The 480x480 thing is confusing. Actually the vPod supports MPEG4 (not H.264) resolutions higher than 480x480, at least in one direction at a time, which is fine because movies, except for silent ones, aren't usually square! The trick is that the total number of pixels can not be more than 480*480=230400. I.e. you can play 720x320, 640x360, etc, etc, on the vPod. The vPods screen is 320x240 so they get scaled down to that when played on it, but when played on a TV you get the full resolution. 640x360, incidentally, is 16:9. I've encoded and played a number of DVDs into iPod format at maximum possible resolution for the given aspect ratio and they look quite good on a TV. Resolution wise you'd be hard pressed to find any difference between it and a DVD. However, MPEG4 leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to shadow details - you tend to get gradations in shadows. How much this is noticeable depends on the scene.
The new FiOS HD DVR, arguably the biggest update since Verizon released a DVR, thanks to its external storage support, enhanced multi-room functionality and slick new 16x9 HD user interface.
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The 480x480 thing is confusing. Actually the vPod supports MPEG4 (not H.264) resolutions higher than 480x480, at least in one direction at a time, which is fine because movies, except for silent ones, aren't usually square! The trick is that the total number of pixels can not be more than 480*480=230400. I.e. you can play 720x320, 640x360, etc, etc, on the vPod. The vPods screen is 320x240 so they get scaled down to that when played on it, but when played on a TV you get the full resolution. 640x360, incidentally, is 16:9. I've encoded and played a number of DVDs into iPod format at maximum possible resolution for the given aspect ratio and they look quite good on a TV. Resolution wise you'd be hard pressed to find any difference between it and a DVD. However, MPEG4 leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to shadow details - you tend to get gradations in shadows. How much this is noticeable depends on the scene.