Looks like someone screwed up the links to the thread from the front page... Apparently my post went to the "New iPods and Pro Machines" thread 
Anyways... this is what I said:
I hope Apple makes a smooth transition with the 5G iPod and the next iTunes update.
Adding video into the mix is making things more complicated. I for one found iTunes is slow for playing videos. I tried making a playlist of my Red vs. Blue collection, but it wasn't very smooth when the video was playing in a separate window (compared to playing in QT). And photo support hasn't been all that cool in my opinion because you can't view images you dump directly with the camera adapter, and only the iPod with the proper dock can make images viewable on the TV (and I think it could use some HD resolution support).
People (myself included) have complained about how a screen that's even the size of an iPod would be too small for videos of any kind. Even a PSP's screen is too small for me to enjoy a movie. Yeah, it's great and gimmicky for the nerds out there, but for the regular consumer it's not really worth it. I'll assume the iPod's screen size will increase and the scroll wheel will be nano-sized, but I don't think even then video playback will be cool. As podfuture has rumored, if there's some sort of update to the AirPort Express to support video out and the iPod has WiFi support or the iPod has simple video out support, at least you'd have a new storage medium for videos. I think it'll be more important Apple somehow figures out how to stream or broadcast a video file from an iPod to a nearby TV. Even better, Apple would just make a HTM (home-theater Mac) and forget about mobile video all together.
My final concern is video files are huge especially in high quality. Assuming Apple uses H.264 or Pixlet (highly doubt it), we're still going to videos that are compressed, and I bet there will be that anti-compression crowd complaining Apple compressed their videos without a lossless encoder There's also the uncertainty if we're getting just music videos and trailers or feature films. If they're doing feature films, I'd hope there's a way to be able to burn yourself a nice DVD with complete menus, extra features, etc. because I think the DVD's loaded with extras are worth their price. Movies will have to be less than $10 and hopefully a nice $4.99 for a starting price. I just wouldn't be able to justify a $20 download of a movie if it lacks extra features, DVD-burning, and is stuck on my iPod and Mac. It's like the useless UMD movies on the PSP.
When it comes down to it, yes the video iPod is the next evolution. But, I don't think the movie industry has to fight a battle with piracy just yet, nor do I think the hardware and software is in place for it to be as simple as an iPod and iTunes, nor do I think DVDs are unfashionable. There's probably a bigger demand for a home theater system equipped with the best hardware and DVDs than having a device that's able to play movies on the go. The iPod Video (or whatever it'll be called) will probably be phased out and turned into the normal iPod with video playing capability and drop the video dock because it will be remembered as a gimmicky feature like the photo abilities of the iPod photo.
As a shareholder, it just doesn't seem like selling movies and having an iPod being able to play movies is as simple and rewarding as selling music and having an iPod play music.
Anyways... this is what I said:
I hope Apple makes a smooth transition with the 5G iPod and the next iTunes update.
Adding video into the mix is making things more complicated. I for one found iTunes is slow for playing videos. I tried making a playlist of my Red vs. Blue collection, but it wasn't very smooth when the video was playing in a separate window (compared to playing in QT). And photo support hasn't been all that cool in my opinion because you can't view images you dump directly with the camera adapter, and only the iPod with the proper dock can make images viewable on the TV (and I think it could use some HD resolution support).
People (myself included) have complained about how a screen that's even the size of an iPod would be too small for videos of any kind. Even a PSP's screen is too small for me to enjoy a movie. Yeah, it's great and gimmicky for the nerds out there, but for the regular consumer it's not really worth it. I'll assume the iPod's screen size will increase and the scroll wheel will be nano-sized, but I don't think even then video playback will be cool. As podfuture has rumored, if there's some sort of update to the AirPort Express to support video out and the iPod has WiFi support or the iPod has simple video out support, at least you'd have a new storage medium for videos. I think it'll be more important Apple somehow figures out how to stream or broadcast a video file from an iPod to a nearby TV. Even better, Apple would just make a HTM (home-theater Mac) and forget about mobile video all together.
My final concern is video files are huge especially in high quality. Assuming Apple uses H.264 or Pixlet (highly doubt it), we're still going to videos that are compressed, and I bet there will be that anti-compression crowd complaining Apple compressed their videos without a lossless encoder
There's also the uncertainty if we're getting just music videos and trailers or feature films. If they're doing feature films, I'd hope there's a way to be able to burn yourself a nice DVD with complete menus, extra features, etc. because I think the DVD's loaded with extras are worth their price. Movies will have to be less than $10 and hopefully a nice $4.99 for a starting price. I just wouldn't be able to justify a $20 download of a movie if it lacks extra features, DVD-burning, and is stuck on my iPod and Mac. It's like the useless UMD movies on the PSP.When it comes down to it, yes the video iPod is the next evolution. But, I don't think the movie industry has to fight a battle with piracy just yet, nor do I think the hardware and software is in place for it to be as simple as an iPod and iTunes, nor do I think DVDs are unfashionable. There's probably a bigger demand for a home theater system equipped with the best hardware and DVDs than having a device that's able to play movies on the go. The iPod Video (or whatever it'll be called) will probably be phased out and turned into the normal iPod with video playing capability and drop the video dock because it will be remembered as a gimmicky feature like the photo abilities of the iPod photo.
As a shareholder, it just doesn't seem like selling movies and having an iPod being able to play movies is as simple and rewarding as selling music and having an iPod play music.
