60 Gig 5th Generation Black iPOD Video great upgrade from older Generations

I had previously owned the 3rd Generation older black and white 20 Gig iPOD for a little more than 2 years. I have loved the invention of hard drive based players, and have never looked back. It held my entire music collection and met my music needs until about 6 months ago. I had my music compressed at 56 kbps (Kilobytes per second) and was able to store and play over 3500 songs with plenty of space left over. I didn't enjoy ideal music quality, so I decided to re-encode my music by re-burning all of my music to my PC at 192 AAC Itunes format. This encoding gave me much better music quality, and it also increased the size of each music file. My collection also quickly grew to over 4000 songs so I grew out of the 20 Gig and looked to upgrade.

I keep myself updated on new technology as it releases, and iPOD Video intrigued me. According to reviews, better sound output, bigger screen with video capabilities, much higher storage capacity all in a thinner package. I decided it was a definite purchase, and apparently so did everybody else. It was released in 4 choices, black in 30 or 60 Gig, or White in 30 or 60 Gig. My choice was Black in 60 Gig to keep up in demand with an always growing music collection, plus the video and photo storage I figured to use as well.

I don't particularly like making expensive electronic purchases via the internet, I prefer buying at electronic retail stores, I feel they handle problems with items better if I buy a malfunctioned product. I had a gift certificate from Circuit City, but my search came up in extremely limited quantities. I called my local store on the first attempt, they had 2 left, they wouldn't hold it for me, and by the time I arrived, both units had sold. they had 1 returned unit they could had sold me, but it was scratched up pretty bad, and I didn't want to purchase someone elses problem. They looked up other stores in the computer and found a store 10 miles away that had one left in stock brand new! He let me purchase it from him so I could pick it up over there, and not have to worry about it selling by the time I got there. I drove over to that store with disbelief how far I took myself out of my own way to get this very popular item while it was in such high demand. I got there 20 minutes later, showed them my receipt, picked it up and away I went.

I have a ritual of opening my new toys the second I get in the car to admire my new purchases, and today was no exception. The packaging was not as fancy as the large cube my last one came in, it was a small thin box that slid out of the cardboard sleeve with photos of the front,back and sides of the Ipod unit. Opening the box like a book, I quickly realized the need to be careful of the unit falling out of the slot it rests in. It was packages in plastic, with a static affixed clear protection on the front to keep it from scratching while shipping. Opening the top revealed the accessories it came with. The CD Rom to load Itunes and Ipod Updater on my PC, a set of the low quality white earbuds my previous Ipod arrived with, a thin little offwhite leatherette pouch that the ipod fit snugly in, and a USB Charging cable. Unlike my other Ipod, this version is not compatible with firewire, I use USB anyway, so this was not a big deal. Although I was disappointed they didn't include an AC Adapter, I was relieved to know the USB Cable I would use to update my collection, also charges the Ipod. The other good news was that any accessories used from the bottom port of my other ipod would be compatible with this unit as well. The bad news for anyone that uses accessories that require the top of the ipod will be disappointed, there is a headphone port only, the accessory port on top was eliminated from the design. The unit itself is very attractive. It stores 3 times the capacity as my last Ipod, yet it is 2/3 the depth. The screen is larger and the color is bright, crisp and clear, and I found the "clickwheel" to be very easy to navigate through music, menus, and features one handed. The black Ipod color is very attractive, and very vary shine, almost too shiny. The pain of black that I quickly discovered and didn't think about before the purchase is that it shows ANY blemish, mark, or scratch. The purchase of a case was definitely and obviously necessary upon first inspection of this device. The bottom of it keeps the same connector as other models, the top simply offers a hold switch, and headphone jack. The back also keeps the shiny mirror finish other models offer as well. I was overall satisfied with the look.

