iLounge iPad 2 Buyers' Guide

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Ask iLounge 1-10-08

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By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, January 10, 2008
Category: Ask iLounge

Ask iLounge offers readers the opportunity to get answers to their iPod-, iPhone-, iPad-, iTunes-, or Apple TV-related questions from a member of the iLounge editorial team. We'll answer several questions here each week, and of course, you can always get help with more immediate concerns from the iLounge Discussion Forums. Submit your questions for consideration using our Ask iLounge Submit Form. We reserve the right to edit questions for grammar, spelling, and length.

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And now, for this week's Ask iLounge column:

Q:

I’ve read everything iLounge has written about the differences in how Apple TV, the iPod classics, the 3G iPod nano, the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the 5th gen iPod handle video out. Because all that information is spread among many different articles, how-tos, and Ask iLounge Columns, I was wondering if you could bottom-line it for me. My question is what the different devices are capable of sending to a TV as compared to HD and DVD. Please don’t use words like 420i, 1080p or whatever. No one cares about those tech-speak numbers.

It is my understanding that the 5th gen iPod is capable of sending sub-DVD quality images to a TV and the Apple TV is capable of sending better-than-DVD quality images to the DVD – but not as good as HD. And the rest of the iPod family is somewhere in between. Are any of the iPods capable of sending DVD-quality images to a TV, given the right hook-up and without an upconverter?

- Alex

A:

With the release of the enhanced fifth-generation iPod in 2006, it was considered by many as a “near-DVD quality” solution. Of course, how “near” is largely dependent upon your source format, and more importantly the aspect ratio of that material (ie, whether it’s in a standard TV format or a widescreen format).

It’s impossible to accurately describe these differences without getting into a bit of tech-speak, but to keep it fairly simple, the idea behind “480p/480i” is simply indicative of what a normal standard NTSC television can output, and represents 480 “lines” of resolution. This corresponds directly to the “640 x 480” resolution of the iPod itself (note the “480” in the second part of the number).

The problem is that 640 x 480 is the resolution only of standard television content (basically what you see on standard broadcast television channels). Most DVDs for movies and even newer TV shows use a widescreen format that is actually 854 x 480 when played from a normal DVD player. You still get 480 lines, but the width is much greater.

This is where the iPod falls short, since it cannot support that full width. As a result, it has to scale down the image, and you end up with less than 480 lines of resolution. The causes the image to look a bit “fuzzier” on a normal TV if you’re watching widescreen content from your iPod (the actual resolutions end up being 640x352 or 720x404, depending upon the model of iPod and software used to encode the video).

The Apple TV, on the other hand does support High-Definition formats, but only in the lower “720p” (720 lines) standard that is common to some broadcast television channels. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray use a “1080p” (1080 lines) resolution, so the Apple TV does fall short of what you can get from a High-Definition DVD, but not necessarily short of what you would get from a broadcast HDTV source. Note that presently the only way to get High-Definition content onto the Apple TV is to encode it yourself, or subscribe to some of the few podcasts that are encoded in HD resolutions. The iTunes Store does not presently sell any movies in any resolution higher than that supported by the iPod.

So can the iPod actually output “true” DVD quality?  That’s largely dependent upon your definition of the term, since you’re talking about video in a completely different format, so the conversion process from DVD itself is going to be a factor in the overall output quality. It is safe to say, however, that with standard-format TV content, you can encode videos that should be indistinguishable from the original DVD. Widescreen content will suffer slightly due to the decreased vertical resolution, but for most people the difference will not be significant enough to be noticeable on all but the largest TV screens.

Note that there are advanced methods for encoding widescreen content to take full advantage of the full DVD resolution, but these are not supported by most video encoding applications as a standard setting, and is beyond the scope of this particular discussion.

It should also be noted that the new 2007 iPod models now have a component output accessory available for them. This will produce a slightly better quality picture on most TVs that support component input. Further, among the 2007 iPod models, the iPod classic and iPod nano offer slightly better quality video output than the iPod touch or iPhone, even with the same cable, since they support non-interlaced output.

