I have a video Ipod, and I’ve downloaded a few shows and music videos, but not many. Right now there are about 4,000 songs on my Ipod, but only a dozen or so videos.
I love the music and podcasts that I’ve downloaded. There are lots of songs that I play over and over again – I can never get enough of John Lennon and the Beatles
Actually, they have Spongebob season 1 on iTMS now, along with some other children’s shows.
1 You can hook up your iPod to a TV and watch your video content there 2 there are several kids shows available from Disney.Ok not the Crack Sponge, but there are a ton of Pixar shorts
1. it needs a video out to hook up with a TV2. they need to sell kids shows, I have no time to watch anything more than one time, but my kids watch the same Tintin or SpongeBob episode over and over again.
I think one thing you have to take into consideration is who is producing the content. Right now is a golden age of independent media production. Video podcasts are popping up all over the place. Adding to their popularity is the fact that they are free, and aren’t intended to be watched on a giant screen. They can be enjoyed very easily on the small screen and you aren’t left wishing to experience on a 60 inch HDTV.There is a lot of quality work being done out there right now and its about to reach a major tipping point. Check out DL.TV, Ask a Ninja, Tiki Bar TV, Rocketboom, all these shows are formatted for the small screen and all of them are growing in popularity. Rocketboom just sold an add for 40g’s. Saying that portable video and IPTV isn’t ready for primetime yet based on the fact that watching primetime tv shows on a 3 inch screen isn’t the greatest experience is just stupid. When it comes to grass roots IPTV the future is now.The other thing to keep in mind is what kind of people want portable video. I live in CT but work in NYC so I log over an 2 hours on the train everyday. Portable video is HUGE for me. I rip all my dvd’s and watch them on my laptop. I watch all my TV shows on the train too. I’m not the only one doing it either. With the availability of easy tools that allow you to encode broadcast tv or even better transfer shows stored on your DVR to your laptop I find all kinds of people watching last weeks Smallville on their computers.Now not everyone has the commute that I do, but I would say IPTV/portable video will explode first in urban areas where commutes aren’t car based. Ted I don’t know if you still drive yourself around NOVA or not but from what I remember the thought of training around the DC area is painful. The metro doesn’t go anywhere so you’re always driving and you can’t exactly drive and watch Lost. So in an area like DC you’re not going to see such a huge explosive demand for it. But up here in the NYC its all over the place. Anyone see anything similar in other large cities with good transportation systems?
What we really need is an “R2 unit” that projects holograms. Hopefully Apple’s labs are working on some prototypes
I found an app that will rip my DVD movies to an iPod friendly size. I’m going on a trip to India in about a week and my iPod movies will be a life-saver during my 9 hour layover in Mumbai!
I generally agree with these observations. Portable video isn’t a panacea for middle aged men like Ted and I. With respect to traditional broadcast content, i think, for one, we are the wrong target audience. Who might latch on, though? A younger viewer. I’d guess teens, pre-teens and college age kids may really get into this, though. That’s just my guess. Secondly, to think of this as a replacement for our televisions, i think, would be misplaced. Portable video is a new medium. We’ve all been through the Marshall McLuhan, “Medium is the Massage”, stuff with the internet, so I won’t dwell. What I see is a new platform, which combined with, production costs which are in a free-fall, potentially result in something entirely different. It’s and exciting time to watch all of the experimentation happening. It’s amateur hour, for sure, in a lot of places, but so was the internet 10 yrs ago.
How many people actually use the iPod to watch the show. Don’t most folks use iTunes simply as a vehicle to get the show and then watch it on their laptop? If I’m sitting in an airport or airplane, I’ll be watching on the comp, not the postage stamp sized screen. I guess an exception would be those that have subway/bus commutes. Much easier to whip out the ole iPod than set up a laptop…
I travel often, and the video on my iPod is a great time killer in an airport or on a plane. I know I’ve watched “the goal” several times!
Regarding TV on the video iPod and cell phone…Who wants to watch an episode of DESPERATE HOUSWIVES on a 2×3 screen?Its gotta be short, its gotte be free, and it should be formatted for this medium – FROM THE START. You can just go backwards and “shrink” traditional content.We’ve developed a one minute info-challenge format that is easy to digest, has some interactivity – and at the end of the day…its disposable. Not to plug, but in the spirit of posting a relevant comment, check out our iTunes video podcast feed via http://www.88slide.com
I think one of the things that could make video more successful would be bulk subscriptions.Let’s say you want to put up Caps highlights. Instead of charging a small fee per download (even if minimal), you just say $xx (a small xx) for the whole season.You know more are coming, so you’ll probably only keep the ones you’ll actually want to watch over and over, and after the first few the rest feel “free”.TV shows can work similarly.While video is an attention keeper and something you don’t generally keep going in the background like you mentioned, I think it’s going to rival music once offered properly.