any firewire connectors for separate purchase I'm guessing the Nano doesn't support it.

Have to say, compared to what I got with my 4G (B&W) ipod, the bundle that came with my new one wasn't particularly impressive....

How much are the video Ipods going for?

Im wanting to get a new video/mp3 player. I would normally go for an Archos product but ive got an open mind if the Ipod is any good.

Originally posted by ANGELUS
Heyup mate

I've still got the firewire plug from my old Ipod so I can charge it away from the PC also- its just a pity that the ipod Video cant use it to transfer to and from my PC using it though!

I've encoded 2 films to fit onto the pod- The 'Burbs and The Goonies using Imtoo Dvd To Ipod Convertor from the net

Heh, Goonies never say die!

I've used videora - http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/iPod/ - to convert mine, as it's fast and free and does what I want it to...

I also use Handbrake on my work G5 (mmm, dual processor) as it lets me put subtitles on anime with absolutely no hassle! It also encodes straight off the DVD!

Originally posted by spyro2000
How much are the video Ipods going for?

Im wanting to get a new video/mp3 player. I would normally go for an Archos product but ive got an open mind if the Ipod is any good.

I got mine in the States, so after Sales Tax in NY (B'stard 8.5% extra!) it worked out about £250 for the 60gig... seeing as though the 30gig here is £219 at least, and the 60 is £299... not a bad deal!

Well worth getting, but remember it's a music player that can play videos, and not a dedicated video player. Still, 2 hour battery life on a good day for pure video watching isn't bad (and upto 20 hours music battery!)

Ive been after one of these (http://www.archos.com/products/pc_centric/gmini_500/index.html) for some time. Would you say im better off getting an Ipod?

Well, that has "nick me" written all over it, plus big screen in your pocket = easily damaged.

There's no real technical specs on the site, so I'd have to recommend what I know. The iPod *is* good, and the video conversion is much better supported than I would have thought only a month or two after its release!

Nice one, ill see if I can go down to the Ipod store to check one out :thumbsup:

Originally posted by spyro2000
Nice one, ill see if I can go down to the Ipod store to check one out :thumbsup:

I had an Archos before mate- I dont know if you read my rants about them a while back.

Very good piece of kit- but a ****e company to buy from!
And your latest model if you buy it will become obsolete within 5-6 months mark my words.

I bought mine from PC World for £550 a while back (yes, you can slap me now for using PCW!) and that was the latest model AV340 at the time... it was replaced by a better model in under 4 motnhs.

Be warned!

Good system none the less and it does what it says on the tin- but Archos are just after your cash.. and the customer service stinks as well.

If you want crap customer service try HP. an hour and a half (mostly) on hold to India, and customer service assistants who could only follow what was on their crib sheets...

And who couldn't seem to graspt that I only had an HP DVD drive and not an HP computer...

That was a fun day!

Mobile video players actually aren't that much use from day to day (good for long train and bus journeys!), but the new ipod has better hardware decoding for MP3 and AAC, so it just *sounds* better than my old one.