Warning to Ipod Video Owners
Anybody who regularly visits this site knows that I have nothing but love for the Ipod. Nothing but love. I love Jenna and Teagan (yes, I named my Ipods) more than anybody except for my son and family.
But Teagan does have a flaw. Well, not really – the real flaw is with Apple’s software for the video feature on their new Ipods.
When I purchased Teagan a few weeks ago I had no problems. I immediately went to TVtorrents.com and downloaded the latest episodes of The Office and My Name is Earl. They played flawlessly. Seriously, I was amazed at the quality of the picture. Sure, I had to download a couple of programs to transform the avi files to the mpegs that Apple requires. But that was surprisingly simple and quick.
Yet late last week I was ready to toss Teagan in the trash. With my son working Friday evening, after work I decided to spend some time catching up on missed episodes of Earl and the Daily Show. I grabbed a cup of joe and settled down on Black Sheep’s ultra-comfy couch and fired up Teagan. It played fine for a minute…and then it temporarily froze before continuing with no sound. If I rewound or fast forwarded a second or two, it would go back to playing perfectly for another minute or so before repeating the problem.
At first, I thought the problem was with the video files. After all, they were not from official sources. To verify this, I selected an older file that had previously played fine. Same problem.
Now I had something to do on a boring Friday night. I checked out Apple’s website to no avail. I checked out Ipodlounge.com and found a couple of mentions of similar problems but no solutions. Finaly, I stumbled on an Ipod message board where this exact situation was an extremely popular topic.
It turns out that the problem is in the software. Every few weeks, Apple sends out updates sends out a message the first time you subsequently hook up your Ipod to Itunes. With no reason to believe there will be a problem, one always clicks okay. Video Ipod updater 1.1, dated 1/10/06, contains a flaw that somehow caused my problem. Yet Apple doesn’t acknowledge it’s existence.
Luckily, it was a relatively easy fix. A short hack program eliminates the update, and then one has to reinstall the original software that came with the player. The only current problem is that every time I hook Teagan up to the computer I get a message urging me to update its software. I won’t make that mistake again until Apple acknowledges and fixes the error.
But Teagan does have a flaw. Well, not really – the real flaw is with Apple’s software for the video feature on their new Ipods.
When I purchased Teagan a few weeks ago I had no problems. I immediately went to TVtorrents.com and downloaded the latest episodes of The Office and My Name is Earl. They played flawlessly. Seriously, I was amazed at the quality of the picture. Sure, I had to download a couple of programs to transform the avi files to the mpegs that Apple requires. But that was surprisingly simple and quick.
Yet late last week I was ready to toss Teagan in the trash. With my son working Friday evening, after work I decided to spend some time catching up on missed episodes of Earl and the Daily Show. I grabbed a cup of joe and settled down on Black Sheep’s ultra-comfy couch and fired up Teagan. It played fine for a minute…and then it temporarily froze before continuing with no sound. If I rewound or fast forwarded a second or two, it would go back to playing perfectly for another minute or so before repeating the problem.
At first, I thought the problem was with the video files. After all, they were not from official sources. To verify this, I selected an older file that had previously played fine. Same problem.
Now I had something to do on a boring Friday night. I checked out Apple’s website to no avail. I checked out Ipodlounge.com and found a couple of mentions of similar problems but no solutions. Finaly, I stumbled on an Ipod message board where this exact situation was an extremely popular topic.
It turns out that the problem is in the software. Every few weeks, Apple sends out updates sends out a message the first time you subsequently hook up your Ipod to Itunes. With no reason to believe there will be a problem, one always clicks okay. Video Ipod updater 1.1, dated 1/10/06, contains a flaw that somehow caused my problem. Yet Apple doesn’t acknowledge it’s existence.
Luckily, it was a relatively easy fix. A short hack program eliminates the update, and then one has to reinstall the original software that came with the player. The only current problem is that every time I hook Teagan up to the computer I get a message urging me to update its software. I won’t make that mistake again until Apple acknowledges and fixes the error.
Comments
My condolences, though, on Teagan's first surgery. I hope she's going to be alright.