HFJ official memo: Damn, the new iPod doesn’t play widescreen video.

Copy/pasted from Gizmodo:

The new iPod is has a 16×9 4:3 screen, 320×340 320X240 pixels and 260,000 colors. Realtime decoding of MPEG4 and H.264. Video out. The 30GB for $299 and 60GB for $399 will be out next week. The 60GB model is thinner than the current 20GB. They come in white and black.

iTunes 6. The iTunes store will have 2,000 music videos. $1.99 each. Pixar movies will be available as well, for $1.99! No burning allowed, but you can play the flicks on up to five computers and as many iPods as you want. The videos are protected by Fairplay.

Hey, look! There’s a PayPal link over on the right. Donate now and receive a custom video of me singing your name over and over while I frolic naked through a field of wildflowers. (Sorry Anders, the offer isn’t retroactive.)

Update: I guess I need to figure out how to make letterbox widescreen videos. I already paid $50 for the wide angle lens, so I don’t want to go back to fullscreen 4:3.

Rich Pav

Richard has been living in Japan since 1990 with his wife and two teenage sons, Tony and Andy.

11 thoughts to “HFJ official memo: Damn, the new iPod doesn’t play widescreen video.”

  1. I just donated $2.50 USD to your paypal account. I enjoy your videos and podcasts very much… Sometimes you mind me of a more serious Tom Green.

    In May of 2007, Three friends, and myself are planning on visiting Tokyo, Japan… I was wondering how difficult it is to get around with a very limited amount of Japanese vocabulary? I took Japanese 101 in college, and I am again studying Japanese… I hope to be on the 4th or 5th grade level by the time we go.

    Thanks,
    Bryan
    animefx@gmail.com

    1. Thanks for the loot!

      As long as you don’t try go get into philosophical discussions you’ll do fine. Learn how to ask lots of yes/no questions about directions, and questions people can answer by pointing. And it goes without saying, try not to be obnoxious, by doing stuff like yelling to one another across a supermarket.

      I have no idea who Tom Green is, but I assume he’s utterly charming, charismatic and a veritable babe magnet.

    1. I didn’t get kicked out of the store. They just told me to stop filming. I AM hoping, though, that I get manhandled and unceremoniously given the boot when I take my video camera to the X-Box store that’s set to open soon. My ratings will go through the roof!

    1. Yes, my camera can shoot in real honest-to-goodness widescreen, and I don’t want go back to 4:3 because widescreen totally rocks. Somehow I need to figure out how to turn the widescreen video into 4:3 video with letterboxing. And I’ll probably add a new feed specifically for iPod formatted video.

      I can’t reveal what video editing software I’m using on the grounds that it will incriminate me. I’m thinking of switching to Ulead VideoStudio. I’ve played with the demo version a bit recently, but so far I’m not very impressed. Sony also has inexpensive video editing software I want to try out.

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