Has the 60Gb model been discontinued in the new range. As I still see several advertised for sale at various retailers. Are they the old models. When I checked the Apple website it only list the 30Gb and 80Gb models.

In practical use is the 30Gb large enough to hold a lot of music clips, maybe a couple of films and a decent amount of songs all together. Users experience appreciated.

I'm looking to buy as a birthday present for my daughter and we know she want a video i Pod. There's quite a difference in price between the 30Gb and 80Gb and also 80Gb seems to be thicker, but I haven't so far been able to lay my hands on them to see what difference it really makes. Some of local stores have them in locked displays and can't really handle them.

Any advice appreciated.

The 60gb is the old model, its been replaced by the 80gb. Do you know how much music your daughter has, to see which iPod would be better to buy for her?

if you can afford it go for the 80gb one - I've now upgraded twice from a 30gb to a 40gb & now have the 80gb which means I won't have to worry about running out of storage soace for quite a while - the 80gb is smaller than the old 40gb and was cheaper than my 1st 30gb one

She currently has a mini ipod, which can hold up to 1000 songs. She has that around 3/4 full. She could probably fill it if she wanted. I wasn't sure how much space video takes up. I can see her using it for a lot of photos and she enjoys using a video camera with her friends and I assume she will start using it to transfer and view with friends their videfootage. I assume she will now start buying video songs and possibly load a couple of films onto it. I'm presuming I can transfer DVD's onto it. e.g. films, episodes she's recorded on TV. I do have a DVD recorder so if it can't be done directly I assumed I could transfer from a DVD.

Thanks for help so far.

I'd say a 30gig would suit her needs best. I dont know about videos, but it should have more than enough space left for them, once theyve been converted.

In terms of space, if you run out it all becomes an issue of how well you manage your content within iTunes. My iPod has about 2 of the 30GB left but in practise I can only get through a couple of hundred songs before I need to either charge it or I'm plugging it back in so as to sync it with any new stuff I have etc. Setting up a decent assortment of playlists to manage and subdivide your content helps no end. If it's just casual listening then size shouldn't be an issue, if you absolutely want to have access to everything all the time then obviously get the biggest size possible.

Not directly.

You'll need to rip DVD's and then convert them to a format the iPod will play. Same with most video files you'll find on the 'net (unless you look for ones already encoded for iPods obviously), the iPod can only play a pretty narrow range of video formats ....

There is plenty conversion software out there but just be aware you'll need to use it ... a lot .... if you plan to get much use from it's video playback capability.

In terms of space, I'd imagine 30gb should do. I have a 30gb player that handles video (not an iPod, but it's still 30gb) and I have about 3000 mp3's, a few music videos, a couple of dozen e-books and maybe 10-12 films (full DivX movie is commonly 700mb) at any one time and I still have plenty space to spare.

So, unless you want to keep ALL your footage on it, at ALL times, chances are 30gb would be enough ....

Thanks for advice. I will go for the 30Gb.
A final question though.
Sancheez you mention the ipod is fairly limited in its playback of video formats. What formats will it play?
I currently have WIN AVI converter which will convert to AVI to DVD, AVI to MPEG, WMV to AVI, MPEG to AVI.
Will this do?
Thanks

According to apples website, the iPod plays:
H.264 video: up to 768 Kbps, 320x240, 30 frames per sec., Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

MPEG-4 video: up to 2.5 mbps, 480x480, 30 frames per sec., Simple Profile with AAC-LC up to 160 Kbps, 48 Khz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats

But, i think it plays up to 640×480 now, if you get the newest one.

Probably not, no.

Have a look here ...

http://plasticbugs.com/?p=305#videospecs

Like I say, if you get the iPod for heavy video use then either try and find stuff already iPod encoded or expect to do a lot of re-encoding.

(Hence my avoidance of the iPod ... I HATE re-encoding video .... I throroughly sickened myself of it in the days before DivX DVD players became available ... lol)