I want one of those 60GB video iPods. It’s so cool looking. But I don’t want to buy one because, really, I should be saving my money for more important things like a house or something.
Pros
[ol]
[li]I can watch episodes of “Lost” on the train tonight.[/li][li]I can fit all my music without having to choose between my entire collection of Dave Matthews bootlegs and my entire collection of Van Halen bootlegs.[/li][li]Did I mention it’s really cool looking?[/li][/ol]
Cons
[ol]
[li]I already have an iPod Mini. It doesn’t play video, but it does a pretty good job with the music.[/li][li]I already bought a Christmas present to myself (Mac Mini).[/li][li]There are a million other things I should buy with the $399.[/li][li]I have an iPod, a PSP, a Treo and a bunch of other portable devices and my Batman Factor is getting out of hand.[/li][/ol]
Con: Actually using the iPod to play video is a gigantic suck on battery life, bringing the usable time down to something like (IIRC) 4 hours of video play before requiring a recharge.
Con: Each used-up battery cycle brings you one cycle closer to wearing out the battery, requiring you to send it in to Apple and be iPod-less while they switch the battery out and you pay a decent chunk of change, or you get the kit and do it at home - either way, I hope you like reloading all those songs/videos because you’ll probably have to.
How’s that?
(My husband bought himself an iPod Nano for Christmas and I can tell those little dreams of TV shows on an iPod are already working their way to the surface. The hardware advantage of having the songs on the flash-memory Nano vs. the hard drive of the main iPod deter him, however.)
Perhaps another cheaper video device might be a better choice? I don’t know about video devices, but there’s plenty of music only devices I feel give a much better bang-per-buck than the iPod. I’d be surprised if the video iPod was the best deal out there.
There are other solutions that offer equal or greater functionality, equal or greater storage space and are equal in price or cheaper. If you must have an iPod, it is possible to hack an ordinary one (even the Nano) to play video.
Con: Converting a video file into the format usable on the iPod is a real pain. (If you want to use files other than the ones you download from iTunes.) I attempted to change a .mov format file to be playable on the iPod. It was a movie trailer that I wanted to show a friend. It took about 30 minutes to convert the 1:32 trailer.
Well, you could always sell your iPod Mini on ebay, or at the local pawn shop. That way you technically wouldn’t be spending a whole $400 on the new one.
Wait … that wasn’t what you were looking for, was it?
I love mine, too. It is only the 30 gb iPod, but it is so much fun. Following the tutorials I found on the iLounge.com site I also figured out how to get movies on mine…rough on the battery but if it is a shorter movie it is fine. Now I just need to get a hook up for my car…
This isn’t a bad idea, actually. Ever since the mini got discontinued in favor of the nano, they’re commanding a pretty penny on eBay.
I’m thinking of selling mine there, actually. (I have an embarrassment of iPods (1G that I use as a hard drive, 3G on my desk hooked to speakers, pink mini, shuffle, 4GB nano and 30GB video, bought over the course of two or three years) since the spouse gets an employee discount and I’m a gadget nut).
That’s not the issue. When you send your iPod to Apple for a battery replacement, you do not get your original iPod back–you get a new, or more likely a refurbished one. In either case it will be blank, and you will have to reload all your music/video files.
My own iPod has lasted almost two and a half years so far, and the battery is still going strong.
For some reason, I missed the part where the OP mentioned the existing iPod Mini. Hack it to run Linux and watch video on it. Then spend the money on something else.
