Battery Life:

 Apple says the Ipod Video 30gb Black (5th Gen.)  can handle 14 hours of audio and 2 hours of video.  So I decided to test it out after I noticed i was in the red after just a few hours of audio play.  I fully charged it, and set the brightness roughly 40%.  (Which is not bright at all, but still bright enough to see very well and such)   I let it run the 500 some odd songs I had uploaded.  By song 40 it was down to half battery life.  By song 75 it was down to a tiny RED sliver...signalling that it needed to be charged.  4 hours seems to be the end of the line for AUDIO only on a very lowly light screen.  For shame. 

I did the same test with the VIDEO.  I'd uploaded a bunch of small music videos, each roughly 4 minutes long.  (These are not even close to the size of a full movie, and use up far less power)  I charged it to full, and let it run.  30 minutes later, i was down to 25% power, just off the RED zone.   Just after the 1 full hour mark, the Ipod hit 0% battery. 

( I am not at all sure of how Apple can legally say this version has 14 hours of audio and 2 hours of video.  That doesnt even come close, and I have NEVER heard of the ipod video 5th gen.  lasting more than 5 or so hours on audio.)

Audio Sync Problems with Video files

VITAL:  Good luck attempting to sync the audio with your videos.  It is not that simple.  You cannot just upload a DVD movie onto it.  Not only do you have MASSIVE audio sync problem, but the converting time is HOURS!!!   If you can find software that lets you rip DVD movies to your pc, you then need to convert that massive file to MPEG-4 (mp4) to upload to your Ipod.   That takes hours.  Some DVDs are 7GB+   Imagin converting that to mp4.  

Even MORE VITAL:  When you rip a DVD, you create multiple files of that movie, these are called .VOB files, big 20 minute chapters so to speak.   Sure, putting that onto the ipod works just fine, except your audio is a whopping 4 minutes off!   Sometimes a hell of a lot more.  (that means suddenly your audio stops.  It later picks up again 4-20 minutes off from where it should be, sometimes it doesnt even have speach and only transfered the background music.)  You now need a freeware program that takes all those .VOB movie files and makes them into 1 giant movie file.   That big file now needs to be converted to .mp4.  That takes more than a few hours.  There are some great freeware programs that work awesome with this, the only problem is that it takes more than a few hours to do so.  So good luck with that.  Also, many of the expensive programs dont even allow you to fix the audio sync problem.  So if you can find a freeware program that perfectly synced your audio with big movie files, you have just become one of the luckiest people alive.  This issue can be fixed by finding a program that allows you to view the video and sync the audio up perfectly, sometimes this can be done by setting the Frames per second (FPS) to a lower number.  All those programs that allow you to do this work GREAT for small music video type movies.  However, I have never in my years found a program that assures me it will do the same for giant files. 

The Music and Itunes

Ipods are not a drag and drop as most people think and say. You cannot simply take an mp3 on your computer, go into My Computer and drag and drop that file into the Ipod.  It just doesnt work.  Why?   Can't say, to annoy people perhaps?  I see no other reason as to why you cannot simply just add files without using a special program.  Some freeware programs allow you to transfer files to the Ipod.  Itunes works best.  But it is slowly driving me insane.  But more of Itunes hate later. 

Go ahead and try to upload a normal mp3 onto your Ipod.  I dare you.  It doesnt work.  It says it does right on the box, doesnt it?  But you will see for yourself when you try.  ALL music must be in AAC format for it to work with no problems.  Uploading your own CD is no problem at all.  It works just find and auto converts all CDs to AAC.  Not a problem there.  However.   All your mp3s now need to be converted.  I had over 1000.  That took me a heck of a long time to convert and upset me greatly. 

Example of the double/triple file:  You have "X" mp3 on your computer.  You convert that inside Itunes to AAC.  In your library you now have two of the same file listed.  Delete one, restart Itunes and it is right back where it was.  Why?  Because if you delete the mp3 version (sometimes)  the AAC version will delete as well.  Itunes protects from that...so you can decide if that is a good or bad thing.

Itunes and the Road to Insanity.

Itunes is a lovely program that lets you sync your ipods to your computer.  It also lets you pick and choose music, videos, games ect, to add to your Ipod for a small fee.  Importing files is a breeze.  Save your file to any folder you want, and simply IMPORT or ADD FILE from the FILE menu.  Easy.   So, now that you have your mp3s, or AAC music files, or .Mp4 movies, you can upload them without a problem...right?   WRONG!

Itunes says you can choose to automatically upload every single file you have inside of it, or shut that option off.  When you plug your Ipod in and start Itunes, it either automatically puts ALL NEW MUSIC files onto your Ipod, or as I said you can shut that option off.  I shut it off, and to my amazment it seemed to work just fine.    Now that everything seemed to be in order, I exited Itunes for the day after uploading my library to my video Ipod.  The next day I got some new files and added them...thus...the road to insanity has just been buffed for me to walk upon.

So you think you can just add a new music file?  HA!  WRONG!  Lets say you have a brand new file you just added to your massive Itunes library.  You want that song uploaded to your Ipod, of course.  So you try the auto sync.  It works great.  ALL NEW MEDIA FILES are AUTOMATICALLY UPLOADED TO YOUR IPOD...yippie!!!!   Oh...but you have more than 1 Ipod that you want to use on this computer.  Your screwed.  Simple and easy.  Your in for the roughest times you can comprehend. 

When I pick and choose songs I do not want on my Ipod, and click on the songs i just added (this is done by simply clicking the check off inside the boxes to the left), you come to find that your entire library is gone.  And only your brand new files exist in the Music section on your Ipod.  Congrats.  So now what do you do?  You add every single file you have into a Playlist that you can make.   Works great now.  Yahoo!!!

...but your kid or brother or sister has an Ipod too...and they want to do what you just did.  So what do you tell them?  "Oh, I'm sorry lil' Timmy, Apple doesnt care that a family might want more than 1 Ipod.   Your stuck with EVERYTHING I have on my giant 30GB ipod...even though you have a 2GB Nano. 

***Now, don't get me wrong.  There are ways to fixing this problem.  You will discover them through trial and error.  It took me days to figure Itunes out.  I still havent totally figured it out.  5th Gen. Ipods are the most advanced to date, but still cannot handle simple things that the Flash Drive mp3/4 players can. 

Ipod Video Pros: 

-massive storage, ultra bright screen, great interface that is easily navigated, video/audio/games/, compatible with all 3.5mm headphones (normal day to day headphone jacks), the satisfaction of being "cool" since you now have a nifty ipod.

Ipod Video Cons:

-horrible battery life, difficulty converting audio and video, doesnt support  .wma and many other audio types, only .mp4 video is accepted,  SCREEN STRATCHES SO EASILY, I CANNOT EVEN STRESS THIS TO YOU!  BREATHE WRONG ON IT AND IT SCRATCHES!  

Overall rating:  5/10 

The only reason these are popular is because the media made it so.  Ipods and Itunes are more of a problem than anything else.