So, the 2007 iPod models are capable of sending DVD quality output of standard TV content, and slightly below DVD quality for widescreen DVD content (how much below being entirely dependent upon how you’re encoding your videos). The Apple TV can display full quality output for DVD and most broadcast HDTV content, but falls short of the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD specifications (although it should be noted that the present difficulty in extracting and converting content from HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs to any other format makes this a minor issue at this point, however).

Our Guide to iPod, Apple TV and iPhone Video Formats is our most comprehensive source of the more technical details of this.

Q:

I am getting a error message on my computer when trying to install a new iPod. The error message states that the hardware has not passed Windows logo testing and recommends that I stop installation? What do I do? I can’t seem to find the answer anywhere.

- Pam

A:

This is a standard error message from Windows that indicates that the driver that is being installed has simply not been “certified” by Microsoft. This could either be due to the driver in fact not being certified, or a problem with the registry on your installation of Windows that tracks the list of certified drivers.

Regardless, it is not uncommon to encounter drivers for many products that fit into this category, and it is generally safe to proceed with the installation, regardless of the rather draconian recommendation to stop. Simply proceed with the driver installation, and you should be fine.

Note that if Windows does not permit you to proceed, it is likely because there is a system policy that has been set on your computer to only allow the installation of certified drivers. If this is a work computer, this policy has likely been set by your IT department and there may be no way around it.

Q:

I want to download movies and watch them on a portable DVD player while taking road trips. Is this possible? Which iPod would be best for this?

- Craig

A:

Firstly, it should be noted that movies that are purchased from the iTunes Store cannot be burned to DVD, so the only way to watch these on a portable DVD player would be to connect your iPod to the player. The simplest way to do this is to ensure that you get a portable DVD player with standard video and audio input jacks and then connect a cable from the iPod to the DVD player, in much the same way as you would for any other video source.

The older, now-discontinued fifth-generation iPod was compatible with a wide variety of video accessories, including some portable DVD players with built-in iPod docks. Further, the 5G iPod supported a fairly standard video cable that could connect to the headphone jack of your iPod and output video from there to the normal video input jacks of a portable DVD player.

The current 2007 iPod models have changed the game in this regard quite a bit. Video output is no longer provided through the headphone jack at all and only specific compatible video cables can enable output through the Dock Connector port. Any of the 2007 models can output video, but you will need to buy the specific Apple Composite AV cables to connect from the iPod to your portable DVD player.

Q:

I recently bought a game from the iTunes Store to put on my 80 GB iPod classic. However, it does not show up on my Purchased item list, and although it does show up on the Games listing in iTunes, it does not download or appear on the iPod itself. I can see the game on my hard drive, but I don’t know how to get it to transfer to the iPod. Thanks for any help you can give me!

- Jody

A:

Games purchased from the iTunes Store do not normally appear in the “Purchased” list in iTunes—rather they go directly to the “Games” listing and will only appear in that location.

To transfer games to the iPod itself, you must ensure that you have enabled synchronization of Games in your iPod settings in iTunes, and selected which games you would like to have transferred to the iPod. You can find this setting by connecting your iPod to your computer, and then selecting it from the source list on the left-hand side of the iTunes window. In the main iTunes window, you will see a Summary of your iPod setting, and several tabs across the top of the screen. Select the “Games” tab, and you should see the settings for choosing whether or not to synchronize games to your iPod, and which ones you would like to synchronize:

Either select to synchronize all games, or choose selected games and place a checkmark beside the game you wish to transfer. Click the “Apply” button, and iTunes will sync the game to your iPod.

Q:

The connectors for iPod and iPhone appear to be the same. Will an iPod charger work with an iPhone even though the package says designed for iPod?

- Mike

A:

Generally, the answer to this question is yes, although there are a few caveats concerning the quality of the accessory in question.

Most current “Made-for-iPod” accessories from reputable manufacturers such as Griffin, Belkin, etc. should work with the iPod or iPhone equally well for charging purposes, and all of the accessories that we have tested thus far have shown no problems in terms of powering and charging the iPhone.

