January 26th, 2006
Gadget Freak: Portable Video
PC World Contrib. Ed. Dan Tynan
My wife says I'm addicted to TV, and she may well be right. Homer
Simpson is my role model and I think Jon Stewart should run for
president. But do I want to carry video with me wherever I go, and is
the content worth paying for?
Those are the questions I pondered while playing with my new
video-enabled iPod ($299 for 30GB, $399 for 60GB). Apple's handheld
player is easily the slickest I've ever seen. Video playback is sharp
(the smallish 2.5-inch screen makes it seem even sharper), and it's a
snap to use. See our full review of the iPod for more info:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/...,tk,grx,00.asp
What makes this iPod truly innovative is that Steve Jobs managed to
convince Hollywood to loosen its death grip on content and allow shows
to be sold on iTunes.com. Though this content is exclusive to the
iPod, the deal could lead to a tsunami of video-to-go for other
portable players.
The Vids Are All Right
At press time iTunes served up more than 2000 music videos, a
half-dozen Pixar short films, and a handful of TV shows--including
ABC's "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," as well as NBC's "Law and
Order" and "Surface"--for $2 a pop. You can view 30-second samples and
pithy summaries of each episode, like this one for "Desperate
Housewives": "Gabrielle causes a prison riot while visiting Carlos,
while Lynette learns that Parker has an imaginary friend." Who could
resist that? I immediately bought it along with four Green Day music
videos.
Purchasing video content from iTunes and moving it over to the iPod is
a breeze. Click the Buy Video button and enter your account name and
password, and the file starts downloading. Plug the iPod into your
computer's USB port, and the file transfers automatically. It took
about 12 minutes to purchase and download 200MB worth of data on a
cable connection and a few minutes more to transfer the video files to
the iPod.
But transferring other video is less snappy. You have to use Apple's
iTunes software, which is mighty finicky about the types of video
files it supports. To transfer home movies or other unsupported
content, you'll need to buy a copy of QuickTime Pro ($29) and convert
the files to the iPod's H.264 MPEG-4 format. (So much for Apple's
famous devotion to ease of use.) You can also try a third-party tool
such as the free Videora iPod Converter:
http://www.videora.com/
With Videora I could convert AVI and MPEG-2 files, but I had less luck
with other formats.
TiVo also has announced it will let subscribers transfer shows they've
recorded to an iPod or a Sony PlayStation Portable, though details
were fuzzy at press time.
Dearth of Content
Other players have their own content problems. If you have a Windows
Portable Media Center like Samsung's Yepp YH-999 ($500) or iRiver's
PMC-120 ($550), you can use Windows Media Player 10 to convert home
movies into a viewable format. You can also record shows on a Windows
Media Center PC or TiVo Series2 and export them to the PMC, spend $20
a year for news and sports clips from MSN, or rent films from
CinemaNow. Otherwise, video fare is hard to come by.
AOL and Warner Bros.' In2TV network plans to stream old shows like
"Maverick" to PCs for free (with ads), but without support for
portable devices. NBC and CBS will sell shows on demand for 99 cents
apiece, but only for DirecTV satellite and Comcast cable subscribers.
For now, most portable content is likely to come from video podcasts,
which are a) usually free and b) worth every penny.
I like the iPod, but I can't say it will cure my TV jones. It's great
for watching 4-minute music videos. But when I want to view a
43-minute show, I'd rather do it on my couch, with a Duff beer in
hand, just like my man Homer.
For more on finding videos online, read my October 2005 "Gadget
Freak":
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article...,tk,grx,00.asp
Visit our Digital Entertainment Info Center for reviews and pricing on
the latest gadgets:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/info...,tk,grx,00.asp
Read Dan Tynan's regularly published "Gadget Freak" columns:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/colu...0,tk,gr,00.asp
===
"Work like you don't need the money, Love like you've never been hurt, Dance like nobody's watching..."
-- Richard Leigh
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