[Hanul]

I bought 2 videos to test the new offering, but the video quality is very, very bad.

Madonna's "Express Yourself" is blurry and the colors are kind of washed out (this is not the "arty" special effect from the video). The compression (MPEG-4) seems to be intented for iPods only, because on a 20" display it looks worse than TV. That's a shame, because the ad clearly states, that you can enjoy the videos on big screens and the iPod's small one.

Pixar's "For the birds" is pixelated and you can't get any of the fine nuances (e.g. the birds' feathers), which made the short famous. It's still funny, but you can't see the CG glory.

Couldn't Apple compress to a NTSC/PAL format or would that be too storage consuming? Apple claims up to 150 hours of video on an 60GB iPod, that is 400MB an hour. For comparision: A 120 minutes movie compressed to 3GP with 15 frames/s and 220x176 with stereo sound is around 180MB, so I guess the video quality of iTMS videos is only twice as "good". Probably it's aimed for the iPod screen at 320x240.

[TETENAL]

Originally Posted by Hanul

Couldn't Apple compress to a NTSC/PAL format or would that be too storage consuming?

The iPod can not show full NTSC/PAL format video. The maximum video size it can decode H.264 is 320x240.

[stevesnj]

Originally Posted by Hanul

I bought 2 videos to test the new offering, but the video quality is very, very bad.

Just like evrything with Apple they will improve things quickly...most likely choices of quality and size...this is a brand new service. I believe Apple deserves a little slack on this one.

[FulcrumPilot]

Originally Posted by Hanul

I bought 2 videos to test the new offering, but the video quality is very, very bad.

Remember, ""its all about the music, video doesn't matter"

[Stradlater]

Resolution?

[MaxPower2k3]

of course they look bad on your computer. how do you expect a 320x240 video to look when scaled to 1680x1050 (or 1400x1050 unstretched) on a 20" screen? pretty much anything short of HD loses a lot of quality on high-res screens. The videos on there are designed with the iPod in mind; if the quality was any better, the iPod wouldn't be able to play them.

[FulcrumPilot]

Originally Posted by MaxPower2k3

of course they look bad on your computer. how do you expect a 320x240 video to look when scaled to 1680x1050 (or 1400x1050 unstretched) on a 20" screen? pretty much anything short of HD loses a lot of quality on high-res screens. The videos on there are designed with the iPod in mind; if the quality was any better, the iPod wouldn't be able to play them.

That should clarify the muddy waters!

[Eriamjh]

Standard TV broadcast is around 300x480 and that's interlaced! VHS is 240x 480i. Laserdisk is 425x480i and DVD is around 500x480 of actual analog output resolution. That 640x480 and 720x480 is not real. It just exists in the digital domain. The horizontal resolution goes to mush when converted to analog.

The new iPod is capable of displaying a decent picture if it is decompressed right. It won't be DVD quality, but it should be better than VHS. I guess we have to wait until they ship.

[kcmac]

Looks more than acceptable on my 12" PB. At the smaller size which would replicate the iPod screen, it looks very nice.

On our 20" iMac, well it looks good but like already stated, it wasn't made for this size.

What is really nice is the sound volume. Very loud. It's about time.

[MaxPower2k3]

The iPod is perfectly capable of displaying DVD-quality video, just not full DVD resolution. The new iPod's screen actually has a pixel density of 154ppi, compared to the 99ppi density of the 20" displays, so video with a decent bitrate (dunno what the iTunes store uses) should actually look quite sharp and detailed.

And DVDs might be displayed at something equivalent to 500x480 in the digital realm on an analog display, but the video itself is a full 720x480 pixels, and that is all shown when watching on a digital display.

[tomasboudr]

do you guys think we'll be able to get other video into itunes for syncing, even if it is ipod sized h.264. I want to be able to put video on it that isn't from the music store

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by MaxPower2k3

The videos on there are designed with the iPod in mind; if the quality was any better, the iPod wouldn't be able to play them.

But Jobs spent a great deal of time talking about Front Row on the iMac, and playing iTMS videos through it. I wish there was a better way to do this, but it's hard to imagine how it would work. They could sell them at higher resolution and have the iPod scale it down, but that would mean a bigger file to download, it would take up more room on the hard drive, and it would probably chew up more battery.

[BRussell]

Originally Posted by tomasboudr

do you guys think we'll be able to get other video into itunes for syncing, even if it is ipod sized h.264. I want to be able to put video on it that isn't from the music store

Definitely. Apple has a tutorial up for how to create an iPod-ready video with QT Pro.

