Is that an Ipod mini or a video Ipod? Forgive my ignorance, I have a little solid state MP3 player that uses SD cards, cheep solid state storage FTW.

It’s the new video one, [dax]. What MP3 player do you have? Can you copy files directly in mass storage mode or do you have to use some stupid software? Is there a size limit?

I carry a creative zen micro. It has good sound quality, and can (kind of) act as a usb drive (up to 2 gigs of its space). I want to buy

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=VP-325&cat=MP3

… but because it lacks a firmware, I doubt i” be able to hack it :(

Just because you don’t find a hard-drive mp3 player pointless doesn’t mean everyone does:
Back-up computer files
Linux (I can play gameboy games on my ipod so I don’t need to bring that around)
Podcasts
Now…Video

What does a buggy .NET program like iPod converter have to do with Linux?

urza…

Cheap? Yes.

More features, wtf? Can your mp3/CD player play anything besides CD-DA and mp3? (Mine does wav, mp3, ogg vorbis, and wma.) Can yours view pictures? Can yours open text files? Does yours have a radio? Does it have a microphone? Line-in? Line-out? USB-on-the-go? SRS/WOW effects and equalizer? Video (though admittedly only 10 fps)? I’ve owned three mp3/CD players and none of them had these features.

Cheaper storage… well that’s true, bit-for-bit CD-Rs and CD-RWs are much cheaper than 1.8″ HDDs. On the other hand they are much larger, and all the mp3/CD players I’ve encountered would simply skip the files they couldn’t read due to dust.

Sharing. Sorry what? My player doesn’t have DRM or proprietary software. It’s a UMS device — if your computer supports USB, it will recognize my player as a removable hard drive. If a computer isn’t handy, I can share via line-out (as a more-or-less extra headphone jack, or connect to a friend’s line-in) or if my friend also has a UMS device, USB-on-the-go.

If a part breaks, I send it back to the manufacturer and they fix it. The warranty is good until next May (one year). My mp3/CD players all had 90-day warranties. (I have not had to send it in yet; it still works perfectly.) I’m careful enough with it that if anything breaks, it’s probably my own damn fault. The two exceptions are the hard drive (which I plan to upgrade when/ if I need to replace it) and the battery (which won’t break so much as wear down — again, if it wears down I’ll probably just upgrade it to one that lasts longer). The parts are cheaper than you’d expect.

Yes you can eject an HDD. I believe hack-a-day even has a post on how to make an adapter to use 1.8″ HDDs on your desktop system (IIRC they still use the ATA interface, just with a different connector). The only difference between ejecting your CD and ejecting my HDD is that yours requires pressing a button and lifting, whereas mine requires removing five screws and prying open a few tabs with a guitar pick. But it’s fairly simple.

Expensive? Yes, mine cost $300, but consider the advantages. Compared to my mp3/CD player, I now have:
-higher portability (smaller size)
-more convenience (no disc swapping)
-the “it just works” factor (no skipping audio or ignoring files)
-better sound quality (imho as well as in comparison tests)
-more features (as mentioned above)

Breaking it? Not likely. THe secret to avoiding damage from carelessness is to be careful. The secret to avoiding damage from hacking is to not do stupid shit. As mentioned I’ve had mine since May, no damage to it except scratches (from pocket rubbing; look at the reverse side of an ipod and you’ll see what I mean)… and even then the screen area is completely scratch-free.

Yes, I know I’m probably just feeding a troll, but hey.

At #6

http://www.nomadness.net is a great forum all about fixing, tweaking, and attempted ‘hacking’ your nomad player. As far as I know the micro can’t be ‘hacked’ except for a larger (up to 60gb) micro hdd.

I don’t know how many of you out there are OSX users. I have been using ffmpegX to convert my videos for the ipod and it works just great. It is actually faster than videodora on my powerbook compared to a AMD 3200+. videdora crashed a couple times when converting which is understandable since it is still in production, but i haven’t had one problem with ffmpegX.

These links are interesting How much is google and microsuck worth?
Google
http://www.business-opportunities.biz/projects/how-much-is-your-blog-worth/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

Slightly off topic: does anyone have the pinouts for the av cable for the video ipod? I grabbed one for what I believe is an iBook, but when I plug it in, I only get wavy output…the same effect you might get if you were trying to play a nintendo that was set for channel 3, but you were on channel 4 (and no, that isn’t the problem). any ideas?