It should be noted, however, that there are two categories of charging accessories that may not be as reliable in this regard: Older charging accessories (ie, for the third and fourth generation iPod models), and many of the “no-name” accessories that are out there. In fact, it is not uncommon to find some of the cheaper generic iPod charging accessories to not even work with the new iPod classic or iPod nano models due to differences in manufacturing and/or power requirements.

Q:

When I got my iPod nano I had a PC so it was formatted with Windows. I have now replaced PC with a MacBook and when I sync my new iTunes library it says that I can only update (with software) my iPod if it were formatted by a Macintosh. So my question is : can I reformat my iPod to Macintosh format??

- Debbie

A:

Yes, the iPod can be reformatted to a Mac format by using the “Restore” option found in iTunes on the “Summary” page that appears while your iPod is connected. This will reformat your iPod for Mac OS X, installing the latest iPod firmware and returning it to factory default settings.

Note that this will also erase everything on your iPod so be certain your music is already in your iTunes library before doing this. If you normally use automatic synchronization of content from your iTunes library, the process of reloading your iPod after a restore should be relatively trivial. If you’re using manual management however (ie, dragging and dropping content to the iPod from your iTunes library manually), you’ll want to ensure that you do not have anything on your iPod that is not backed up in your iTunes library or elsewhere, since it will be lost after a restore operation.

Once the restore has completed, your iPod will be Mac-formatted, and can be updated to new iPod firmware versions in the future without having to erase the content again.

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Ask iLounge Archives:

2-3-12: Deleting pictures from Photo Stream, Transferring Apps to a new iTunes library, Apple Universal Dock and iPhone 4S, Getting Track Names after CD Import, Video Playlists on the iPad

11-25-11: Removing music after activating iTunes Match, Smart Playlists and iTunes Match, Backing up data from an iPhone, Syncing MP3s to an iPod nano, Migrating Playlists to a new Computer

11-11-11: Configure Apple IDs on family iOS devices, Recovering lost audiobooks, Unable to disable passcode lock on iOS devices, Buying an iPod for audio-only use, Preventing deleted tracks from coming back from an iOS device

11-4-11: iPhone 4S storage capacity doesn't match, Transferring HD video from iPhone 4S to a computer, Recovering photos from iPod touch, Notification Center and iMessage in iOS 5

10-21-11: Using iCloud's Find My iPhone on older devices, Batch deleting photos in Camera Roll, Using iTunes Gift Cards internationally, Audiobooks and iCloud, Merging contacts from two devices into iCloud

See the rest of the Archives...

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Comments

1

Thanks Jesse for the answer.  So there was no jump in output quality from 5.5 to classic, besides the ability to output on component video?

Also, you the article you point to indicates that the iPod 5.0 is only capable of outputing 320x240.  I thought that with the release of 5.5, Apple released a firmware update to 5.0 that allowed it to output 640x480.

I want to be sure because I use my 5.0 to send to the HDTV all the time, and the quality seems a bit jagged but fine.

Posted by alexarch in Dallas, TX on January 12, 2008 at 8:09 AM (PDT)

2

I just tried to move all of my iTunes library to an external hard drive.  I thought I was following all of the instructions correctly, but apparently not.  All my music made it successfully to the E drive, but when I try to play a song i get the exclamation point, and the small screen prompting me to locate the original file.  Each file is in the E drive, and I can certainly find them singularly, but that would take all day.  Is there any way I can get iTunes to locate all of these songs?  Thanks, mabowen

Posted by mabowen on January 14, 2008 at 4:08 AM (PDT)

3

okay so i just got my ipod touch problem is that i was mesing around and know i dont know what to do.
heres my prob;;

so you know on itunes you click your ipod thing and then all the tabs come up well in the tab called “summary”
idont know what to do it wont let me add the song i have onto my ipod what do i check mark??

sync only checked songs and videos ormanually manage music or video.


pleasee help.

Posted by gloryan on September 28, 2008 at 10:02 AM (PDT)

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