A few months back I was presented a sweetheart of a deal on a brand spanking new 5th Gen iPod. The one with video in case you’re not familiar with iPod models. It was a tempting deal and I couldn’t pass it up. A few days after getting my iPod I was surprised by a friend who came back from the States. She gave me an iTunes pre-paid card as “pasalubong”. Perfect! I thought to myself “I can check out what the iTunes music/video store hype is all about”. Armed with 25 dollars worth of credit I then proceeded to scout around for stuff I can buy.

I initially bought a few songs so I could just try out the “buying experience” on iTunes. I decided to get “Clarity” by John Mayer. I love John Mayer so his song was naturally my first download. Several songs after I was addicted…

I was done with songs…. Now to try the videos on iTunes… Believe it or not it took me a few days to decide on what to get. I didn’t want to waste my precious credits on something that I really didn’t like all too much. I eventually decided to get the Battlestar Galactica Miniseries. It wasn’t an easy decision. The miniseries wasn’t sold by pieces. I had to buy the whole thing. After much thought I decided to get it. The price? A whopping $15.99. What the heck, I really wanted to see the darn miniseries. So I bit the bullet and bought it. Around 2 hours after, I had the miniseries transferred to my video iPod.

I really didn’t think that I could stand to watch the whole thing on the iPod but it I did. In part because of the story and in part because watching it on the iPod ain’t half as bad as I thought it would be. It’s actually quite bearable.

The 2.5″ LCD screen of the iPod is quite bright and clear. Supporting a resolution of 320×240 at 30 fps, watching a show on the iPod is the same as watching it on a regular tv. In fact if you hold the iPod several inches from your face, it’s the same as watching a show on a 14″ tv around 5 to 7 feet away.

Sure there are other video players out there that can rival if not beat the video quality of the iPod but coupled with the iTunes store, the whole “video experience” it can provide is quite amazing.

I can easily find videos for the iPod on bit torrent and it wouldn’t cost me a thing. However having experienced buying videos on the iTunes store, I can say that for shows that I really like, I’m willing to cough up the $1.99 price for regular shows. Apple has made the whole experience seamless. From the ease of buying a video, to the speed you can download the video, all the way to how easy it is to move it to the iPod makes the price worth it. Case in point.. I now have all the episodes of Battlestar Galactica on my iPod. Sure.. I had to buy extra pre-paid cards but I feel it’s worth it.

I’d love to hear your comments. Fire away!