Apple iPod Video 5th Generation White (30 GB) MP3 Player

There's some pretty major construction on the two-lane road that connects my house with the freeway. Every day, a bunch of people in hard hats stand around with cigarettes and hand-held stop signs, allowing one lane to move, while the other waits. And waits. Most mornings, I kill the time by sipping coffee, applying mascara, and glaring at the petty tyrants who seem to get off on making everyone wait. Yesterday morning, though, I watched Desperate Housewives on my new 30 GB Fifth Generation Apple iPod Video White, which we'll just call iPod 5G to simplify things.

Can you believe it? I watched a cat fight between Nicolette Sheridan and Teri Hatcher on my iPod! The future has arrived.

If I sound excited, I am. I've been an iPod owner for three years now, and just about every model has passed through my house at some point. While my husband and the kids play around with the Shuffle, Mini, and Nano, though, I've always stuck to my big, relatively clunky second generation iPod. After the hard drive died on Thanksgiving day, I spent a little time comparing features at Apple's website, and made my decision. It was a no-brainer: the 5G was the iPod for me.

30GB 5G iPod, at a Glance
- 30GB hard drive holds 7500 songs, or 12,000 photos, or 75 hours of video. Most users will have some combination of the three.
- 2.5 inch color display
- 4.8 ounces
- 2.4 x 4.1 x .43 inches

I know, I know, it's not as small as the Nano
When I informed friends about my plan to order the 30 GB 5G iPod, almost all of them seemed surprised. The Nano is so small. It's so much cooler! Come on, people. How small do these things need to be? Do we make our electronic devices smaller and smaller just to prove that we can? And then aren't they less useful? Cell phones are a prime example. They're so small now that most people over 40 can't see the buttons, and only a contortionist can balance one between ear and shoulder. No, the 5G is not as small as the Nano; its length and width are about the same as my old second generation iPod, but it's half as thick-- maybe even less. The Nano weighs about three ounces less than the 5G. Unless you're riding in the Tour de France or on the space shuttle, I doubt you'll notice the extra weight.

The great stuff
Despite the existence of a 60GB 5G iPod, the 30GB model provides ample storage for my needs. I've got about 1000 songs, 100 photos, a handful of music videos, and an episode of Desperate Housewives on mine, and I've still got 26 GB free.

The color screen is crisp and vivid. Yes, it's small, but it's big enough to see the well-manicured gardens of Wisteria Lane while you're stuck in traffic. The video playback is great. I'll eventually figure out how to get home movies on to my iPod, but in the meantime, the iTunes Music Store's growing selection of music videos and TV shows is keeping me busy. There are only a few shows available so far: Desperate Housewives, Lost, Law & Order, and Surface are available by the episode. There are a few vintage shows around, too: Dragnet, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Adam-12, and inexplicably, Knight Rider.

The battery life is excellent with audio play; it's significantly lower with video play, but more on that in the cons section.

The software is as user-friendly as ever, with easy, intuitive menu navigation. Even if you've never used an iPod before, it's very easy to find your way around.

The hold feature, which has been around for a couple of years but which my second generation iPod lacked, prevents the accidental use of your iPod's controls while it's in your bag or pocket. I can't stress enough how much I appreciate this feature. Remember the old days, before locking keypads and flip phones, when you'd toss a cell phone into your bag and it would auto-dial your mom? My second generation iPod did the musical equivalent. It would jostle around in my gym bag in the trunk all the time, treating my passengers to muffled, distant renditions of the most embarrassing songs in my library. You know who your true friends are when folks find out you have an Air Supply song on your iPod.

The not-so-great stuff
I love my new iPod. The gripes I have with it are mostly related to its accessories. First, it only comes with a USB charger. Our older iPods came with two chargers-- one that connected to the computer via either USB or firewire, and one that plugged directly into a standard electrical outlet. The USB or firewire charger is a must-have since you need to connect the iPod to the computer to update its software and load multimedia content, but my wall charger was indispensable when I traveled.