When I got home I plugged it in to the existing USB Cable I used for my other Ipod, and it was immediately recognized and installed to my PC with Windows XP Home SP 2. I didn't bother installing anything with the included disk, I opted to go to Apple's website, and updated Itunes and Ipod Updater from the offered downloads. This upgraded everything to the latest software including Itunes version 6. I restarted my PC, opened Itunes, and updated the Ipod with my existing music collection. I was completely impressed with how easy this process of the whole upgrade went. The synching of my collection took about 1 1/2 hours, but I didn't mind because it was alot to download to the unit. I also noticed the charging icon in the top right corner of the screen was active so at least I could play around with it when I was done updating. During the course of te update, I looked around in Itunes Music Store and noticed the Itunes Upgrade included a whole new video page where Music videos, Television shows, and video podcasts could be purchased or downloaded, and played on the Ipod. They offered 2 free downloads, a behind the scenes look at Battlestar Galactica, and a bit from Saturday Night Live. I downloaded them both, and loaded them to the Ipod as well, and when everything was ready to go, I unplugged the Ipod from my PC, plugged in my E3C earbuds, and sat down for awhile playing around with my new found features.

The first thing I played with was the video. I was amazed at how crisp the video played. It was so bright, but not too bright, it was a DVD quality picture on a small screen. Looking at it on such a small screen didn't have me feeling underwhelmed at all. I wasn't thinking about the fact the screen was small, I was just thinking how remarkable the quality was on such a small screen. The sound quality on the video was as expected, full stereo, and in perfect synch. Navigating to my music, I was blown away by the improved sound quality. With my E3C Earbuds, I would dare to say with my music encrypted at 192 AAC format, it compares to CD quality to my ears (some opinions on that may differ). I also found the songs I purchased from Itunes when pressing the center button 3 times displayed the album art on the screen while playing that song. This definitely takes advantage of the full color screen. When I have free time, I download album art from Yahoo to the albums in my library, the geek in me likes to take advantage of every feature of my toys. I also found a feature in Itunes and Ipod where you can input song lyrics as well. I have only used that for a few songs, but the thing I find handy about the album art and lyrics is it basically offers your Ipod the same features you would find in the covers you get with the CD's you purchase.

The last part of the unit review I'll include is navigation. On the clickwheel is the menu on top, play/pause on the bottom, reverse and forward on the left and right side, and a select button in the center. You navigate through menus, songs and playlists by sliding your thumb around the wheel clockwise and counter-clockwise to scroll up and down through features in the libraries, and selections. This scrolling wheel feature is what has made the Ipod so easy to use, and popular. Is seems to use the same technology you would find on a laptop touchpad, and it is such a brilliant concept. I'm not going to go into every single feature that you navigate through, I'll just say that everything is very easy to get to mainly using the menu, wheel, and select buttons. You will find settings to personalize your ipod for time zones, how many timezones you would like to see on the same screen, a timer, screen lock, graphic EQ's, games, and of course video's, music, and playlists.

So here is the deal, I am so happy with this new version of one of the greatest audio (and now video) inventions of my time. I have mentioned I used to have a car load of CD's and cases all over my car, and all over my entertainment stands and tables, and I have compacted phenomenal sound quality of my entire collection into something the size of a Cassette case. I have a small speaker set in my office, and I listen to whatever I want whenever I want wherever I want. I have compared sound quality from my iPod to my CD's and found little difference if any difference at all between the 2 sources, and it has organized my entire collection of music in a fashion I never would had thought possible. If you appreciate what these units really are from the very beginning, I find it so impressive how far we have come in the very short span of 5 years to fit a high sound quality music collection into something this small, with this much capacity, and very good battery life compared to what was available before these were released to the masses.

The only three things I have found myself disappointed with is the finish on the plastic of this version. I thought my previous Ipod scratched a bit easily. This unit looks like it could scratch easier, and as mentioned earlier, being that it is black, everything from smudges to slight scratches show no matter how clean I keep it. I purchased a leather case as quick as I could find one to protect it, it definitely needs it. The second is as good as the battery life is on this unit, I don't understand why Apple continues to keep the battery integrated inside the unit without user replaceability. I would think offering extra batteries would be a market Apple would had capitalized. The third dosent affect me as it may affect others. Removing the top accessory port next to the headphone jack may force some to have to replace some accessories.

Either way the pros far outweigh the cons. Apple has done a special thing with this upgrade, and I look forward to seeing where they go with future generations of the Ipod.