Review: iPod Video 5G 1.2 bios upgrade
The original Video iPod (i.e., 5th generation or 5g ipod) has just learned a few new tricks. Apple recently unveiled the enhanced 5G video iPods. They're mainly an incremental improvement over the original video iPod released a year ago in the fall of 2005. For those that bought the original video iPod, Apple has released Firmware version 1.2 that gives you some of the features of the new iPod. Firmware upgrading is now integrated directly into iTunes 7 (or later), and when you sync your iPod, it will allow you to upgrade your iPod's firmware. Here's what you'll get if you upgarde:
640x480 movie support: The iPod screen is fixed at 320x240, so there's no changing that, however, now the built-in movie playing software can support playing of movies that are encoded at up to 640x480 resolution. This is important if you buy movies from iTunes, which now support this higher resolution, giving near-dvd quality video. At last, a reasonable movie resolution! It was inexplicable why Apple's original software would not play much higher resolution videos.
Games: The new firmware brings support for new games that can be purchased on iTunes. These games include classics such as PacMan, Tetris, Bejeweled, Mahjong, and others.
Gapless playback: Support for playing back with no pauses between files.
Adjustable screen brightness.
Improved scrolling speed - Scrolling through very long playlists is improved. Also, as you're scrolling, it superimposes a large letter representing the first letter of the songs it's currently at.
Note, some people on the web have reported problems when upgrading to 1.2, so be cautious. My iPod upgraded with no problems. One feature that IS missing is the search-by-letter feature of the enhanced 5G ipods. There is really no good reason why Apple left that feature out. We can only hope that they'll change their minds and add it to a future firmware upgrade. Overall though, this upgrade adds a few nice features and it is worth getting. Also, as an owner of the original video iPod, with the new firmware, I feel that there is not compelling need to buy the enhanced 5th generation video iPod.
Note, see also: my iPod Video review (5th Generation version)
How to fix: "I tunes could not be opened - unknown error (Ox666D743F)"