will they, won't they...?
Speculation has been running rife about the contents of the upcoming special media event that has been announced to take place on 12th October by Apple.
Early rumours suggested such a possible unveiling of a video iPod, but close examination shows that these are very likely to be elaborate hoaxes.
There is quite a large demand for a video capable iPod but it doesn't appear to be the right time to launch such a product.
The problem really boils down to content, storage and delivery.
Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the original iPod was the chance it gave most people to carry around their entire CD and audio collection in their pocket. This innovation rivalled (some may say even surpassed) the impact of the original Sony Walkman - in the way it changed people's listening habits.
So why can't the same be done for video? Even at the best compression rate, a full length 2 hour DVD will still weigh in at a little under a gigabyte. Doing the maths, its easy to see that it wouldn't take much to fill most portable hard drives with files this size. The test for Apple and other rivals would be whether a portable video device would cater for large quantity of storage (which would in turn increase the unit size lessening its portability. On the other hand another approach would be to have a smaller storage capacity but encouarge higher compression - in which case, such a device would be hard pressed to store twenty or even thirty full length DVDs at current iPod sized hard drive capacities.
Another difficulty that stands in its way is ease of transfer. The beauty of audio CD to MP3/AAC conversion, is that most applications can handle this through a one-touch operation. However, DVDs require tiresome amounts of compression, resizing and formatting before they would be playable on a portable device. Let's not forget the time it takes to do this: hours (DVD) vs minutes (CD). If such a device would be successful in the mass market, it would need to easy to transfer content to and fast to fill.
This is not to say portable video players won't take off - (Sony's PSP is proving this - although they have gone the proprietary route); it's just that the internet infrastructure isn't at a speed to support mass online distribution, and portable storage isn't at a size to allow media companies to sell the idea of "all your movies in your pocket".
Early rumours suggested such a possible unveiling of a video iPod, but close examination shows that these are very likely to be elaborate hoaxes.
There is quite a large demand for a video capable iPod but it doesn't appear to be the right time to launch such a product.
The problem really boils down to content, storage and delivery.
Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the original iPod was the chance it gave most people to carry around their entire CD and audio collection in their pocket. This innovation rivalled (some may say even surpassed) the impact of the original Sony Walkman - in the way it changed people's listening habits.
So why can't the same be done for video? Even at the best compression rate, a full length 2 hour DVD will still weigh in at a little under a gigabyte. Doing the maths, its easy to see that it wouldn't take much to fill most portable hard drives with files this size. The test for Apple and other rivals would be whether a portable video device would cater for large quantity of storage (which would in turn increase the unit size lessening its portability. On the other hand another approach would be to have a smaller storage capacity but encouarge higher compression - in which case, such a device would be hard pressed to store twenty or even thirty full length DVDs at current iPod sized hard drive capacities.
Another difficulty that stands in its way is ease of transfer. The beauty of audio CD to MP3/AAC conversion, is that most applications can handle this through a one-touch operation. However, DVDs require tiresome amounts of compression, resizing and formatting before they would be playable on a portable device. Let's not forget the time it takes to do this: hours (DVD) vs minutes (CD). If such a device would be successful in the mass market, it would need to easy to transfer content to and fast to fill.
This is not to say portable video players won't take off - (Sony's PSP is proving this - although they have gone the proprietary route); it's just that the internet infrastructure isn't at a speed to support mass online distribution, and portable storage isn't at a size to allow media companies to sell the idea of "all your movies in your pocket".
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 06, 2005 at 7:22 pm.