I figured out why I was seeing gibberish. I thought it was weird that no matter which plug I plugged in, I got some video, but it was all messed up. I also got just a buzzing noise when I plugged in any cable (well, a buzzing noise with a little sound). Then it hit me. I was seeing the ground! I made a diagram with pinouts to the iPod AV cable, the iBook AV cable, and how to convert the iBook AV cable to the iPod AV cable.
Here it is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46526784@N00/58420576/

hey, got ipod last saterday (10-29) and this will be my 5th ipod (mini,mini,nano,nano,video) and ive taken the mini hard drives out of the minis and have kept them and returned them back with the best buy 3 year warrentee thing. the nanos dont use hard drives, well i learned that they dont use hard drives the hard way. so i traded the 2 gig in and got the 4 gig to see if it came with a hard drive, but nope it did not. so i upped it up 50$ and got the video and it does indeed have a hard drive and i removed it with out denting or marking the metal case with screwdrivers or anything (yesss!, the less marks, the less suspiciousnous). And so i have this 30 gig hard drive and i dont know how to connect it to anything.. can anyone help me? i used the mini’s hard drives as complact flash 2 cards becuase thats what they are. but i am helpless with this 30 gig thing.

hey.. to open the minis you will insert a zacto knife in the bottom edge of the usb cord connecter part, like on the right or the left side. then you just work it out on both sides and it should come out. then just slide everything out. the clicker will have to come out under the whole. IT DOES NOT come out the whole. the nanos just seperate at the sides. use your fingernails to pry it apart. it takes time to seperate the sides. try not to use a screwdriver becuase it makes dents easily. and im a real careful person and i dented my 2nd nano and ive done 2 of them allready (one of mine and one of my friends). the video is the same way as the nanos.

i am not responsible for any of your ipods breaking. this information is just here for you to observe or use. bottom line, not my fualt if you break your ipod.

also, greatest con ever: get an mini ipod (cant anymore but oh well), get the 3 year warrenty from best buy. take the ipod home. have fun with it. open it. then take out the mini hard drive (values at 200$ for a 4gb compact flash) then put it all back together without the hard drive but do put somehting in there to make up for the hard drive’s weight. take it back to best buy and return it and get a new one. (thanks to the 3 year warrenty). ive done this about 2x and i thought it was the best. then they stopped making the minis. those bastards! anyways. you could prolly do this for the ipod video but i dont know what you could use that hard drive for because it is only 1/8″ thin and i do not know of any connection for it as of now. but i am trying to figure it out.

the 3 prong cord. you might need to go to walmart or radioshack and ask for a camera cord for the 3 prong 1/8″ stereo style. they should have it. it looks just like a 1/8″ stereo cord to 2 rca cables but it has three prongs and 3 rca cable (svideo). the end of a regular headphone cord will have 3 sections on it, and it will be divided by 2 black lines or 2 white lines. the ipod video’s “special cord” has 4 sections devided by 3 lines. not that special. it came with my freakin sony camera piece of crap. anyways. thats that. you dont really have to cut anything or modify your headphones becuase it wont work that way to plug up to your computer or tv. sorry.

~john

How easy is it to return your video ipod back to best buy with the 3 year warranty?

Blink182 rocks………………………………………………………………………………………….and good charlotte also rocks…………………….but hiphop suckxxx!!!!

I am wondering if there is a potential Ipod Photo hack that will allow one to view videos with it.
It doesn’t seem all that far fetched that (except for procssor speed) this could be all that complicated if one could get into the Ipod OS.
I am a long time Quicktime user and a realize that video is simply a series of still images shown in sucession, so what prevents one from viewing a series of Ipod photo images in sequence.
Anyone know of amything like this?

Love the iPod with video, but I need to get a diagram to get the microphone to work with the dock connector. I found one that will be released this Spring, but I really don’t want to wait. I’ve been able to get the L,R -audio out and video out to work through the dock connector quite nicely, but the L,R -audio in don’t seem to work by themselves to trigger the voice memo.
Videora iPod video converter works very nicely to convert almost any video to mp4 for play on the iPod with the default “one-click” settings, but I found that to get divX .avi files to convert without an audio delay, I first have to convert them to an .mpg file. Go figure.

TO EVERYONE WITH IPOD VIDEO!!!!
you do not have to buy a super expensive special cable to view ipod-videos on your tv. i guess everyone here knowts the old av-cables with a red, white and yellow jack. what apple did is switch the yellow and red one. so all you have to do is use on of ‘em old cables, plug it in the tv and just switch yellow and red around and voila, video!!! it works, i have tried. do not waste 30 bux or more for a friggn av-cable.
===>>for the dummies:whats an av cable???
an av-cable has a jack on one end that looks just like the one on your everyday headphones or pc headset. it then branches into 3 other cables, one with a yellow jack, one with a red, and one with a white jack.