[edit] But I also wonder what would happen if you stuck a video on there that was the right format, but wasn't the right size.

[mdc]

at their regular resolution they look great, and i'm sure they will look great on an iPod.

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally Posted by mdc

at their regular resolution they look great, and i'm sure they will look great on an iPod.

I agree. With new standards and tech, this will likely improve.


I have no use for a Video iPod but I find his device fascinating in how it will change the "game".

[IFLY2HIGH]

Videos from the store and even my own i've been converting over to ipod format look just great to me, I've noticed no issues as of yet, just need the pod to show up...

[Eug Wanker]

On an iPod, yes, they'll look great. On an iMac, not so much.



I hope this 320x240 video rez is just temporary. VHS quality doesn't impress in 2005.

[kcmac]

But you know what? A lot of us still record to VHS. Now, I can have this stuff directly on my computer. Someday, I may have a video pod but by then I am hopeful quality will be even better. For now, I think this is just great. And at less than $2 per, not too shabby.

[- - e r i k - -]

Go ahead and complain. At least you can buy them - while us international users are yet again out in the cold.

Oh, and the pay for videos are lower quality than the previous free ones (which you could download through iTMS extractor or iTMS video link maker). They were 480x360, Sorenson Video 3 encoded.

[mdc]

Originally Posted by IFLY2HIGH

Videos from the store and even my own i've been converting over to ipod format look just great to me, I've noticed no issues as of yet, just need the pod to show up...

how big are the videos that you are converting and how long are they taking?

[Eug Wanker]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Go ahead and complain. At least you can buy them - while us international users are yet again out in the cold.

Being in Canada, I can only buy the shorts and music videos.

It's definitely not worth spending 2+ bux to get a short.

Oh, and the pay for videos are lower quality than the previous free ones (which you could download through iTMS extractor or iTMS video link maker). They were 480x360, Sorenson Video 3 encoded.

Yeah, that's lame. Too bad the iPod is limited to 320x240, cuz 480x360 isn't half bad for TV shows. It's a heluvalot better than 320x240, that's for sure.

[bad_quote]

Video iPods are stupid.

[olePigeon]

If you watch it on a TV you're not gonna notice any difference.

[IFLY2HIGH]

Originally Posted by mdc

how big are the videos that you are converting and how long are they taking?

The ones I've done so far are from 150 to 200 megs that get converted down to 4-5 megs. Time not sure, I didn't sit through either one of the decoding processes but it didn't seem to take long. My machine is only a dual 1.0 gig QS. I'll be doing larger ones like 600+ megs soon though and I'm sure that will take some time.

[- - e r i k - -]

480x360 would be the golden res I think. Small, yet good enough quality for full-screen scaling.

[Cadaver]

I can't wait to try putting a full-length DVD movie on one of these and (attempt) to watch it on a plane or somewhere similar.

I can pretty easily re-encode a DVD MPEG 2 movie to a .mov file or a H.264 stream. Apple's Compressor 2.0 has a preset "web download" 320x240 H.264 compression option.

[production_coordinator]

Now Apple just needs to create a program that rips a DVD to a nice iTunes compatible video

[JoshuaZ]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Go ahead and complain. At least you can buy them - while us international users are yet again out in the cold.

Oh, and the pay for videos are lower quality than the previous free ones (which you could download through iTMS extractor or iTMS video link maker). They were 480x360, Sorenson Video 3 encoded.

I was wondering about that international issue. I know several of my Japanese friends want to buy an iPod Video but the lack of online content might slow international sales. Hopefully they'll have all sorts of fun stuff to be put online.

[Drakino]

Originally Posted by olePigeon

If you watch it on a TV you're not gonna notice any difference.

Not everyone has an old TV. Some of us do indeed have an HDTV set, in this supposed "year of HD". 320x240 is a sad start for this if Apple expects it to be used much beyond the iPod. With the new iMacs and FrontRow integrating the videos into it, the excuse of "it's only for the iPod" no longer stands.

Apple is so damn close to getting the internet media distribution system fully functional. But for now we are stuck with a decent audio system that at least has the quality near the CD, but subpar video. Video that is way below the standards of what we get over Digital Cable or DVDs of TV shows in the store.

[macmad]

Its a version 1, and things will only improve. I want one already anyway.

[ReggieX]

Well, duh. It's 320x240 highly compressed video meant to play on an iPod's tiny LCD screen. Yeesh.