According to the Apple site, the iPod comes with a case. I searched the box carefully, and found an odd, badly-sewn slip of microfiber. Calling it an iPod case is like calling a condom a tuxedo. It's quite minimalist.

The iPod's battery life is significantly reduced during video playback. A single episode of Desperate Housewives drains about half my iPod's charge; I'm not sure it could handle more than two episodes. This is a challenge if you hope to watch movies on your iPod. It also explains why Apple bills this as an iPod "with video," and isn't marketing the video capability more aggressively as this iPod's dominant role. This iPod may be able to hold 75 hours of video, but its battery life lags far behind its hard drive capacity.

None of my iPods have ever skipped, even at the gym, but they've only been propped on the treadmill's magazine rack or plopped in the elliptical trainer's cupholder. If you actually run, the Nano's flash drive is a smarter choice.

Is it worth the extra money?
If your main concern is storage capacity and value, it's a no-brainer: the $299* 30 GB iPod holds 7500 songs compared to the $249 4GB Nano's 1000, and it holds them at about one-sixth of the cost per gigabyte of storage. In the scheme of things, it's a very modest increase in price for a huge increase in functionality.

The fifth generation iPod is brand new; I haven't even found an acceptable case for mine yet. Only time will tell what sort of marks it gets for durability, but it gets five stars for being the most fun, versatile iPod so far.

*If you're a student, teacher, homeschooling parent, or are in any way affiliated with an educational institution, be sure to click the "Education" link at the Apple store's website. The 30 GB iPod is currently $269 with the educational discount. It may only be a holiday promotion, but right now, Apple is throwing in free shipping and laser engraving on all iPods.

Update 12/29/05- A week before Christmas, I got a bad cold and found myself stuck in the house. On Jackai's recommendation, I began to watch "Lost." I bought every available episode of Lost from the iTunes Music Store, and watched in bed for days, alternating between my iPod and my computer as the other charged. Lost is an excellent test for the iPod's small screen because background details provide important clues to the show's mysteries. I watched a couple of flashback sequences on both screens, and I found that I didn't miss much on the iPod's screen. I also downloaded a Christmas video by Sarah Silverman -- Give the Jew Girl Toys. As a fellow Jew Girl, I like the sentiment. The growing selection of videos at iTunes is great!

With all that viewing, I had a chance to use my iPod's ear buds much more extensively than I have in the past. Maybe I have small ears, but after three Lost episodes, I just had to pull out those ear buds. And hours later, I'd get these odd, phantom sensations as if the ear buds were still in my ears. Yuck. Even though I'm satisifed with the buds' sound quality, I'm going to invest in a pair of spiffy white Sennheiser PX 200 headphones this week.

A new case is on its way, too. I ordered one of the brand new iSkin EVO 3 silicone cases to replace the crappy one that Apple bundled with the iPod.

No complaints. I love my new iPod, I'm thrilled with my downloads, and if you think of the ear buds and case as freebies, well, they're not terrible. But when you're considering the cost of a new MP3 player, just keep in mind that it doesn't end with the iPod, and the accessories, music, and movies can quickly exceed the cost of the iPod itself.

Update 1/5/2006 - Hooking up the iPod Video to your Television
So, you've bought 35 episodes of Lost or Desperate Housewives from the iTunes Music Store, and now you want to watch them on your TV. If there's an easy way to make the video files playable on an ordinary DVD player, I haven't discovered it. You can back them up on a DVD-R and play them on other computers, but first you have to authorize those computers to play your movies and music. To protect copyrights, you can only authorize five computers at a time to play files you've purchased from the iTunes music store.

You don't need to burn the files on a DVD to watch them on a TV, though. Apple sells a pretty white AV Cable for $19 that lets you hook your iPod up to your TV as easily as you'd hook up a DVD player or video game console. It sounds cheap compared to many iPod accessories, but for most people, it's unnecessary. If you have a camcorder, you probably have a mini plug-to-RCA cable in the house already. Ignore the colors; insert the red plug into the video input, and the white and yellow plugs into the audio inputs. Then turn on your iPod, Go to the video settings, and turn on the TV output.